.I own No 32 of 3500 registration VW**GSR. I have watched and listened to a lot of write ups and road tests on this vehicle and having owned the vehicle for almost a year now and I have the following comments to make. It is not a Golf GTi and does not pretend to be, so comparisons between it and the Golf are definitely not applicable. It is also not rear engined and air cooled, so those days are gone and the Beetle has matured and moved into the 21st century. This model certainly stands out and one of the reasons I bought it is there will only ever be 3500 made worldwide, so I know it will be a little unique. It drives and performs exceptionally well with amazing acceleration once moving. Tend to get too much wheel spin if trying to burn someone off at the lights but once going it's all there for sure. Exceptionally comfortable with good visibility. The ride is hard which I personally like (by the way I had the 1.4 design in white with a much smoother suspension) and I find very little outside noise penetrating into the inside cab. When accelerating the vehicle makes a great throaty noise and when driving calmly gentle as a baby breast feeding. I love the steering wheel design and the controls within it. I am averaging 29MPG for both town and country driving and on a run from my home town to Heathrow (91 miles) I average 38 mpg. Things I do not like about my GSR are the wing mirrors have to be folded manually and they do not heat up automatically when outside temp drops below 10c. The same can also be said of the rear window. I do not like having to select winter weather conditions manually and think VW could have done better with this regard. I am not keen on the stop watch timer which sits with a cluster of two other dials central top of dash and would have preferred a water temp gauge with the already oil temp gauge and turbo booster. I do not like the turbo badge on the rear boot lid and would much have preferred the word Beetle or letters GSR. I know it is possible to change this lettering but then the vehicle would not its original design so for that reason alone will have to learn to live with it. Rear passenger seating is ok for journeys of say around 2hours but in all honesty the car is a 2 + 2 when it comes to seating. I am happy with the side door straps for storage of stuff and because of their design they do stop me stuffing things into the side door pockets I would normally forget about until the time comes to part exchange the vehicle. The boot space is adequate and the Beetle equipped with enough of the right stuff. I guess the GSR was a little pricey and you can get the Beetle Turbo with same performance at a lesser price and less flashy look at me appearance. Finally it does turn heads (I believe for the right reasons) and is great fun to drive and be seen in.
id be down for a beetle, i mean the styling is nice and it does have the gti engine so tunning it will be relatively easy. get it in black white or red and its not so girly, all black interior, black rims and windows, debadge it, drop it a bit and put a nice exhaust on it and it wont be a girl car anymore
@takesonetokillall when you design a car say of 5 or 6 metres in total length, the hood length also figures in the total equation, therefore the shorter it is the larger the remaining cabin and trunk space can be. So placing a motor across a car in an EW direction FWD means the car has a shorter hood, and this is acheived.
I think the first new beetle looked more like the original beetle. It had more rounded features, including the oval tail lights, more rounded front hood, more rounded fog lights, and more rounded roof.
I have been used to big RWD cars, and I can tell you FWD cars handle much better, they also are safer in the snow, and have more interior space. I like this car not the previous one; the original one was a gem; had one years ago.
@dagnut It completely depends on what you are meaning by understeer. I'm coming from the engineering side of it, where understeer is defined in the steady-state. The driver has a lot of control over how the car handles by how he uses the throttle. I currently drive a Clio Cup and believe me, that thing oversteers in most conditions. I had an Integra Type R before that which was perhaps the best handling car I have EVER driven. And I've driven Elises. I think you've been driving the wrong FWDs...
@takesonetokillall yes it does because generally FWD drive cars have the engine facing east/west, therefore the bonnet (hood as Americans say) is shorter as a result the interior is larger, plus there isn't a large transmission hump in the floor well, The final benefit is the fact that the engine weight is over the drive wheels in FWD; no need for the bags of sand in the boot (trunk) Not so good for burnouts, if that is what you want?
Autoexpress, would you think about putting reviewers name on titles like "New Volkswagen Beetle review - Mat Watson - Auto Express" (Because im only here for Matt). Thanks.
only test drive the GSR and thought it was a bit garish to be honest. Seeing as 95% of driving will be in town, the base model isn't too bad i.e. fast enough (for the wife) so look to get a 2 yr old 1.2 TSi.
