"Being pegged as 'retro' really paints the car into a corner," explained my friend Tonya, whose yellow New Beetle was parked in front of a café where we were having coffee. "Because if it's supposed to look like an older car, then you can't really... Full Story and Gallery

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Long Gone- 81 Rabbit, 85 GTI, 94 Golf, 84 GTI, 84 GTI Cab, 00 Golf TDI, 90 GTI

Quote, originally posted by riceburner »

"BAAHAA!!!! I just spent two pages of a NB thread explaining that to a bunch of VW 'vert psychos."

Quote, originally posted by VarianceVQ »

"Haven't you seen Top Gear? Beetles are sinister, evil MFers."

uh where is the appeal now??

VR6 perhaps later down the road?

or will this now just be seen as a teenage girls car?

ÜBERDUBS_indianapolis

Fuuny u should say that man cuz I've yet to see a guy driving an '06...

Quote, originally posted by riceburner »

"BAAHAA!!!! I just spent two pages of a NB thread explaining that to a bunch of VW 'vert psychos."

Quote, originally posted by VarianceVQ »

"Haven't you seen Top Gear? Beetles are sinister, evil MFers."

The 1.8T has bowed out for MY2006. The only engines available are the 2.5 and the 1.9 TDI.

Quote »

VR6 perhaps later down the road?

I wouldn't hold out hope for that; the Beetle never saw the VR6 in the US, even when Mk.IV production was in full swing.

Quote, originally posted by riceburner »

"BAAHAA!!!! I just spent two pages of a NB thread explaining that to a bunch of VW 'vert psychos."

Quote, originally posted by VarianceVQ »

"Haven't you seen Top Gear? Beetles are sinister, evil MFers."

My baby for views.....

Eurojet Racing

I love soccer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...edded

Quote, originally posted by Ted »

...not that I would ever buy a bettle anyway...

If ONE MORE of you non-Beetle owners mispells it again I'm gonna hafta come over there and...

Quote, originally posted by riceburner »

"BAAHAA!!!! I just spent two pages of a NB thread explaining that to a bunch of VW 'vert psychos."

Quote, originally posted by VarianceVQ »

"Haven't you seen Top Gear? Beetles are sinister, evil MFers."

Quote, originally posted by riceburner »

"BAAHAA!!!! I just spent two pages of a NB thread explaining that to a bunch of VW 'vert psychos."

Quote, originally posted by VarianceVQ »

"Haven't you seen Top Gear? Beetles are sinister, evil MFers."

and is that car really only 3k lbs. if so that 2.5 will work just fine. although i hope the 2.0 FSI is someware in the future.

It's too bad that the Beetle has to be such a slouch now. With the new styling it looks incredible. It seems like it's going the route of the last generation of cabrios. It has only the base engine, it's got vitrually no performance options....like the cabrio it's turned into a car made mostly for girls who just want a "cute" car.

Would have liked to see them rework the suspension and put some zing into it. Maybe next time.

Clean 1997 Jetta GLX for sale: [url=http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4322953[/url]

Ya nailed it dood and I'll never sell my 'old' NB 1.8T!

Modified by Billsbug at 10:58 AM 3-24-2006

Quote, originally posted by riceburner »

"BAAHAA!!!! I just spent two pages of a NB thread explaining that to a bunch of VW 'vert psychos."

Quote, originally posted by VarianceVQ »

"Haven't you seen Top Gear? Beetles are sinister, evil MFers."

ÜBERDUBS_indianapolis

NEVER GONNA HAPPEN...

Quote, originally posted by riceburner »

"BAAHAA!!!! I just spent two pages of a NB thread explaining that to a bunch of VW 'vert psychos."

Quote, originally posted by VarianceVQ »

"Haven't you seen Top Gear? Beetles are sinister, evil MFers."

Quote, originally posted by Wizard-of-OD »

Welcome to 2006 where Inline-5's rule.Enjoy the video...

Cool video man, thx for the link, but the 1.8T, the 2.0T, the VR6 and the V5 guys will ALL say they rule...

Quote, originally posted by riceburner »

"BAAHAA!!!! I just spent two pages of a NB thread explaining that to a bunch of VW 'vert psychos."

Quote, originally posted by VarianceVQ »

"Haven't you seen Top Gear? Beetles are sinister, evil MFers."

I wouldn't own a coupe. I only bought one because of the cheap TDI-and regretted it ($24,000 for a stripped Jetta TDI? My God! Get off your Brazilian prostiture and look at the economics!) This is a "go manual or go home" car. Like in all VWs (including the DSG), the automatics suck. They want to shift at the wrong time, and the response time (put your foot down, wait for shift) is measured in seconds.

