When Adolf Hitler commissioned Ferdinand Porsche to design the ideal people’s car, he wanted the car to seat two adults and three children comfortably while managing speeds of 100 km/h. Thanks to today’s technology, the new Beetle can do much better speeds while maintaining the comfort, but the criteria of the ideal occupants still remains the same – two adults and three children. As I mentioned, not much has changed in the Beetle’s silhouette, hence there is very little headroom and legroom on the rear bench. Hence adults in the back seat won’t feel comfortable after a few minutes of ingression.
Overall the comfort of the seats is spot on for city commutes and the inclusion of a soft suspension setup only makes things better. Add to that the lightness of the steering wheel and you instantly know why the Beetle is such a popular city car. However, the people’s car needs you to drive her like common man/woman would, or else these very facets will highlight their downsides too. For example, the soft suspension setup gives the car quite a bit of body roll when you indulge in spirited driving around twisty roads. The light steering wheel stays light even at high speeds thus making for an artificial steering feedback. Thankfully though, the Beetle wears sticky Pirelli rubber below its bell-bottoms, thus giving you enough grip should you decide to give the body roll a test. Should things start going out of hand there is an ABS with ESP too but the brake pedal needs getting used to. It has a spongy feel to it and the brake bite comes in suddenly, which can be unnerving at times.
will it be faster than the swift…….considering 84bhp and less weight to move unlike 1.4 Fiesta?????????