Test drive Volkswagen Beetle 1998 - 2005 compartment

Life line

August 1998 will forever remain in the memory of our people. Who will be younger to tell the children about the exchange panic and the growth of the dollar. Who is older - about the concert of Ringo Starra, the drummer of the legendary Liverpool four, and about the appearance on the streets of the capital of the first new Volkswagen Beatle. Old Beatles and the new Beetle.
Figures of history
Translated from German Volkswagen means a folk car. Today it seems strange why this is the largest world concern, the manufacturer of not the cheapest cars and a buyer of all kinds of Bentley and Rolls-Royce (though not always successful), in the name such a craving for ordinary people.
The matter is in history. A ticket to this name was personally given by Adolf Hitler. In May 1938, he blessed the first KDF-Wagen car, on the basis of which, after the war, the legendary KA..FER was created, aka Beetle, aka Zhuk. What does Hitler have to do with it? And despite the fact that the Führer set the task: in terms of the population of the population, Germany was supposed to catch up and overtake America. It was supposed to achieve this due to simplicity of design Nazi Germany defeated, but the beetle remained to live so unable to live that the production of the model in Germany was stopped only in 1978, in Brazil - in 1988, and in Mexico it is still produced under the name VW Boxer.
The second life of the insect
In 1994, the Volkswagen concern cautiously announced the beginning of the New Beetle project. The idea is simple as a weber carburetor. By this time, the good old beetle was already recognized as one of the achievements of the twentieth century and even entered the Guinness Book of Records as a long -liverous lines. It doesn’t matter in Germany or in Brazil - the design did not change. So, the bet on the legendary past can promise good young ladies in the future, judged in the concern. It is enough for engineers to construct, and the advertisers betrayed the folk car of the late XX century. Of course, with the adjustment that the people over sixty years have changed a lot and, paraphrasing Mikhail Bulgakov, the automobile question ruined them greatly. Now people require air conditioning, electric mirrors and windows, ABS system and airbags. The high quality of finishing materials is also desirable. All this was performed in New Beetle. Moreover, welcoming the wishes of the American working people who should become the first consumers of the new beetle, the concern brought the number of airbags to four: two in front and two in the backs of the seats.
On the other hand, the creators of the beetle never forgot that they were striving to create a massive and cheap car, and pretty much tried to save in something. As a result, in the cabin you can find a plastic rather than a leather steering wheel, mesh on the pockets of the doors and touching tram loops on the racks. The lack of an on -board computer is also characteristic of younger representatives of the Volkswagen family.
Pueblo, Mexico - Detroit, USA, 1998
Volkswagen announces plans for the specific implementation of the New Beetle program. At the factory in Mexico, 60,000 new beetles will be assembled, and if new cars are in demand in the New World, then the production will immediately be increased to 100 thousand cars a year. New Beetle sales will begin first in the United States, immediately after its presentation at the Detroit Auto Show, and the estimated price in the American market will be about $ 15,800.
The beetle really became the most loud sensation of the auto show, despite the fact that the technical equipment of the new car was significantly inferior to the rest of the Detroit car dealership. Yes, VW Beetle first became front -wheel drive. Yes, the beetle not only for the first time installed a gasoline engine with water cooling, but the engine itself is located like all - in front. In the end, a two -liter gasoline engine installed on New Beetle is well familiar to the Volkswagen fans of the Golf and Passat of the previous generation, and today is also carried by Minivan Sharan.
The design of the transmission also does not shine with novelty - a mechanical five -speed or automatic four -speed with automatic adaptation of clutch under the style of the driver. These nodes are also installed on most cars produced by the Volkswagen family.
By the way, about the design in general. Six months after the first beetles crawled to customers, Volkswagen announced the recall of almost all of them. The engineers of the plant found that the engineering wiring rubs on the battery angle and there is a hypothetical possibility of its fire. In order not to spoil the first impression of the new model, all the newly -made owners were invited to get to the nearest service center and eliminate the shortage for free (the hand does not rise to call it a malfunction). And at the same time, get a small monetary compensation or a memorable gift for inconvenience.
Russia, Moscow, 1998
First of all, we raised the hood and investigated the wiring for spontaneous combustion. According to our estimates, this should happen like this through thirty intensive operation. A completely real term based on the experience of the old beetle.
And only a small round dashboard resembles an old beetle, which is a huge speedometer, largely digitized in miles and small in kilometers. In the middle of the speedometer there is a display with an indication of the position of the automatic gearbox and small symmetrical arrow indicators of the fuel level, and a tachometer. It does not look quite familiar, but very stylish.
The front panel length is also amazing in the cabin - 80 centimeters, they themselves measured it. The feeling is such that you are sitting in Minivan. The first kilometer is somewhat unusual, but you can get used to it. Another surprise is the rear -view mirrors that are located ten centimeters higher than usual - almost at the eye level of the driver. The shape and location resemble sports cars for track races.
On the road it turns out that the form corresponds to the content. Of course, a 2-liter engine and an automatic gearbox do not allow to untwist the car to the speeds of the British body championship or indicator races. But from the place the beetle starts quite briskly, and a couple of times we even managed to tear the front wheels into the boxes.
The suspension of New Beetle is traditionally tough, like VW Golf IV, but its move is much smaller. In combination with wide low -profile rubber and low clearance, this allows me to feel amazingly, entering at decent speed into rather steep turns. Even on wet asphalt. In addition, it seemed that the beetle reacts less painfully to the irregularities of the coating - there was no stool Golf IV for comparison at hand. Maybe the fact is that thanks to the original layout of the cabin, the driver sits in almost the middle of the body and all the tremors are absorbed by the design, and not the bodies of the driver and passengers.
This is the result of the sixty years of evolution. Born a little awkward and funny insect, slowly moving in space, the beetle seems to have died. But in fact, he went into a state of the doll. And he hatched again with a rather predatory insect, an extraordinary and still causing smile of the appearance of which is nothing but a patronizing color.

