In a world in which more and more cars look like they have been designed by someone taking a hairdryer to a block of soft cheese, the Beetle is a breath of fresh air. Among the bizarre mobile closets, family spaceships and executive aircraft on the road, it will invariably raise a smile of recognition. It's a smile that seems to be beamed back at you by the design, a simple collection of arcs and circles, bug eyes and a snub nose.
No wonder Hitler called it his "Strength-Through-Joy Car". His dream was that every member of his "workforce" should have a car - a Volksauto. The idea was quietly written off as absurd when he insisted they must be sold for under 1,000 Reichmarks (£85) but one engineer - a certain Dr Ferdinand Porsche - took up the challenge, partly because it coincided with his own ideas for an economy car. Workers paid for the car with a stamp system, accruing tokens that could eventually be swapped for a vehicle.
Production was temporarily halted by the second world war but by 1955 no fewer than a million Beetles had scuttled off the assembly line. German production of the original Beetle ended in 1978, but it is still manufactured in Mexico. So when VW radically updated the design a couple of years ago, giving those charming Herbie looks a no less charming turn-of-the-millennium makeover, it was religiously referred to as the New Beetle. The new addition to the range has a 1.6 engine instead of the 2-litre GTi, and does away with the alloy wheels and the air conditioning. More importantly, it costs £2,000 less.
The New Beetle has remained faithful to the vehicle's shape. It looks a little like an Audi TT that has been driven through a hall of mirrors, giving it a more dome-like roof without sacrificing that chunky, wide stance on the road, with arches that create the effect of oversized wheels. The two arcs meet to form the back, which is elegant, simple and looks like it belongs. (Why is it that so many cars look like they've left the garage with the wrong backside?)
But all of this is really a cosmetic memory of the original. Mechanically it is very different. The VW after-dinner joke about the woman who stops to help a fellow motorist, claiming she has a spare engine in the boot, is now gratifyingly extinct. Flip up the tailgate on the new one and you will discover that they kept everything so neat back there by assuming that you travel rather light.
It's quite difficult to comprehend that as you go nipping along the road because the expanse between the steering wheel and the windscreen stretching out towards the horizon could quite happily accommodate a small wedding reception. It's one of the pay-offs of being design-led, like the limited back seats. But for the driver it gives a feeling of being right in the middle of an oval shell, which in turn makes the handling feel immediate. Beetling along with enough room above your head for a fairly extensive afro, you almost expect the vehicle to be ungainly around corners, and to lean forward during braking. But there is very little hangover - it handles like a buggy. And all that room between you and the engine, plus the safety-conscious heavy doors, means good soundproofing. The time lag before acceleration when you hit the floor in second or third is understandably longer with the smaller engine, but it still feels unexpectedly responsive for its unaggressive, soft shaping.
Add the airbags, Conran-style handbrake, pretty displays, Electronic Stability Programme (which senses slipping and automatically corrects it by individually braking each wheel), sporty suspension, beverage whatnots and electrically heated this-that-and-the-other and you can see how far it has come from being a basic people's wagon.
One other distinguishing feature of the original Beetle has also gone: the ludicrous farmyard farting that used to herald its arrival. That indestructible plodder of an engine, which didn't so much rev as snore, has been replaced by VW's hugely successful 2-litre from the Golf GTi, or, in the latest model, the new 1.6.
And what's this? Just between the steering wheel and the dash there is a small plastic funnel. It won't hold a pen, a coffee, a map or a 20p. Maybe it's a valve to stick your lips round and blow up the airbags. The manual is having no jokes about this little homage to the car's hippy status in the Herbie films: "No articles should be kept in the vase when the vehicle is in motion. This could be a potential danger during a sudden braking manoeuvre as the contents of the vase could fly out and distract the driver from what is happening on the road." Just imagine getting a face full of daffodils when you switch on the air conditioning. Tricky.
But it's a little emblematic reminder that this is a car with character, and has managed to hang on to it while getting bang up to date. For some drivers, character is a bad word. Character equals frivolous. They want something that looks like a "serious bit of kit". But they can keep their motorised willies - this is much more fun.
The lowdown
Volkswagen Beetle 1.6
Price: £12,995
Acceleration: 0-62mph in 11.6 secs
Top speed: 111mph
Consumption: 36.7mpg (combined)
At the wheel: Bod
On the way to: Interflora
On the stereo: Herbie Hancock