@dagnut I HAVE seen one of those. My friend had one and was obsessed with the thing. Pulsars were never renowned for handling - it was always the fact they could be tuned to give mega power easily that made them so popular (also it'll never win any beauty pageants). Look it's simple: There's no simple fact that a FWD or a RWD car will understeer first. It's entirely dependant on weight distribution. You ARE trying to be too simplistic. If FWD was so bad, they wouldn't win the BTCC so often.
@shobin05 what do you drive,by the way.someone who says the mx5 is cheap and fast,shows to me he has no idea about cars.i will not say more.just watch the beetle sell.
VW didn't want it to be a man's car. They just didn't want it to be an "only girl's" car like the old one. The new one being aimed at men and women, rather than just women.
@TheFrostyDealer Frankly I don't mind as I grew up them, but on icy or snow roads they aren't so good, practically nobody in Europe goes to the Alps in winter with one. The Germans till make them with their larger models, I have too an old Ford Focus, no torque steer or understeer whatsover, but of course it only has a1.6 litre engine if you put a 300hp motor in it it will. I remember Toyotas of the eighties, Camry, Tercel etc... they were the worst, but times have changed.
@xM1LkMaNx yes for a given length, why do your American cars have such long hoods, because not only the engines are larger but face North/South, therefore to create some decent interior space the car has to be longer and heavier, why for example do your pickup trucks wheels spin badly? no weight over the drive wheels. I have spent all my life with RWD and FWD is better. I have an AWD drive car now for where i live, and even then without snow tryes it will skid.
@dagnut Too simplistic. And who says my Clio is as it was out of the factory? In the steady-state the car has slight oversteer. I am not talking about lift-off oversteer. A Pulsar? Come on, they were never renowned for being balanced chassis'. Most modern cars have pretty much the same understeer/oversteer characteristics when going through a constant radius corner at a constant speed (this is what steady-state is). As you said, it's mild understeer. So to say FWD has understeer is too general.
@Scotracer1987 I haven't my friend had a JDM teg r I had a pulsar VZR with lsd,of course the driver has control stop stating the obvious...you're Clio is only over steering on lift off..as most fwd with an lsd will,or induced with a flick which doesn't count.. All modern cars are set up for mild understeer but when a fwd loses traction it will under-steer more than an rwd car..given all conditions are equal, grip, velocity, slip angle >the fwd will understeer more..driver skill is a variable
@shobin05 the golf is boring and the scirocco is not practical,as i have said before.i dont look at cars of this class,for speed.speed wise they are not fast cars,others are.as for girl car,i have seen reports that have girls loving the bentley gt and continetal.are they girl cars.the mazda mx5,a nice little sports car.is that a girls car?i dont own a beetle but i am seriously considering the beetle turbo.at the moment i drive a mitsubishi outlande 2.2 diesel.look at lenos report on the beetle.
if vw seriously wanted to change this car's image perception they should've done the car the old fashioned way. affordable pricing-RWD-small naturally aspirated boxer engine (probably no more than 2L) in the back. this car is just too über cute to be taken seriously by a man.
@Scotracer1987 Yeah I do drive I have owned FWD, AWD and RWD cars..I say again what do you drive? I see you're an engineer which makes your statement even more puzzling.
@Scotracer1987 You have no experiences of the VZR , probably never even seen one as they where JDM only and very few came into the UK so don't speak about what you don't know...had a 172 clio as well the VZR pissed on it.. It ins't too simplistic it's simple physics, you being an engineer this is just stupid. Argue the basics of my point given all factors being equal which will understeer first the car driven by it's steering wheels or the car driven by the rear wheels?
@lffit FWD cars do not handle better than RWD cars. They drive pretty much the same in the city, or the highway. Fwd cars have too many problems(Torque steer, understeer,) and are generally cheaper to make. RWD cars are dying. Like Manual transmissions.
