Road test: New Beetle meets its macho

Yes, of all the changes Volkswagen has introduced in its newest Beetle, it is the removal of that inexplicable flower holder VW deigned to include in the previous car, the defoliation of the dashboard, that will strike joy in the hearts of red-blooded blokes who baulked at the thought of a spot of pre-journey flower arranging. Pansies indeed.

Well fret no more, men! The Beetle just got brawnier, so there’s no need to leave your Y-chromosomes at home when you take it for a spin to needlework nightclass. Sorry, the rugby club. It’s longer, lower and wider than the model it replaces which, in the curious language that is car design, makes it more masculine.

Scoff all you like, but it seems to have worked. In our week with the Beetle, we counted nine other Beetles on the road. In our book, that qualifies as an exhaustive survey. Seven of them were the model just replaced, all driven by women with neatly bobbed hair. The two brand new Beetles we saw were driven by middle-aged men, both wearing the sort of grin that only comes with a second flush of youth. What are the odds they were both listening to Scott McKenzie singing about going to San Francisco? Flowers on the dashboard, no. Flowers in your hair, fine.

Let’s talk about the looks, since that’s what the Beetle is all about. From the side, it looks more like the original Beetle than the model it has just replaced. That’s been achieved by making the bonnet longer, shifting the windscreen back a bit, lowering the roof and doing away with the “third semi-circle” that formed the rear haunches of the previous car. Instead, the roofline continues back in one graceful sweep to form the boot, rear wheel arches and bumper. The round rear lights have been replaced with a straight-edged cluster.

The Beetle seats four and, despite the lower roofline, headroom is still generous, in the front at least. Taller passengers (5ft 10ins and up) might grump a bit about having to crick their necks in the back, although they’ll be fine for legroom. Access to the rear seats is good, thanks to big front doors. The boot has grown in size, too, to a handy 310 litres.

VW sent us a Beetle in mid-range Design trim, so the dashboard and door tops were finished in the same shade of pillar-box red as the rest of the car. It’s retro, don’t you know, as was the little silver- handled glovebox that looks like it came straight out of the 1950s. Less retro were the touchscreen stereo and the standard VW switchgear that the Beetle shares with every Polo, Golf and Passat on the planet. Other Design highlights included 17-inch alloy wheels, a spoiler on the tailgate, leather trim on the steering wheel and gearknob, front fog lights and an electronic diff-lock to keep the front tyres from lighting up under over-exuberant acceleration.

Our car also came with a £500, 400-watt Fender-branded stereo – y’know, as in the electric guitar people – which sounded good, thanks to a subwoofer in the boot big enough to rock Woodstock. It also features glow-in-the-dark speakers in the doors. Like, far out, man.

VW has stuck with the engine-in-the-front layout which caused such a stir when the first New Beetle arrived 12 years ago. This 1.4-litre TSI petrol unit uses supercharging and turbocharging to produce an impressive 158bhp and heaps of torque. Allied to the six-speed manual gearbox, it catapults the Beetle to 62 mph in 8.3 seconds and on to a top speed of 129 mph. Accelerate gently from low revs and you’ll hear the whoosh of the turbo as it scoops lungfuls of air into the engine. Really give it some beans and the exhaust note thrums to a beat not unlike an old air-cooled Beetle.

The downside of all this power (and prodding the pedal in search of an octave’s-worth of exhaust notes) is no-better-than-average fuel economy. Volkswagen claims 42.8 mpg on the combined cycle, but we only managed 34.5mpg over the course of a week. There’s a less thirsty 1.2-litre 103bhp turboed and supercharged petrol engine available already (plus a brutish near-200bhp 2.0-litre TSI unit just around the corner) but economy fans will want to wait for the 1.6 and 2.0-litre diesels which should be here later in the year.

Out and about, the Beetle drives exactly like you’d expect a modern VW to, with the bonus of being a head-turner. It breezes along the motorway in near-silence, is easy to swan around town in thanks to nicely-weighted power steering, and makes light of most broken surfaces. It’s composed in the bends, but the back end can feel a bit soggy if you clatter a bump in mid corner.

This being Scotland in July, most of our grumbles were rain-related: there’s no rear wiper, water drips off the roof and on to the front seats when the doors are opened, and a bit dribbles into the boot when the tailgate is opened.

Despite the changes, the Beetle is still a car you buy for reasons of style, not practicality. There’s nothing it can do that a cheaper Golf can’t. At least now, thanks to its injection of testosterone, you don’t have to be a ditzy female to want one. Ditzy blokes can apply too. I shall call ours “Rosebud”.

VITAL STATS

CAR VW Beetle Design TSI 1.4 160PS

PRICE £19,605

PERFORMANCE Max speed 129 mph; 0-62 mph 8.3 secs

MPG (combined) 42.8

CO2 EMISSIONS 153g/km