Fast forward to today, the German have already unwrapped the third generation Beetle at the 2011 New York and Shanghai motor shows in April, so it’s time for Volkswagen to create some buzz around the car with the release of a video showing Oprah handing the keys to one of the lucky audience members. You can watch it right after the jump.
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For the most part, the first reviews on the ‘less flower, more power’ styling direction of the New Beetle’s replacement in general do appear to be on the positive side, but for Volkswagen, this needs to translate into consumer spending when the car goes on sale this fall.
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In addition to the news on the configurator, we’ve also found a fresh batch of photos of the latest generation of the Beetle, which you can ogle on in the gallery after the break. For more details on VW’s newcomer, check out our previous post here.
When it goes on sale in North America and Europe in the fall of 2011, and the rest of the world from early 2012, the latest model will be known simply as the ‘Beetle’ as Volkswagen dropped the ‘New’ from the car’s name.
If someone asked us to summarize the qualities of the 2012 Beetle in a few words, it would be: larger, more mature and unisex. Starting with the design, VW’s goal was to make the 21st century Beetle appeal to both genders. As a result, the VW Group’s chief designer Walter de Silva and his team offered the Beetle a meaner and lower-slung look that draws on cues from the Beetle Ragster concept shown in Detroit in 2005. The overall styling is far less bulbous and more chiseled compared to the New Beetle, while keeping the retro feel of the series.
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All well and good, but what use would be the other, engine-less half? I mean, it’d just be a steel shell with a generous (if not altogether compact) lockable storage area. This is the question posed by this rather interesting automotive oddity: a 1972 Volkswagen Beetle “Front End Display”.
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For the launch of the New Beetle, VW has teamed up with MTV, with all three appearances of the car being linked to the music TV station. In Shanghai, the Beetle will revealed by an MTV DJ who will host an exclusive MTV Sound System event, while in New York and Berlin the car will make its first appearance during World Stage events, with live performances of The Black Eyed Peas and 2manydjs respectively.
If there’s one car that has withstood the test of time, that’s the original Volkswagen Beetle. And even though more than 21 million Bugs were built between 1938 and 2003, it’s not often that you stumble upon a pristine example with only delivery mileage on the odometer. The one you see pictured above is a 1978 Beetle Jubilee with a mere 40 miles on the clock that has never been registered. It’s up for sale by UK-based CVA Auctions.
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However, despite the record viewing number,
Chevy's lovely ladies couldn't beat Volkswagen's little Darth Vader in the Passat ad for the most favorite commercial of the game with a Nieslen likability index of 186 (the average score for the Super Bowl ads is 100, meaning VW's Passat ad was almost twice as liked as the average commercial).
The first advert is about the upcoming Beetle and shows a real bug with white racing stripes acting like a car on the forest ground, while the other commercial is for the U.S.-market spec 2012 Passat and is more humorous concentrating on a child dressed up as Darth Vader. Watch them both right after the break.
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Eduardo Oliveira, a Brazilian designer who you may remember from the 2012 New Beetle study, has come up with a retro styled proposal to fix this issue for the Transporter's successor. Presented here in a variety of models, the conceptual Transporter is inspired by the famous T1 and T2 VW vans. Granted, the renderings need some polishing up but the idea is there. Hit the break for the full photo gallery.