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Automobile Magazine says so.. this is a closeup of the June 2008 issue. They have a feature called Sneak Preview: The hottest cars in the next 4 years. Well, it wasn’t anything that hasn’t been seen yet. The one thing I noticed was the reference to a 1-liter, three-cylinder engine… hmm sound a bit like this? It also mentions rear engine!

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The baby Beetle will be between the two-door and four-door up! in size, and it likely will use a 750-cc two-cylinder gasoline engine and a 1.0-liter three cylinder in both gasoline and diesel form, the top performer being a 125-hp unit mated to a dual-clutch transmission.

However, in the 2002 press release, it stated:

Here, the experience of the technical development team that created the three-litre Lupo was of great benefit. However, a 3-cylinder engine was out of the question for a fuel consumption level of just one litre per 100 kilometres. A 2-cylinder engine was also quickly dismissed. The final solution was a one-cylinder naturally-aspirated diesel engine with a displacement of just 0.3 litres.

We are trying to get our hands on some information or even a hint of video. We have a good friend at Crispin Porter + Bogusky and for the life of us cannot find old video of Max.

I’m not sure I agree with some of the last statements here. One thing that VW has always had some theme/story with each car. This goes back to historical ads as well. They are quirky, odd and more. The GTI campaign was exactly this. It encompassed a lot more than I think the author even knows about. Granted it may have related more with the enthusiast but it did garner a lot of interest among the tuner market. “Fast” was your inner-self, your conscious. If he spent time with VW/Audi groups or communities, he might have understood.

The Rabbit came back and we had this great whimsical theme with underlying sexual tones. Slash was used for a short campaign for an offer, not a spokesperson like Helga. “Safe Happens” was a campaign to show off the safety of their vehicles. It’s not that it is inconsistent, it’s small parts in the whole picture.

The Beetle has and will always have it historical past, wether good or bad. Umm, Mercedes, etc., had their share of Hitler history. Today, I don’t think people relate VW to this past. I mean heck even during the 60’s-70’s the free spirited people took to VW’s in the gazzilions. My first experience in a VW was heading home from the hospital when I was born.

Not many brands have this type of character behind their cars today. Think about it. The Beetle is VW’s heart and soul. It spawned a lot of thinking. Oh and the comment about the reliability/experience with the classic Beetle, you can thank simplicity. The Beetle was just that, as well as other cars in that era. An air-cooled engine, a tranny, floor pan, body, windows, interior and very little electronics. Volkswagen would test these in the harshest of conditions, for thousands of miles at a time. They just kept running.

Without seeing the ad, its hard to know what VW Max will speak to… we hope it works.

What do you think?

Volkswagen, once again, appears to be turning to the Beetle to boost its fortunes.

Automotive News reported that a new brand campaign from Volkswagen hitting the airwaves and other media in February will feature a classic Beetle that talks, named “Max,” who plays the role of a talk-show host.

It is part of an advertising overhaul in which VW is changing its ad slogan to “Das Auto.” It had been using “Drivers Wanted” for more than a decade, but agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky has been de-emphasizing the line.

Of course, the Beetle is the undeniable iconic representation of the Volkswagen brand. In the early 1990s when Volkswagen’s future in the U.S. was so much in doubt because of tanking sales, it was the concept-car design of what became the “New Beetle” that saved Volkswagen. The debut of the concept, which led to the production car being sold today, generated so much attention and goodwill around the VW brand that people flocked to VW dealerships even before the car went on sale in 1999. After that, many went to VW dealerships to see the New Beetle, but manay went away with the Jettas and Passats.

Volkswagen in Germany has long been ambivalent about the Beetle. To many German executives, the car represents Germany’s past, and a dark past. The Beetle, of course, was hatched as Hitler’s “people’s car.” After the war, the cars dominated German streets, as well as those of other European countries. It became the top import sold in the U.S. in the 1960s and early 1970s. As beloved as the car was, German car executives by the late 1960s and 70s were anxious to turn the page on the utilitarian little car. It went out of production for the U.S. in 1979, but continued to be sold in developing markets—notably Mexico, where it was still built until 2003. But the car’s story has never been far from the surface of the brand no matter what the company does in terms of new products and marketing.

Today, VW is losing close to $1 billion a year in the U.S. And sales have fallen by more than 100,000 units a year in the last few years. The company no has a bold product and sales plans that calls for many more products for the U.S. market and 800,000 sales a year by 2018.

New Volkswagen America chief Stefan Jacoby has said that he plans to drive a refurbishment of the current New Beetle, and not turn the brand’s back on its Beetle heritage.

I’ll reserve judgment on the ads until I actually see them. But I’m wondering, without a fresh New Beetle design, how effective resurrecting the classic Beetle will be in driving VW’s sales. Part of the problem, as I have seen it, with VW’s marketing is a lack of consistency. In 2006, the company went from a funny campaign for the GTI featuring a blonde domintrix named Helga and effete engineer named Wolfgang to startling ads showing how well VW’s withstood side-impact crashes. Then there was a baffling effort featuring heavy-metal rocker Slash offering free guitars with cars.

I think the public has lost the plot with the VW brand.

And when they go to the Internet to comparison shop, they don’t find favorable ratings for quality, reliability and service. That is in stark contrast to the experience most people remember with their classic Beetles.

- BusinessWeek

Technorati Tags: New Beetle, Volkswagen

We missed this one the other day and we are not sure how As you read earlier Volkswagen celebrated 10 years of the New Beetle. However, this New Beetle Anniversary Edition, which can be seen in the celebration, has launched in Australia. We have not seen or heard of it coming stateside.

With that said, it gives us great pleasure to see a black roof and black mirrors. This has been on the top of our mod list for our New Beetle! The black roof was part of the original design concept in ‘93/’94.

Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the New Beetle

Read on for more images.

Since 2000, it has been a fixture on our streets: the New Beetle. Now in 2008, the Volkswagen cult-car has been further enhanced, in the form of the New Beetle Anniversary Edition. New alloy wheels, sports suspension, a fresh colour as well as a special interior. Altogether, this results in an exciting limited edition that has made the appearance of the New Beetle even more engaging. With the Anniversary Edition we
celebrate the anniversary of the international introduction of this modern interpretation of the original Beetle’s iconic design in an eye catching, limited edition, packed full of value.

Continue reading ‘New Beetle Anniversary Edition’