Time, as we all likely know by now, is kind of a jerk. It’s cold and unfeeling and trudges on forward inexorably and doesn’t give a brace of BMs what you think about that. It ages us and pushes our memories further and further away, changing the way we see things. That’s why sometimes we need to take a moment and remind ourselves to consider some things not just in the context of our eternally-fleeting present, but in the overall period of time where it existed. I think Volkswagen’s New Beetle is a great example of this; today it’s often dismissed as some silly, less-practical Golf, or, worse and more troubling, with the misogynistic moniker of a “chick car,” but the truth is when the New Beetle hit the scene in the late 1990s, it was a huge deal. I know, because I was there, and I was excited as all hell. Plus, it brought back an element to the automotive world that had been in painfully short supply: fun.
I remember the period when the New Beetle was being developed and teased and tested and eventually released extremely well. I was, in some ways, an ideal target for the car: a longtime air-cooled VW Beetle fan, someone who daily drove a 1973 Beetle, in my 20s, working in a creative industry and caring about the design of things. Well, I guess if I actually had money to spend on a car, that would have helped, but that’s just a detail! A silly detail.
As a kid, I grew up in the back (often the very back, in the luggage well) of my dad’s ’68 Beetle. I remember seeing one of the very last Beetle convertibles in a VW showroom in 1980. From there, I remember the transformation of VW from the company that made peculiar and friendly rear-engined, air-cooled cars that were curvy and distinctive into a company that made highly rectilinear FWD, liquid-cooled machines that, while often very competent and interesting in their own way, nevertheless did not have the same character as the old rear-engined cars. In some ways, I felt like Volkswagen had given into the pressures of the mainstream automotive landscape, and there was nothing left for me there.
Then, in 1994, the Volkswagen Concept One was shown at the Detroit Auto Show and everything felt like it changed. It’s hard to explain to people who didn’t live through it, but the 1990s were a strangely optimistic time. There was a feeling that permeated everything that made you feel like things were changing, but in a good way. It felt like we were finally figuring things out. The internet was just becoming part of life, and it was still early enough that you could believe all of the utopian-sounding hype about it. For a while, everything felt like it was it changing and getting better, and the reveal of this re-born Beetle fit the narrative perfectly.
It was a day I never really thought would come; I knew Volkswagen of Mexico was still building original-style air-cooled Beetles, but getting those into America was an unlikely and difficult pipe dream. The idea that VW finally seemed to be paying attention to all of us old Beetle-obsessed fools just felt incredible.
(I like this early sketch because it seems to have the turn indicators on the tops of the fenders, like the original Beetle)
And, even better, it looked to be a truly modernized Beetle, still capturing that Beetle essence, but updated for the end of the 20th century. This, of course, was due to the incredible design work of Freeman Thomas and J Mays, who undertook the project without the initial approval of Volkswagen in Germany, who, culturally, saw the Beetle in a very different context than Americans did. For the Germans, the Beetle was a reminder of hard and lean times after the war, and while there was certainly affection for the Käfer that helped to start the whole German economic postwar miracle, there was a lot less nostalgia for the old Bug than in America.
When re-imagining the 1938 Volkswagen Type 1 (the official name of the Beetle) design into a modern design vocabulary, Thomas and Mays distilled the Beetle down to its absolute most basic visual essence: three curves.
The basic three curves became the New Beetle’s logo, and you can easily see how this concept was expressed in the form of the concept car, known as Concept One:
The Concept One was based on the VW Polo platform, which wasn’t available in America and was a bit smaller than the Golf. It was a front-engine/FWD/liquid-cooled platform, completely the opposite of the original Beetle, and while I was disappointed by this, I also remember just kind of accepting this as the Way Things Had To Be. And, while in my mind that made these re-born Beetles not true Beetles, I was still so excited by the general concept and look that I accepted it as the price of existing in modernity.
I remember seeing this picture below in magazines, a VW-released collage of the design process, with old Beetles around for inspiration and some interesting hints at ideas that didn’t make it, like the rear deck vents on the turquoise model in the lower right.
The hype when the Concept One was shown was enormous; this was one of those times where a car was making news that went beyond the usual greasy-fingered gearhead circles, and had everyone talking. This is partially a testament to the incredible success of the original Beetle; even in the early 1990s, when the car hadn’t been officially sold in America for over a decade, almost everyone still had some sort of Beetle story, whether they owned one themselves or some kooky friend had one and the went on that crazy roadtrip, or the things they did in one or whatever. So many people had an emotional connection to the Beetle, and this concept reminded people of that.
