Short Take Road Test
In the Met-Rx World's Strongest Man competition, comically beefy men pick up, drag, and throw around hundreds of pounds in events such as the keg toss, the fridge carry, and the truck pull. In a competition involving 300-plus-pound men strolling down the street while harnessed to Peterbilts, the testosterone is thicker than a powerlifter's torso. This, friends, is man.
But we bet even reigning World's Strongest Man Phil Pfister would be a little uncomfortable in a Triple White New Beetle Convertible; he'd likely prefer to dead-lift the car (another popular WSM event) a dozen or so times instead of actually driving it. As for describing the bug, we're thinking of two words rhyming with "hick czar," which, by the way, would be an apt title for Jeff Foxworthy's autobiography.
Volkswagen's New Beetle convertible has been garnering adoration and unnerving otherwise confident men since 2003. We have tested convertible Beetles before (in 2003 and 2004) and, despite its awesome sluggishness, the bug has managed to endear itself to us from the start. Since its last visit, though, the New Beetle has found a new engine. And this color scheme.
Like a Winter's Snow or a Package of New Socks
The three elements whose purity contributes to the "Triple White" moniker are the exterior paint, the leather interior, and the soft leather tonneau. Despite its inherent and flamboyant femininity—even above and beyond a base New Beetle convertible—we like the appearance of the Triple White package. Once the initial shock of seeing white leather seats matched with black carpeting has passed, the combination is simple and attractive, when clean.
Of course, white seats and black carpet don't look clean for long. While the seats on our tester stayed relatively clean, the hard plastic trim around the rim of the cockpit showed smudges and scrapes of several different colors, and the leather tonneau was marked with a mélange of spots and stains. One staffer called it the "Carlton Banks" of automotive accessories, trying oh-so-hard to be white.
We did not, however, seek out this bug just to see what it felt like to drive around in a white Beetle with white leather and a white tonneau. We could have guessed. We wanted to drive a Beetle with the 2.5-liter inline-five, which was introduced in 2006 and is now the only engine available in a Bug.
Five Cylinders is Halfway to Ten
First surprise with the five-cylinder: torque steer. We had thought there was a minimum pound-feet requirement before a tromp on the gas peddle would jerk a car toward the weeds. Apparently that minimum requirement is 168, because that's what the 2.5-liter inline-five has and torque steer is what it does when you poke the gas hard.