The convertible is still the finest drop-top for less than 30-grand, unless you're small enough to fit in a cooper-in which case you have your own problems.

Styling: Overall, the styling upgrades are nice. A lot of the break-off/fall off parts have finally been replaced with more robust components. The car materials look and feel more stable. If only the speedometer wasn't so slow and squirrely

Performance:

TDI- YUCK!! Never again will I just "trust VW". This was my first PD TDI (owned 3 previous TDIs) and I hated every minute of it. It redlines at what? Oil changes (not using that Castrol crap) are going to cost me $70? New fuel filter every 10,000 miles (just pull yours and look, then forget the 20,000 mi interval)? Gone was the robust fuel efficient growl I had loved. Now it was a whiney brat that never seemed to want to go. I never counted seconds to 60 until this engine. Also, i couldn't keep the damn thing out of the shop. It spent 4 weeks of the 4 months I had it in the shop. Damn DSG. Yuck!!

5 cyl-Sorry, but I'm a old-school Audi guy, so I LOVE inline 5s, but only with a manual transmission. It's not a fantastic performance engine but it's a nice balance of all things. It's not a high-output for displacement engine, so it should have a longer life when properly maintained. I prefer this engine to the 1.8T (I've owned 1.8s in Golf, Passat, and Beetles as well). The 1.8T always felt like it was trying too hard, especially with the high compression banging the car around with only minor adjustments to the throttle. I preferred the Vr6 in the GTI IV, and the news that the 5-cyl was in the Beetle made we want one again. I don't know what the reviewer is talking about, as I was shocked by how the personality of the car changes about 65 mph. I make 10-20 mph adjustments to pass on the freeway using the cruise control. It just feels robust an powerful in a way my GTI Vr6 and TDI PD never did. Part of that odd growl is the 5-cyl, and if you've done time in a coupe GT, it's comforting. I love this convertible. Comparing this car to my 2004 GTI Vr6- it's a toss up. Now that the GTI isn't $4000 less, I'd take the '06 convertible every time.

is this actually true, or is that just a little random quip that was thrown into the article?

Agree that the NB desparately needed the total black interior. Too bad that VW decided to not upgrade the suspension along with the engine (2.5l) and the visual "refreshening". Along with the author, I was also one of the first owners of a 98 NB (in the USA) and while in 98, the NB suspension was competitive. But for 06, sorry, but the same old choppy NB ride doesn't cut it - especially when compared to a similarly priced MKV Jetta VE (or even a new Civic). I suspect that VW has lost interest in the NB and plans on picking up a few more chickmobile NB convertible buyers before killing off the NB.

Still looks good.

^^^ 2.5L jetta alumeeeeeeenium subframe.

I guess no one will ever have bent control arm problems...

Modified by Martinus at 1:22 PM 3-25-2006

Too bad VW didn't listen. Now the Bug will die for sure, and no amount of crap (e.g. free iPods, factory Satellite radio) can resuscitate it.

This New New Beetle is, at best, a half-assed refresh.

- Canadians don't solve injustices or scandals. We form Royal Commissions and/or committees to look into it.

I have owned quattros, Rabbits, Golfs, Jettas, roccos, raddos, air cooleds ... hmmm pretty much everything except an A8, A6 and any variation of a Passat.. I will correct that in the future.

When I think Volkswagen the first image that pops into my head is the Beetle then the GTi. When I think Audi... I think Quattro.

I think that in many ways VW dropped the ball with the Beetle. It should be thier base model, be cheap, reliable, fun to drive, be bigger on the inside than on the outside and should make you want to pat it on the fender when you walk by.

It has succeeded on some of those levels but the cheap and reliable front have left a lot to be desired. I would really like to see VW go back to the drawing board and come up with a 2600-2800lb version, with a Diesel, a small high economy FSi engine and a performance version for us dorks that need Mo' Powah.

Currently I am driving an Old Bug and a New Bug... but in all honesty.. If something like the Lupo GTi (out of production) the Polo or maybe even the Fox were available here. I would buy one in a heart beat as my daily driver.

I love my cheap and freindly VW's and so does the rest of the world... when will VW figure out that we are part of that world?

I agree completely, that's why I drive an '84 Jetta GLI!

and... I envy you your ownership record, way to go!

All the best,
-Glenn

"I interviewed the late Steve Yokich, then UAW president, almost ten years ago. When I suggested that Detriot might be putting too many eggs in one basket with its utter devotion to SUVs at the expense of passenger car development and asked if the union might take a position in favor of more economical cars, he started screaming at me." -Jamie Kitman, Automobile