The New Beetle Went From Concept To Pop Icon
The Beetle has always been something of a cultural icon having been a feature of film and televisions for many years, but the new Beetle concept seemed to do that from the start.
The revival of the 1970s in the 90s was in everything from clothing to music. The amount of 70s club nights playing old tunes seemed to appeal to a younger generation. The 70s and especially the 80s have the biggest appeal for revival for many years now and have outlived their original decade in length.
It is thought that generation Z has kept this revival going and have brought things forward to the millennia and have looked back on the turn of the century for simpler times. This has included an interest in older mobile phones and looking at ways of switching off but has expanded to cars and the Beetle has some renewed appreciation.
Freeman Thomas, one half of the design duo behind the Beetle and current CEO of Meyers Manx, gave his thoughts on how the design has maintained this pop culture appeal since its introduction.
It might be a surprise that the New Beetle was originally conceived to be an electric car. Today it would be expected, but back in 1993 that’s exactly what Volkswagen had intended. A small scale model was made and photographed against the backdrop of the sunny beaches of California.
Concept One was unveiled at the 1994 Detroit Auto Show as a nostalgic car that paid homage to the original Beetle while being a modern with the latest front wheel drive platform.
The car was revealed to the general public with a somewhat sentimental video asking those potential customers to remember when…, going back to that golden age of the original Beetle.
Apparently, the film was a bit of a tearjerker and had quite an effect on the journalists. The press response was so big that they didn’t leave the stand and go to other press conferences. They stayed to see if Volkswagen were really going to build a new Beetle.
The success of the show in Detroit led to Concept One being approved for production and Thomas and his design team set about designing every interior and exterior detail. The Beetle was taken down to its geometric elements, the three arches, and mixed Bauhaus style with a warmer character to bring in modern elements as opposed to relying on a purely retro design.
The original interior had the same shapes as the exterior, a simple instrument panel formed of one arc with its aquamarine dials said to be inspired by the swimming pools of California.
Thomas designed the now famous flower vase in Concept One as a tribute to the porcelain Rosenthal bud vases in original Beetle models.
“Everybody has their own Volkswagen Beetle story,” said Thomas. “Memories based not just off the charisma of the design but the reliability of the vehicle and [how] it represented Volkswagen’s philosophy of how to build, design and sell a vehicle.”
The New Beetle went on sale in 1998 and was immediately popular. It was also a staple feature of popular TV and film of the late 1990s, from Sabrina The Teenage Witch to BASEketball. You could even see one animated in MTVs Beavis And Butthead.
The cabriolet with the fold down rag top appeared in 2003 and had the same type of hood structure as the original with it simply sitting on the rear of the car. This was another master stroke and further increased the cars popularity.
The New Beetle was a great exercise in cohesive design, something that hasn’t been replicated for quite some time. It is still the star of music videos and films, but also social media due to the now iconic design.
“The [Beetle] means the simplicity of the past, when things were innocent and accessible and fun”, said Thomas. “That’s really what the Beetle represented.”
With plenty still around as they were quite well made and rust resistant it might be a good time to get one.
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