Obviously, you can tell by my name that I love the original Beetle. So when I was selling VWs (1998-2001), and was given a New Beetle for a demo, I was thrilled. Until I started to live with the car and found it uncomfortable and basically a two seater. To me, it was no where near as practical as the first one.

I once slammed the hatch of a New Beetle and nearly gave someone sitting in the back seat a concussion! Talk about bad design. It seemed to me that they kept the Beetle shape at all costs, not actually thinking about making it a usable car.

I think because the Germans hated the New Beetle from the start, they got it to market and then left it there, untouched, to die a slow death. So I don't think radically changing the car is a bad thing, they should just change the name too. If they lose the Beetle shape-it's no longer a Beetle.