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Volkswagen will kill the Beetle, squashes plans for a successor
- mc32 9y agoI think the orig beetle lived on in overseas plants --Brazil, for example. But with today's global manufacturing, I guess when they say they will kill this model, they mean it will disappear everywhere. And, I suppose it must. It had mustered all the nostalgia it could, but in the end, the well ran dry and the model had become a dead end. For a revival model, it actually remained longer than most.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- pishpash 9y agoHow does the well run dry? I think it's just to create some artificial scarcity.
- jackvalentine 9y agoWhat do you mean by artificial scarcity? Nobody wants them. Maybe in another 20 years they'll sell a new new beetle. http://carsalesbase.com/us-car-sales-data/volkswagen/volkswagen-beetle/ http://carsalesbase.com/us-car-sales-data/volkswagen/volkswa...
- ascorbic 9y agoIt lived on because it was small, cheap and simple. The new model was neither. Like the new Mini, it was just another premium hatchback living off the name of a classic.
- Lio 9y agoThis is exactly the point I wanted to make. I add that the original Beetle also lived on because VW were able to extend the life of the original tooling, which they’d replaced when they moved to the Golf in Germany.
- ascorbic 9y agoFiat had the right idea with the new 500, which is small, cheap, fun and stylish. An electric Beetle the size and price of a Renault Zoe would have been something interesting.
- colordrops 9y agoThis reminds me of Nokia's demise. Before they were sold to Microsoft, everyone was saying how they'd all buy Nokias if they would just adopt Android. We all know how that went. It's clear to everyone at the moment that a moderately priced electric beetle would sell like hotcakes. But just like Nokia made the wrong call, it looks like VW will do the same.
- manmal 9y agoActually I‘d probably buy this new VW Minibus, while I could care less about a beetle. The Minibus is always as history laden as the beetle, and it’s so much more versatile. In a world of autonomous cars, small cars will become ubiquitous and interchangeable since we don’t need to own them anymore to get to work, while big vehicles like the Minibus are more likely to be owned since they are needed for vacations, band tours, camping, IKEA shopping,... EDIT: Changed Mini to Minibus.
- qubex 9y agoThe VW Mini? I own a Mini and they’re made by BMW, not by VW. Or are we talking about two different things (unlikely that BMW would let its brand be diluted by such a similar marque).
- _puk 9y agoThe Mini is pretty much all that is left of BMW’s acquisition of Rover [0] in 1994 - there is no chance VW is making a Mini. I love the irony that the GP touts the Mini as being more likely to be owned as a “big vehicle”, yet in it’s original shape and size it would be perfect as a small electric vehicle! 0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_Group https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_Group
- manmal 9y agoSorry I meant the Minibus. Edited for clarity.
- usaphp 9y ago> It's clear to everyone at the moment that a moderately priced electric beetle would sell like hotcakes. I don’t know anyone among my friends or relatives who wants/likes beetle. So I don’t think it’s so “clear” as you are saying. They probably have data to backup beetle cancellation
- bonestamp2 9y agoBuild the BUS. They did the beatle. Now they need to bring back the bus!!
- Animats 9y agoThe article has drawings of a proposed new Microbus. They will have to make it more crashworthy than the original. The original had the driver so far forward it had near-zero crush depth.
- hinkley 9y agoThe blind spots on that proposed design are crazy bad. I can’t see that surviving productization.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoSo blind spots matter so much these days when cameras and sensors to mitigate them are cheap?
- yellowapple 9y agoWell yeah. If the cameras and sensors fail, then you'll probably want to replace them with your own eyes. That's kinda hard to do when there's a bunch of car body in the way.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoDo they actually fail in practice? Seems very unusual for what is most likely a pretty discrete component. Also, does failure have to be so graceful? For example, if my windshield wipers fail during a heavy rain, I have no choice but to pick t my hazard lights on and move off the road. If my car tells me my sensors are broken, I can see doing the same for that. Driving with technology is so much safer anyways, it’s like constant awareness without needing to look backwards (and consequently not look forward).
- oculusthrift 9y agomeh, it’s a nazi holdover anyway. good riddance
- Lio 9y agoThe is a very personal opinion and subject to taste rather anything quantifiable. It’s also possible for VW to cater to more than one type of customer so take the following with a pinch of salt. To me there’s something intellectually dishonest about these retro models. In the original Beetle and Transporter they started with function and then gave it form. Doing it the other way round will not produce a truely desirable classic only something momentarily fashionable. The same goes for their T-Rock model, mentioned in the article. Instead of designing for offroad performance they’ve taken a road car and just added enough shoulder pads, fake pockets and redundant zips to puff it up to look like a small off-roader. It’s for people who think they need to go off road but really know they never will. Its size is just large enough that they won’t feel intimidated by other vehicles when sitting traffic jams. That extra size of course come as a compromise to the vehicle real purpose as a road car. Personally I’d much rather have a new and improved Golf or Transporter/California.
- camillomiller 9y agoAgree on the beetle, not on the t-roc. My parents just bought one. Their reasons: they like to feel “tall” on the road, but they hate SUVs and jeep-style cars so this is the right compromise.
- izacus 9y ago>Instead of designing for offroad performance they’ve taken a road car and just added enough shoulder pads, fake pockets and redundant zips to puff it up to look like a small off-roader. This is actually an extremely popular segment these days (see Audi Q1/Q3, Mercedes GLA, BMW X1, Mazda CX-3, Škoda Karoq, Peugeot 1008, Kia Stonic, etc. etc.) which apparently outsells the previously most popular "Golf" class of cars. By a lot. People seem to like the higher sitting position and feel safer with more puffed up form of these cars. Even if they have significantly less space inside.
- GoToRO 9y agoAlso, potholes, bad road in general and... ski trips.
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- teh_klev 9y agoAs an former owner of a 1972 1602S Beetle, these travesties were never "Beetles", they were just glorified Golfs. So no love lost here.
- CodeWriter23 9y agoMore like a Golf minus the pesky body roll. We have a 99 Turbo Beetle, I can corner 15-20 MPH faster than my ‘03 GTI VR6. It stays flat where the GTI would have the inner rear wheel 6” off the ground.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- pasta 9y agoI owned an old Beetje and the experience is all about the smell of petrol, the noise, the lack of power steering and breaking, and ofcourse the most important: the design. The first versions of the new Beatle didn't match that design more that most Porsches imho. Maybe nostalgia should not be used as a sellout. I mean, the new 'mini' is bigger than my car and a familie can fit inside the new Fiat 500...
- Froyoh 9y agoMissed an opportunity for a juicy pun there