Instrumented Test
At first blush, this new Beetle—don’t call it the New Beetle—appears to be a GTI wearing a puffy jacket, packing as it does the same 200-hp, 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder and six-speed dual-clutch automatic. And the racy wheels, rear spoiler, and brassy “Turbo” badge push the image of a car eager to prove it’s for serious.
But a couple of things hold it back.
No. 1 is dynamics. While the turbo Beetle swaps the low-rent rear torsion beam of its plebe siblings for a multilink setup—and our car had the sportiest available tune, a no-cost option—it nevertheless feels uncoordinated when driven hard. There’s more initial understeer here than in a GTI. And broken pavement brings brief impressions that the back might come around, as well as a mild oscillating wobble, traits that trail braking amplifies. This Beetle rides smoothly and comfortably, yes, but it’s too soft to deliver the planted feel of the GTI. There’s pronounced acceleration squat, too. A softer and presumably squat-ier “comfort” suspension should be available as you read this.
No. 2 is the DSG gearbox, so good elsewhere but saddled here with a wider spread between its ratios and efficiency-at-all-costs upshift programming. The Beetle’s ’box single-mindedly hunts out higher gears, and shifts are slurred even in sport mode. We longed for the manual. Combine the DSG’s behavior with a lazy accelerator, and the best way to get the 2.0-liter crackin’ is to simply mat the throttle from a stop.
But such a launch works: The Beetle squirts to 60 mph in a quick 6.3 seconds, 0.2 behind a DSG-equipped three-door GTI and 0.5 second quicker than the Jetta GLI. The GTI weighs 41 pounds less than the Beetle, the GLI 78 more. And the Beetle has other virtues, including its well-bolstered seats, thoughtfully laid-out and roomy interior, and its angry cartoon styling, which is spicy enough in the wake of the, like, supercute New Beetle.
Our car was fitted with a sunroof, navigation, upgraded audio, and the DSG transmission; the bottom line was $29,865, and a GTI with similar equipment costs roughly the same. But the GTI is a better value simply because it can serve as both an outlet for racetrack fantasies and a comfortable daily driver. This feistiest of Beetles is really only suited to the latter; it’s a good car, but it’s not a serious one.
