Volkswagen Beetle 2013 Review

When Volkswagen introduced the New Beetle to Australia in 2000, it came with an artificial flower in a vase mounted on the dash. That, and the car's effeminate styling, pegged it as a fashion statement aimed principally at those who would consider such affectations cool and possibly grew up watching Disney's Love Bug movies.

The even smaller Fiat 500 somehow escaped being pigeon-holed in the same way, despite being every bit wanting for horizontally-opposed air-cooled engines and rear-wheel drive. Right from the start Fiat trumpeted the 500's sporting legacy (through the Abarth connection) – and attracted an audience of buyers composed of both sexes.

Volkswagen has learned its lesson with the latest Beetle. It's a car tending more to 'unisex' on the 'manly meter', which means it should continue to sell strongly to women – but now you might see blokes driving it too. The wheel arches are filled with wheel and tyre, and the body has adopted a semblance of 'California Bug' style, with the archetypal hot-rodder's chopped-roof look to set it apart from the previous generation.

But that styling still eats into accommodation and luggage space, as we found spending a week with the latest Beetle.

Despite growing up, the latest Beetle remains squeezy at times. Number one daughter's guitar could barely fit in under the rear hatch, which is quite heavy to lift too. The rear seats fold forward for added luggage space, which is some compensation.

Headroom in the rear is at a premium for adults, as is the knee room, but most sub-six-footers can endure short journeys. There are no heating or cooling vents in the rear, which is a shortcoming if you intend to transport more than two in the Beetle.

Volkswagen has set up the Beetle's front seats to fold forward with just one-handed operation and the clever seat return memory ensures it won't need to be readjusted. Front seats were quite comfortable and well shaped, and provided just enough bolstering to hold the occupant securely in place when driving the car a little harder.

While the interior looked spartan in the new car, it was functional and – arguably – era-appropriate; the two-tier glovebox and painted surfaces throughout the car best exemplifying the vintage charm sought by the designers.

Instrumentation is basic but effective, although increments for common speed restriction zones in Australia were difficult to read accurately in the speedo.

Over the course of the week our petrol Beetle impressed with its average fuel consumption of 7.8L/100km average. On one really bad day of bumper-to-bumper traffic the Beetle's trip computer showed an average of 10.5L/100km, but in the main fuel consumption was very reasonable for the car's performance potential.

Fitted with the same 118kW turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine available in the Golf 6, the Beetle was certainly not lacking power or torque for a fast launch and there was useful performance available right up to the 6000rpm redline. The exhaust sounded quite crisp and raspy around the mid-range and the engine was capable of crossing that line between suburban hack and hot hatch powerplant whenever the driver desired.

Fitted with an optional DSG (dual-clutch) transmission, the Beetle was occasionally troubled by clunks and fluttering noises, as well as mild thumps – especially under light braking on a descent or following the sudden application of throttle. The dual-clutch transmission was put to shame by the newer boxes sampled in the Golf 7 the same week.

The electronic parking brake delivered a rough transition on release, with even gentle applications of throttle – and that exacerbated the raw impression left by the DSG's operation. Perhaps it was a problem with this particular press vehicle, rather than symptomatic of all cars.

Pushing the Beetle into corners and accelerating out the other side eventually drove the front tyres to wail a bit, but there was little sign through the wheel or seat that the Beetle was getting at all squiffy. Tell-tale signs were typically present only at the sort of speeds that would leave other small cars in the Beetle's wake. It held its line well and offered better overall grip than other front-driven hatches subjected to the same cornering test.

And certainly, with handling traits approaching those of the Golf, the Beetle is probably at least a match for many of the small hatches currently available – other than the Golf itself. Feedback through the wheel was better than anticipated too, although the actual steering response is a bit slower than the Golf's. As a fellow reviewer also noted, the steering is heavy at lower speeds.

It has been a long time since driving the original New Beetle, but fading memories suggest it felt like the driving position in that car was located amidships, rather than just behind the firewall. That was a function of the car's antique styling merged uncomfortably with modern front-drive packaging. And the large expanse of dashboard ahead of the driver didn't help either.

In this generation the VW engineers have made up lost ground, from an ergonomic perspective. It still feels like the optimal position demands the steering wheel be hauled back a long way, but at least the driver won't feel like he or she is driving the car from the back seat.

So the Beetle is making solid progress – which is ironic when legacy is its primary reason for being.

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