New (x2) Beetle

Newswheel staff :: 24 May 2005 :: Filed under Cabriolet, Hatchback, Volkswagen, Volkswagen New Beetle, Europe & UK, US

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Beetle squared hits the road

As minor tweaks go, the updates VW has applied to the New Beetle fall somewhere between invisible and inscrutable. Nevertheless, panel pedants will no doubt take pleasure in fetishising the crisper wheel arch lines and massaged bumpers. More interesting, but only just, is a powerplant transplant in favour of the 2.5-litre in-line five which has recently been doing sterling service in VWs Stateside. Lest anyone forget, it benefits from a cylinder head borrowed from one bank of the Lamborghini Gallardo’s V10 lump. Not that it makes for a high-revving screamer – 150bhp from 2.5-litres is pretty pedestrian. No news yet on Euro pricing of the New (squared) Beetle (or availability on that five-cylinder mill in the old country, for that matter).