My wife has an '03 New Beetle Conv. The other day, she got a thing in the mail that's worth $50 at Barnes & Noble if we'd test drive a new Beetle. So, on the way to dinner tonight, we stopped at our local VW dealer to drive one.
The '06's are a bit different from the earlier models. They have new headlights, tail lights, as well as front & rear air dams. The fenders have sharper character lines. From a distance, you'd be very hard pressed to tell the diff. The real diff is in the motor. Instead or the 4 cyl 2.0 liter, it's now a 5 cyl 2.5 liter doing duty as the stock engine. HP rated at a buck fifty.
I drove a coupe. I was immediately impressed at how much more room there was compared to the wife's conv. More leg, hip & shoulder room. The car was a 6 spd atx. That's all they had, but wow! What a difference over the wifemobile. This thing is a torque monster. Step-off is predictable, but speed comes in a hurry. The engine also makes a very satisfying growl, when accelerating. I couldn't do very much, because the sales person was riding with us. But from what I did, it was pretty impressive.
The suspension has also been firmed up, and the handling seems crisper. On the freeway, it's so quiet, it's almost spooky. No wind noise, tire thrum, geat whine. Pretty nice, really.
The car stickered at just 20 large, with all the usual equipment; air, power windows, remote entry, heated seats & mirrors, in-dash 6 disc cd that's ipod compatible, leather seats & a power sunroof.
Tell you the truth...I liked it. Not sure if I'd actually buy one, but I did like it. For me, the worst thing about it are the available colors. There's a darkish red, which is pretty nice, yellow, 2 shades of (yawn) gray, a crayola crayon type blue, and a light green that you'd have to pay me serious money to drive, yes, even a test drive. That's it. No black, no dark blue, no maroon, no dark green, no white, etc. To me, that's a pretty miserable choice.
Nice car, though. Wish I could have driven a 5 or 6 spd. The turbos aren't out yet. You'll likely have to wait another few months for them.
Last edited on Sun Oct 30th, 2005 01:02 am by Mr. Versatile
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The 5 cyl standard engine is 4 valves/cyl. The car also comes standard with 4 wheel anti-lock brakes and a stability system. Standard tranny is a 5 spd. Auto is a 6 spd tiptronic.
____________________ If you can't read this, you're illiterate.