After the first Concept One, VW showed a red convertible New Beetle at the New York auto show:
In 1995 came the Concept Two, shown at the Geneva Auto Show, and by this iteration the design was just about finalized to what it would look like as a production car:
Here’s a production one, from the first year of production:
As you can see, a few things were changed from Concept One: the car was now larger, on the Golf 4 platform, the front end lost the oval grilles that evoked the original, pre-’68 Beetle’s horn grilles and replaced those with a wide, under-bumper grille. The hood had been lengthened a bit, and some of the purity of the “three circles” idea had been lost, but not much, and the result both felt like the archaic old Beetle and something completely new.
Living in Los Angeles at the time, I remember seeing pre-production New Beetles being tested on Wilshire Blvd, surrounded by a coterie of black Jettas and with their badges missing or taped over– like anyone would think they were, say, a new Chevy or whatever. VW didn’t bother to really camouflage these, because what would be the point? Beetles just look like Beetles. All of this was in the everyone-has-a-camera-on-them-always era, so I regretfully never managed to get any pictures of those test Beetles. But I wish I did.
I can’t overstate the impact the New Beetle had on overall design at the time; it came onto the scene just as industrial design was starting to feel a bit more free, more open to having fun, and the New Beetle was like a massive, obvious banner reading YES LET’S DO IT to every company out there, no matter what they made. The bright colors, the pure and friendly curves, the exuberance and unashamed glee, these were all things inherent in the New Beetle and ready to pop all over industrial design. And that’s nor even mentioning the effect the New Beetle had on retro-inspired automotive design, which paved the way for the new Mini, new Fiat 500, the Mustang re-design, the Ford Thunderbird, and more.
One of the best examples of this is perhaps the most famous: the iMac. Look how this Newsweek article about Steve Jobs and the introduction of the iMac starts:
“Look at That!” says Steve Jobs he pulls his Mercedes into a parking space. He’s pointing at a new Volkswagen Beetle, and as soon as he parks, he dashes over, circling the shiny black Bug, taking the measure of a well-publicized update of once great product design. “They got it right,” he concludes.
I’m not saying the New Beetle inspired the iMac, but I am saying that both the New Beetle and the iMac were at the vanguard of a revolution in industrial design that was happening in the 1990s; it was as though the whole material world had suddenly rediscovered color and frivolity and translucency and for a while, everyone decided it was okay to have, say, a microwave that looked like a gumdrop or a de-humidifier that seemed like it came out of a CGI cartoon.
I found an old Automobile magazine from 1997, and you can feel the optimism in the coverage of the New Beetle. They’re excited. The New Beetle was nostalgic and hopeful and just about fun. There was so much hype about the way the instruments illuminated (a blue designed to look like how an illuminted swimming pool looks at night) and the bud vase, built into the dash. Yes, old Beetles in the ’50s and ’60s could have an optional flower vase, but these were never common. And yet VW decided to make it a standard part of the design! A standard flower vase, on a mass-market car. Just think about that.
My parents got a yellow turbo New Beetle (the one that made a very respectable for the time 150 hp) and got a custom license plate that read YOLKSWAGEN. This is the sort of thing the car inspired, even in parents like mine, a diminutive elderly couple who routinely has conversations at a decibel level that makes local airports call and complain and whose general idea of fun is buying things and then returning them, with complaints. They were inspired to get a fun, quick, bright yellow car with a punny license plate because this was the power of the New Beetle’s design.
Sure, late ’90s to early 2000s Volkswagen quality wasn’t great. I’ve been stung, badly, by VWs of this era, and New Beetles were no exception. But they had better interiors than almost any other car of their class at the time, they could be engaging to drive, reasonably practical, and, again, were simply fun. This was a car designed from the get-go to cause people to smile, and that alone makes it worthy of redemption in my book.
The look is definitely of an era when seen today, but the charm is still there, and I think these little colorful bubbles deserve our respect, because they did something simple and noble: they tried to make the world a little more fun.
You can still find these around, for usually pretty cheap, and I’m often tempted by a convertible new Beetle as a cheap, fun little ragtop. People who roll their eyes at New Beetles or treat them with the peculiar hostility of the insecure need to, I think, just lighten up. The New Beetle new what it was, and it was just that. Fun.
New, New Beatle = Rear engine 2.5L straight 5 running the rear wheels. Make it a manual. Basically a Audi TTRS engine minus the crazy turbos so it’s not 80k. But it still sounds awesome. Something to compete with the BRZ/86 coupes. But a little spicier.
I’d buy that 😀
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9EL8Joe1Sg
YES! YES! NEW BEETLE REDEMPTION! YESSSSS!!!!!