@vandecar15 moron OK lol; I do know something about cars having worked for the best part of my career for Ford. We have snow also in France i.e the Alps? all I know we have been unable to come home after snow in RWD cars, such as an Lexus IS 200; (which also did a 360° on the autoroute between semis) later on in a Mazda RX8, (which we had to abandon on the roadside) and leave for 2 days and get a lift home in a tiny Renault Clio. So there you go? Speaking from experience.!
Caught you Mat! Shame, shame. Everyone knows your name. :) On every other review, you complain when the dash materials are hard instead of soft touch. Yet here, you say that: "Soft touch is for sissies." But that said, you gave it a good fight to make this girly car look a bit more manly. I salute you. If I were buying a VW, I would go for an old 80s Scirocco. Though I don't deny the Beetle has its fans as well as a cult following.
@dagnut Do you know how to drive? 99% of the time people complain about FWD cars understeering it's because they simply don't know how to drive them. I bet you use the same lines in corners with RWD and FWD.
@Scotracer1987 your thinking of a GTI-R..at least do some goggling you clown!! its a 1.6 N/a with 173 bhp and superb nismo tuned chassis..again your missing the SIMPLE point and are trying to deflect..I din't say FWD was bad did I? we are debating understeer and you know I'm right....all things being equal, weight, speed slip angle, grip the FWD will under steer..BTCC is based on road cars that are FWD that's why you nob....type of homoglation...name ANY top racing class with FWD drive ..ANY
what's this with girly manly car business isn't that for petty people to worry about, you know the people who think their "jewels" aren't enough so they drive around in colourless bmws and audis
Yeah, yeah, the 'Skeer-ock-oh' isn't a man's car it's a show off car for people who don't realise no one gives a shit about their empty lives. They should change the wheels, paint it Black (like a stag beetle...), give it 4 wheel drive, 280 bhp and call it the Beetle-RS. Make it the fastest Volkswagen as a homage to their roots, then it will be cool.
Do they give free nail varnish with this car? Mini cooper s is the class act when it come to being cool, why do VW bother with this? its an overpriced pointless car. Give me the mini anytime, if you drive one you will see what I mean, pure class.
.I own No 32 of 3500 registration VW**GSR. I have watched and listened to a lot of write ups and road tests on this vehicle and having owned the vehicle for almost a year now and I have the following comments to make. It is not a Golf GTi and does not pretend to be, so comparisons between it and the Golf are definitely not applicable. It is also not rear engined and air cooled, so those days are gone and the Beetle has matured and moved into the 21st century. This model certainly stands out and one of the reasons I bought it is there will only ever be 3500 made worldwide, so I know it will be a little unique. It drives and performs exceptionally well with amazing acceleration once moving. Tend to get too much wheel spin if trying to burn someone off at the lights but once going it's all there for sure. Exceptionally comfortable with good visibility. The ride is hard which I personally like (by the way I had the 1.4 design in white with a much smoother suspension) and I find very little outside noise penetrating into the inside cab. When accelerating the vehicle makes a great throaty noise and when driving calmly gentle as a baby breast feeding. I love the steering wheel design and the controls within it. I am averaging 29MPG for both town and country driving and on a run from my home town to Heathrow (91 miles) I average 38 mpg. Things I do not like about my GSR are the wing mirrors have to be folded manually and they do not heat up automatically when outside temp drops below 10c. The same can also be said of the rear window. I do not like having to select winter weather conditions manually and think VW could have done better with this regard. I am not keen on the stop watch timer which sits with a cluster of two other dials central top of dash and would have preferred a water temp gauge with the already oil temp gauge and turbo booster. I do not like the turbo badge on the rear boot lid and would much have preferred the word Beetle or letters GSR. I know it is possible to change this lettering but then the vehicle would not its original design so for that reason alone will have to learn to live with it. Rear passenger seating is ok for journeys of say around 2hours but in all honesty the car is a 2 + 2 when it comes to seating. I am happy with the side door straps for storage of stuff and because of their design they do stop me stuffing things into the side door pockets I would normally forget about until the time comes to part exchange the vehicle. The boot space is adequate and the Beetle equipped with enough of the right stuff. I guess the GSR was a little pricey and you can get the Beetle Turbo with same performance at a lesser price and less flashy look at me appearance. Finally it does turn heads (I believe for the right reasons) and is great fun to drive and be seen in.
