Beetle Styling by Volkswagen

JE DESIGN  and the VW Beetle - Shameless Plug

When the "New Beetle" made its comeback in 1998, it was at the top of a nostalgia chain and an absolute hit for the generation that had driven air-cooled "bugs" across all geographies and through all seasons. It was easy on gas, super-reliable and could be painted with flowers to look really cool. What?


The "New Beetle" found a willing consumer heavily skewed towards women - intentional or not. Can't say it was meant to be cute because the very first iteration (circa 1949 - 2 were sold that year) in North America was considered downright ugly and sounded like a large lawnmower.  Besides, American cars were big and powerful and the VW bug was small and had as much horsepower as a giant lawnmower.   However it went from scorn to cultural icon in the 1970s, and it does retain special status as the best-selling car of all time. The 2011 "Beetle" was totally made over inside and out. See an interview with VW designers Marco Pavone & Jan Haacke here.



This version of the Beetle has a 2 litre turbo under the hood (oh yeah - the engine used to be in the rear.)  Find a do-it-yourself plug and play chip tuning upgrade that will pump the horsepower up from 200 to 250 on the same page as what LLTeK offers from the mind of designer Jochen Eckelt -  see pictures and pricing of simple body kit styling for the 2012 Beetle here.