Beetle Convertible

Make
Volkswagen
Segment
Compact

As the old commercial tagline goes: "A Volkswagen is never changed to make it look different, only to make it work better." The Volkswagen Beetle is perhaps the most relevant car of the 20th century, surpassing the Ford Model T in production numbers. Yes, Volkswagen has a dark history regarding its relationship with the Nazis during World War II, but it did manage to engineer and build a cheap and reliable car for the populace. In production from 1938 until 2003 (NOT a typo), the original Beetle has rightly earned its place in automotive history.

And as we all know, VW has built not one but two successors. 1997 saw the introduction of the New Beetle. It looked like a bubble and was too girly. But the latest Beetle pays better design tribute to its ancestor. But is it worthy of its iconic name? XCAR gets behind the wheel of the original and today's car to find out.