Fun fact: the Scheibles ran my first 944 before I got it.
I really want one in that turn-of-the-millennium metallic lime green for rallycross shenanigans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9EL8Joe1Sg
YES! YES! NEW BEETLE REDEMPTION! YESSSSS!!!!!
Fun fact: the Scheibles ran my first 944 before I got it.
I really want one in that turn-of-the-millennium metallic lime green for rallycross shenanigans.
It’s the bubble car for the internet bubble time period! What a great fun time it was. Now we live in a world defined by angry faced Wranglers and Lexus predator grills. How innocent we were when the New Beetle came out.
I miss the optimism of the 90s. I also miss being young, and not fat. Bah.
It’s the bubble car for the internet bubble time period! What a great fun time it was. Now we live in a world defined by angry faced Wranglers and Lexus predator grills. How innocent we were when the New Beetle came out.
I miss the optimism of the 90s. I also miss being young, and not fat. Bah.
Me: Cars should be fun!
New Beetle owners: add eyelashes
Me: not like that
Me: Cars should be fun!
New Beetle owners: add eyelashes
Me: not like that
Nope, not gonna happen.
Can we just agree different people respect different cars? Well, maybe except for Mercedes who seems to love ALL THE CARS!
Nope, not gonna happen.
Can we just agree different people respect different cars? Well, maybe except for Mercedes who seems to love ALL THE CARS!
Word, as the young people used to say.
Word, as the young people used to say.
The New Beetle also deserves credit for the encore: The Audi TT. In my mind the more desirable of the trend.
Heh, I always called the TT a “squashed Beetle.” Such cool cars, though.
The New Beetle also deserves credit for the encore: The Audi TT. In my mind the more desirable of the trend.
Heh, I always called the TT a “squashed Beetle.” Such cool cars, though.
At some point a few months ago I realized I was seeing lots of new Beetles around, which made me notice them even more. There’s two really nice ones owned by different neighbors down the block, and a guy in my work parking garage has an absolutely mint one. That guy even puts plastic dry cleaning bags over the seats when he’s not using it! Amazing! On a drive today I saw a beautiful, light blue convertible one that some college girl was driving with a big smile on her face. I think they’re great and the design has aged beautifully. I guess I’m not sure why they don’t still sell them, it’s not like new Golfs or Jettas are doing anything special design-wise. The seeming preponderance of them still alive in my area does not jive with my personal experience with VWs of that era (’99 EuroVan, ’04 GTI), and I’m in the rust belt, but I’m glad they’re still going!
At some point a few months ago I realized I was seeing lots of new Beetles around, which made me notice them even more. There’s two really nice ones owned by different neighbors down the block, and a guy in my work parking garage has an absolutely mint one. That guy even puts plastic dry cleaning bags over the seats when he’s not using it! Amazing! On a drive today I saw a beautiful, light blue convertible one that some college girl was driving with a big smile on her face. I think they’re great and the design has aged beautifully. I guess I’m not sure why they don’t still sell them, it’s not like new Golfs or Jettas are doing anything special design-wise. The seeming preponderance of them still alive in my area does not jive with my personal experience with VWs of that era (’99 EuroVan, ’04 GTI), and I’m in the rust belt, but I’m glad they’re still going!
Agree, these were great and as much as I’ll admit I’m not a VW fan, I applaud them for bringing this fun, happy car to market (what are you doing now VW?). That said, the 3rd gen that followed was an abomination.
Agree, these were great and as much as I’ll admit I’m not a VW fan, I applaud them for bringing this fun, happy car to market (what are you doing now VW?). That said, the 3rd gen that followed was an abomination.
Too bad VW said they wont’ revive the Beetle for EV. EV will enable them to stick closer to the original Beetle than any of their ICE platform could.
But then again how they can make a New New Beetle?
They’d be silly not to, goshdarnit. They said they wouldn’t bring back the Beetle before, and I don’t belieeeeeve them. Someone with sense has to be knocking around at VW corporate, just waiting for the right time to pitch the obvious.
(Just don’t give it the same cursed infotainment system from other modern VWs, for Pete’s sake. Buttons, VW. Bring back buttons.)
Too bad VW said they wont’ revive the Beetle for EV. EV will enable them to stick closer to the original Beetle than any of their ICE platform could.
But then again how they can make a New New Beetle?
They’d be silly not to, goshdarnit. They said they wouldn’t bring back the Beetle before, and I don’t belieeeeeve them. Someone with sense has to be knocking around at VW corporate, just waiting for the right time to pitch the obvious.