The car has a classic style and looks masculine to me even more masculine then the MINI
I'm a guy and I like this car. I may trade in my not so fun to drive "feels like a tank" 2012 2LT camaro for a fun to drive beetle.
hahaha great new review mat!!! thanks for sharing, I love VW and I love the new VW Beetle!
I actually like the Beetle.
The presennter , ehhh disappointed me for comparing it to a PT Cruiser
AYE!! the carwow guy looking young buddy matt
id be down for a beetle, i mean the styling is nice and it does have the gti engine so tunning it will be relatively easy. get it in black white or red and its not so girly, all black interior, black rims and windows, debadge it, drop it a bit and put a nice exhaust on it and it wont be a girl car anymore
never in my life would i think a Chrysler PT Cruiser be mentioned in an Autoexpress video.
and why no HD?
I like the new beetle.
@takesonetokillall when you design a car say of 5 or 6 metres in total length, the hood length also figures in the total equation, therefore the shorter it is the larger the remaining cabin and trunk space can be.
So placing a motor across a car in an EW direction FWD means the car has a shorter hood, and this is acheived.
I think the first new beetle looked more like the original beetle. It had more rounded features, including the oval tail lights, more rounded front hood, more rounded fog lights, and more rounded roof.
I have been used to big RWD cars, and I can tell you FWD cars handle much better, they also are safer in the snow, and have more interior space.
I like this car not the previous one; the original one was a gem; had one years ago.
@dagnut It completely depends on what you are meaning by understeer. I'm coming from the engineering side of it, where understeer is defined in the steady-state. The driver has a lot of control over how the car handles by how he uses the throttle. I currently drive a Clio Cup and believe me, that thing oversteers in most conditions. I had an Integra Type R before that which was perhaps the best handling car I have EVER driven. And I've driven Elises. I think you've been driving the wrong FWDs...
Definitely looks better than the old generation, but that's not saying much.
Matt Watson from CarWoW?
@takesonetokillall yes it does because generally FWD drive cars have the engine facing east/west, therefore the bonnet (hood as Americans say) is shorter as a result the interior is larger, plus there isn't a large transmission hump in the floor well,
The final benefit is the fact that the engine weight is over the drive wheels in FWD; no need for the bags of sand in the boot (trunk)
Not so good for burnouts, if that is what you want?
Autoexpress, would you think about putting reviewers name on titles like "New Volkswagen Beetle review - Mat Watson - Auto Express" (Because im only here for Matt). Thanks.
only test drive the GSR and thought it was a bit garish to be honest. Seeing as 95% of driving will be in town, the base model isn't too bad i.e. fast enough (for the wife) so look to get a 2 yr old 1.2 TSi.
I think its ignorant when people say this is a girls car. I see plenty of men driving the last body style of the beetle. Anyway I want this bug!
@MrBazpoker really?! so you consider a Focus RS a girsl car?
@wizardmz10 ya the guy who designed the 911 did the beetle first. basically he drew the same car but much less expensive and pretty
cool! i think, it's look like first beetle!
@dagnut I HAVE seen one of those. My friend had one and was obsessed with the thing. Pulsars were never renowned for handling - it was always the fact they could be tuned to give mega power easily that made them so popular (also it'll never win any beauty pageants). Look it's simple: There's no simple fact that a FWD or a RWD car will understeer first. It's entirely dependant on weight distribution. You ARE trying to be too simplistic. If FWD was so bad, they wouldn't win the BTCC so often.
@TheFrostyDealer FWD cars don't inherently have more understeer. It's all down to how you drive them.
@MrBazpoker It's called a Ford Focus RS with 350 Hp...
@MrBazpoker im sorry? how about the GTI.
Make a new video about beetle vs mini plz🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽
here, here!
Standing to pee doesnt make one more manly . Bois do that too hahah.
