Volkswagen New Beetle

I've always thought that a good car wash can tell you more about a car than a mediocre test drive; that's more true than anywhere else in the case of this Volkswagen New Beetle.

Oh, not that the Beetle isn't fun to bung around town and hurl along the highways&emdash;far from it. It is, after all, based on the platform of the fourth-generation Golf, and is perfectly at home charging down the highway or crawling through rush hour traffic. Not surprisingly, it handles better than the current Golf as well; it doesn't lift the inside rear-wheel when careening through on-ramps, and understeer is much less pronounced. Airflow management is also superb; even with the windows down at 130 km/h, the interior is relatively draft-free, and the radio still audible.

Yet it is in washing the bug that you really get a feel for it. Cuteness here is only a part of the picture&emdash;its rounded contours and bulging fenders, washed free of grime and grit, look great. But it's also remarkably easy to wash&emdash;soap and water slide down from the roof, around the channels surrounding the glass and even the wheelarches, and down onto the ground. The finish of the body panels would shame a Cadillac, and the design of the rain gutters has been elevated to the level of art.

A thorough wash also tells you how much VW's plant workers in Mexico have learned about how to build cars. The body-panel gaps are tight as can be, and there wasn't a single piece on my black tester that was out of alignment. The doors shut with a convincing clunk, and the rear hatch requires just the right amount of effort to close; the flip-up handle underneath the gargantuan VW badge at the rear is a beautiful touch.

Minor little great things abound all over this car. The centrally-mounted whip antenna, surely a piece that couldn't cost more than a few dollars, really unifies the car's look&emdash;with it, the car takes on the personality of a remote-control toy. The alloy wheels seem impervious to brake dust&emdash;all German cars, for some reason, have front brakes that are veritable soot factories, but the stuff simply slides off these sixteen inchers.

Inside, the quality story continues, with beautiful materials (even the stuff on the back of the door grab handles is wonderful to touch) and excellent fit. But I'm not yet sure that I like the overall design of the thing. Sitting behind the wheel, and staring out over the vast expanse of dashboard, reminds me of nothing so much as the old anteater Chevy Lumina van.

Still, it's lighter, more agile, smaller, and far more tossable than a Lumina, and you get used to the extra space in front of you pretty quickly. It even becomes perversely fun; a giddy smile always bisected my face when I bore through a corner with all that roundness in front of me.

Smiles are, after all, what the New Beetle is about. The smile that's formed in the arch of the hood meeting the front bumper. The smiles on people's faces as you drive by them; the smile on yours as you tootle around town. Inside it, it's as if you're an automotive ambassador of goodwill. The bug may be a Golf underneath, but the Golf was never this giggly-wheezy fun.

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