Autopilot thanks Alea-Motors-M, (095) 903-1174, for the car provided for the test. For the period of the test, the car was insured in the company of RESO-Garantia, (095) 250-3600, 255-6834.

Who else
The euro-juke, speaking of the language familiar to us, does not yet exist. It is only known so far that Volkswagen agrees with former beetles: Paul, George and Ringo. New Beetle is currently officially delivered only to America. In Russia, as car tramps say, there are already many who want to buy this machine, but there are no owners yet.
So let's see how the relations of the Americans are developing. And there things happen quite unusual.
Firstly, there are rumors that the first beetles became the object of attention of speculators who acted with them, as with tickets for a football match: they bought up $ 18 thousand and began to resell with a margin of several thousand experiencing nostalgia and who did not want to stand in line to fellow citizens.
Secondly, no matter what doubts about the prospects of New Beetle, it turned out that VW even underestimated the demand for a new machine, and now he has to urgently invest additional money in the Mexican plant producing beetles to increase production and satisfy exciting demand.
Thirdly, the new beetle seems to turn into a cult car in America, like its ancestor. Was an ordinary car to become an object of an experiment conducted by the Bank of America this summer: how many employees of the bank will fit in one beetle? 19 people climbed.
In Russia, a new beetle, of course, will never become massive. Too expensive. And even more so, the result of the old beetle entered in the Guinness Book of Records will not beat - 22 million cars sold. But interest in him will probably be great. This is evidenced by at least numerous stylistic experiments that our fellow citizens with old beetles conduct. Autopilot wrote about one of them last November in the material of Chick and Zhuk, and the other can be observed in the city of Zhukovsky near Moscow (what a coincidence!), Where KA..FER drives, in which the front car is cut and replaced by a motorcycle.
 
Model/Modification Volkswagen New Beetle
The manufacturer Volkswagen AG
Mexican manufacturer
BODY
Type hatchback
Number of doors/places 2/4
ENGINE
Basin type with electronic injection
The location in front is transversely
Working volume (cubic meter) 1984
Number/location of cylinders 4/row
Cylinder diameter x Piston stroke (mm) 82.5x92.8
Compression degree 10.0: 1
Power, kW (L.S.) at about./Min. 85 (115) at 5200
Moment (nm at about./Min.) 165 at 2600
The number of valves per cylinder 2
TRANSMISSION
Front drive
Automatic four -speed gearbox
SUSPENSION
Front independent two -leash, reptile stabilizer
The rear independent type MacPherson, the reptile stabilizer
STEERING
Type gear rack with a hydraulic booster
Min. The diameter of the turn (m) 10.8
Brakes
Front disk ventilated
The rear disk solid
ABS four -channel with electronic control
Wheels
Tire size 205/55 HR16
Disks 6.5jh16 ''
Dimensions/Opam/Weight
Length/width/height (mm) 4092/1724/1511
Wheel base (mm) 2513
The track front/back (mm) 1515/1495
Clearance (mm) 130
The volume of the fuel tank (L) 55
Mass, dry/maximum (kg) 1265/1700
Dynamic characteristics
Maximum speed (km/h) 175
Acceleration to 100 km/h (sec.) 10.1
Economy
Fuel consumption (l/100 km):
Highway 6.0
City 11.5
The price of the dummy in Moscow is $ 35,000
Nikolay Kachurin, Vitaly Teplov (photo)
 

A source: "Autopilot"