(Just don’t give it the same cursed infotainment system from other modern VWs, for Pete’s sake. Buttons, VW. Bring back buttons.)
I’ll be the heretic that defends these cars. My sister bought one new in 1999. She still owns it, but she will be unloading it because of issues that she does not have the capability to deal with (headliner, inoperative door locks and 25 years of Michigan road salt and potholes). Nevertheless, the car served her well for over 250,000 miles and really does not owe her anything. As with most VWs, the way they are spec’d is key. She bought a TDI with a manual transmission (the car is still on its original clutch). The only other powertrain I would buy would be a 5 cylinder 5 speed (not sure if this combo was ever available).
The styling was a huge factor in her decision to buy an NB. When she started looking for a replacement, I tried to steer her towards an Accord or a Mazda 3. She ended up in an ND Miata RF. For some people, car purchases are more emotional than strictly rational.
The Mazda 3 and Accord are good recommendations, but it sounds like your sister chose wisely!
I’ll be the heretic that defends these cars. My sister bought one new in 1999. She still owns it, but she will be unloading it because of issues that she does not have the capability to deal with (headliner, inoperative door locks and 25 years of Michigan road salt and potholes). Nevertheless, the car served her well for over 250,000 miles and really does not owe her anything. As with most VWs, the way they are spec’d is key. She bought a TDI with a manual transmission (the car is still on its original clutch). The only other powertrain I would buy would be a 5 cylinder 5 speed (not sure if this combo was ever available).
The styling was a huge factor in her decision to buy an NB. When she started looking for a replacement, I tried to steer her towards an Accord or a Mazda 3. She ended up in an ND Miata RF. For some people, car purchases are more emotional than strictly rational.
The Mazda 3 and Accord are good recommendations, but it sounds like your sister chose wisely!
as a GenX contemporary of Torch, I will corroborate every word of this article; I remember the era well, and it continued similarly with the new MINI not much later. I still have some fun promo materials/swag from both. Good times!
I miss having optimism about technology and the future.
I would never fess up to that optimism, but there’s a stark difference between the era of “this is cool and actually improving our lives” and today’s era of “no, I don’t want a built-on-theft ‘AI’ computing model to generate fart-noise NFTs while I drive.”
I miss the 90’s with the ardor of a dying sun. The Bush administration, the stock market crash, and 9/11 erased our optimism which then evolved into our current hellscape of marching Nazis, ‘good people on both sides’ world of grifters, and Christian nationalists pushing for a Handmaid’s Tale version of America. WTF?
The 1990 Nissan Pao and 1993 300ZX parked in my driveway are my connection to that great decade and my homage to more optimistic times.
At least I’m not crazy.
I was a 2000s kid, but I remember thinking my iPod Nano and the crappy A/DSL was a sign of a start of an era: a longwinded era of linear, incremental-but-enduring improvements as everyone just kept moving up a notch, a little at a time.
Now I while my off-hours away writing my crappy stories of a better time and place whose aesthetics look like that, trying to recapture that optimism.
“The end of history,” ha.
as a GenX contemporary of Torch, I will corroborate every word of this article; I remember the era well, and it continued similarly with the new MINI not much later. I still have some fun promo materials/swag from both. Good times!
I miss having optimism about technology and the future.
I would never fess up to that optimism, but there’s a stark difference between the era of “this is cool and actually improving our lives” and today’s era of “no, I don’t want a built-on-theft ‘AI’ computing model to generate fart-noise NFTs while I drive.”
I miss the 90’s with the ardor of a dying sun. The Bush administration, the stock market crash, and 9/11 erased our optimism which then evolved into our current hellscape of marching Nazis, ‘good people on both sides’ world of grifters, and Christian nationalists pushing for a Handmaid’s Tale version of America. WTF?
The 1990 Nissan Pao and 1993 300ZX parked in my driveway are my connection to that great decade and my homage to more optimistic times.
At least I’m not crazy.
I was a 2000s kid, but I remember thinking my iPod Nano and the crappy A/DSL was a sign of a start of an era: a longwinded era of linear, incremental-but-enduring improvements as everyone just kept moving up a notch, a little at a time.
Now I while my off-hours away writing my crappy stories of a better time and place whose aesthetics look like that, trying to recapture that optimism.
“The end of history,” ha.
Really appreciated reading this, Jason.
In a different way, to a lesser extent, I remember how the original 300C led to such an optimism for the Big 3 for me at least
Really appreciated reading this, Jason.
In a different way, to a lesser extent, I remember how the original 300C led to such an optimism for the Big 3 for me at least