@shobin05 what do you drive,by the way.someone who says the mx5 is cheap and fast,shows to me he has no idea about cars.i will not say more.just watch the beetle sell.
y u no have hd
@wizardmz10 oh were you? im not so sure about that
@shobin05 why not?
VW didn't want it to be a man's car. They just didn't want it to be an "only girl's" car like the old one. The new one being aimed at men and women, rather than just women.
@masterbawth I WAS BEING IRONIC ....
The 2017 price is 35k
i want one.... ill do a Scandinavian Flick to drift it
Put the flower at the "gap"
Why is Mat Watson on this channel?
@TheFrostyDealer Frankly I don't mind as I grew up them, but on icy or snow roads they aren't so good, practically nobody in Europe goes to the Alps in winter with one.
The Germans till make them with their larger models, I have too an old Ford Focus, no torque steer or understeer whatsover, but of course it only has a1.6 litre engine if you put a 300hp motor in it it will.
I remember Toyotas of the eighties, Camry, Tercel etc... they were the worst, but times have changed.
@xM1LkMaNx yes for a given length, why do your American cars have such long hoods, because not only the engines are larger but face North/South, therefore to create some decent interior space the car has to be longer and heavier, why for example do your pickup trucks wheels spin badly? no weight over the drive wheels.
I have spent all my life with RWD and FWD is better.
I have an AWD drive car now for where i live, and even then without snow tryes it will skid.
i just saw him review this car on carbuyer. why is he here pulling the same fender skit?
the new beetle is as manly as sitting down to have a wee...
@dagnut Too simplistic. And who says my Clio is as it was out of the factory? In the steady-state the car has slight oversteer. I am not talking about lift-off oversteer. A Pulsar? Come on, they were never renowned for being balanced chassis'. Most modern cars have pretty much the same understeer/oversteer characteristics when going through a constant radius corner at a constant speed (this is what steady-state is). As you said, it's mild understeer. So to say FWD has understeer is too general.
@Scotracer1987 I haven't my friend had a JDM teg r I had a pulsar VZR with lsd,of course the driver has control stop stating the obvious...you're Clio is only over steering on lift off..as most fwd with an lsd will,or induced with a flick which doesn't count.. All modern cars are set up for mild understeer but when a fwd loses traction it will under-steer more than an rwd car..given all conditions are equal, grip, velocity, slip angle >the fwd will understeer more..driver skill is a variable
@MrBazpoker the GTI? DS3? you got the game fucked up
@shobin05
Because the GTI Golf is a cliche and too many 6000-watt-stereo chavs drives one.
@shobin05 the golf is boring and the scirocco is not practical,as i have said before.i dont look at cars of this class,for speed.speed wise they are not fast cars,others are.as for girl car,i have seen reports that have girls loving the bentley gt and continetal.are they girl cars.the mazda mx5,a nice little sports car.is that a girls car?i dont own a beetle but i am seriously considering the beetle turbo.at the moment i drive a mitsubishi outlande 2.2 diesel.look at lenos report on the beetle.
if vw seriously wanted to change this car's image perception they should've done the car the old fashioned way. affordable pricing-RWD-small naturally aspirated boxer engine (probably no more than 2L) in the back. this car is just too über cute to be taken seriously by a man.
No front-wheel drive car will ever be considered "manly" !
Mr. Watson where's Sherlock?
There ain't a more girlish car than the Mini. And there's plenty of blokes swarming 'round in'em.
no matter what you do to beetle, after the last generation will always be a car for girls. I prefer the scirocco
@Scotracer1987 Yeah I do drive I have owned FWD, AWD and RWD cars..I say again what do you drive? I see you're an engineer which makes your statement even more puzzling.
PT Chrysler! God damn it, you just ruined the Beetle (and Beetle R) for me :(
@Iwillnotdoit if im tired or realy drunk
"reminds me of a Chrysler PT cruiser" ...treated
@Scotracer1987 You have no experiences of the VZR , probably never even seen one as they where JDM only and very few came into the UK so don't speak about what you don't know...had a 172 clio as well the VZR pissed on it.. It ins't too simplistic it's simple physics, you being an engineer this is just stupid. Argue the basics of my point given all factors being equal which will understeer first the car driven by it's steering wheels or the car driven by the rear wheels?
