Ian Cushway searches out new and used parts prices
The last of the line Beetle was the most sophisticated Bug of them all and it’s inexpensive to buy, run and make even better.
Volkswagen’s original air-cooled Beetle was, and still is, loved the world over. It’s an icon, no less, and remains the world’s best-selling car of all time. But as we all know, all good things must come to an end, and diminishing sales throughout the ’70s and ’80s finally sounded its death knell, with the last one leaving the Mexico production line in 2003.
Somehow, though, love for the Bug didn’t diminish and Volkswagen launched its ‘New Beetle’, based on the Mk4 Golf this time, in 1998. It was made more muscular looking for the 2007 model year before being replaced by the car we’re looking at here, the A5, which went on sale in 2012.
Longer, lower and wider, it was more Beetle-like than its predecessor and certainly more sophisticated having borrowed its underpinnings from the Mk6 Golf. This meant it was available with a range of efficient TSI petrol and TDI diesel engines in varying capacities and outputs. The former ranged from a 104bhp 1.2-litre unit to a 197bhp 2.0-litre that was usefully swift with 0-62mph in 7.5 seconds; the latter was upgraded to 207bhp when the racy GSR model arrived in 2013, with just 100 examples destined for the UK. The oilburners were a 104bhp 1.6 and a punchier 138bhp 2.0, and all of the engines were available in both the hatchback and the cabriolet that joined the range in 2013.
Whereas the earlier ‘new’ Beetle featured quite a funky cabin design (including a flower vase on the dashboard) VW took a rather more restrained approach with this generation. Whether that matters is down to personal preference, but build and material quality were both sound and there was little to complain about
when it came to equipment levels. The tin-top is the more practical of the two with a 310-litre boot (just 225-litres in the cabrio) which expands to 905-litres with the rear seats folded, and both got split-folding rear seats.
A number of updates and special editions followed subsequently, with the most notable additions being the off-road inspired Dune and R-Line trim that replaced Sport – both of which arrived in 2016.
Alas, like the original, despite its many virtues, even this Beetle struggled to find enough buyers and production stopped in 2019, bringing to an