PT Cruizer???nows going bug me
@lffit FWD cars do not handle better than RWD cars. They drive pretty much the same in the city, or the highway.
Fwd cars have too many problems(Torque steer, understeer,) and are generally cheaper to make.
RWD cars are dying. Like Manual transmissions.
@MrBazpoker alfa-romeo 159
@vandecar15 moron OK lol; I do know something about cars having worked for the best part of my career for Ford.
We have snow also in France i.e the Alps? all I know we have been unable to come home after snow in RWD cars, such as an Lexus IS 200; (which also did a 360° on the autoroute between semis) later on in a Mazda RX8, (which we had to abandon on the roadside) and leave for 2 days and get a lift home in a tiny Renault Clio.
So there you go? Speaking from experience.!
Caught you Mat! Shame, shame. Everyone knows your name. :) On every other review, you complain when the dash materials are hard instead of soft touch. Yet here, you say that: "Soft touch is for sissies."
But that said, you gave it a good fight to make this girly car look a bit more manly. I salute you.
If I were buying a VW, I would go for an old 80s Scirocco. Though I don't deny the Beetle has its fans as well as a cult following.
@masterbawth realy? .|.
@Scotracer1987 Do you even own a car?
Better vid quality pls.
@MrBazpoker Go drive an Integra Type R and say that again.
360p...
Made in Mexico with the Jetta and the Golf SW, although not as well made as the equally mexican Fiat 500 that costs a lot less
My
@asskickerone Its supposed to be a girly car, so VW tried to make this one more manly
I don't think VW will find many men who want to buy a beetle, speciall with the Golf and the Scirocco being as good as they are.
Why would I sit? It's so much faster to stand up and pee
the giant jelly comparison wasn;t that funny...
CarBuyer
doesn't look that much different to be honest....
Your "manly" scirocco is almost exclusively driven by girls :( A lot of very good cars have that fate: Z4, Mini, Boxster...
he said wee ha ha!!!!
@dagnut Do you know how to drive? 99% of the time people complain about FWD cars understeering it's because they simply don't know how to drive them. I bet you use the same lines in corners with RWD and FWD.
THis dude it funny as
im not gay but prefer scirocco
I never sit down to pee
i love bugs but i'd have a scirocco over the new one every time. vw have ruined the people's car!!
@Scotracer1987 your thinking of a GTI-R..at least do some goggling you clown!! its a 1.6 N/a with 173 bhp and superb nismo tuned chassis..again your missing the SIMPLE point and are trying to deflect..I din't say FWD was bad did I? we are debating understeer and you know I'm right....all things being equal, weight, speed slip angle, grip the FWD will under steer..BTCC is based on road cars that are FWD that's why you nob....type of homoglation...name ANY top racing class with FWD drive ..ANY
looks awful in pictures..much better on videos...but a sirocco everyday to this
what's this with girly manly car business isn't that for petty people to worry about, you know the people who think their "jewels" aren't enough so they drive around in colourless bmws and audis
i'm gay but i prefer the scirocco
Yeah... why that car is called the Beetle, it's not going to be a man's car.
its freakin red ...thats why it looks like a girl car
like the presenter, good job... crap car though
911 wannabe?
Yeah, yeah, the 'Skeer-ock-oh' isn't a man's car it's a show off car for people who don't realise no one gives a shit about their empty lives.
They should change the wheels, paint it Black (like a stag beetle...), give it 4 wheel drive, 280 bhp and call it the Beetle-RS. Make it the fastest Volkswagen as a homage to their roots, then it will be cool.
What's up with this dude and his constant blabbing about masculinity...
Do they give free nail varnish with this car?
Mini cooper s is the class act when it come to being cool, why do VW bother with this? its an overpriced pointless car. Give me the mini anytime, if you drive one you will see what I mean, pure class.
It’s more a woman’s car
I actually think its quite a good car for our Gay community!
manly? VW Beetle will always be a girl's car... so is Fiat 500