Volkswagen Beetle Cabriolet: a closer look

It’s a convertible Herbie!

Right, that’ll do.

This, dear TopGear.com reader, is just the third production Volkswagen Beetle Cabriolet ever made. Which is pretty remarkable when you remember the Beetle name has been echoing around Volkswagen since 1949.

Volkswagen Beetle Cabriolet styling: that face is the point

Look at its face!

Go on, take it in, because a car like this lives and dies on its appearance - and that front end accounts for at least 90 per cent of the attraction. Luckily, the third-generation Beetle hatchback arrived with a sportier, lower, less cartoonish stance, and that gives the convertible a genuine shot at looking right. To us, it’s actually rather presentable. We just wouldn’t normally admit it out loud. Oh. Too late.

If you want more, go and look up additional pictures of the new Volkswagen Beetle Cabriolet.

Retro appeal and special editions: ‘50s’, ‘60s’ and ‘70s’

It’s still a pastiche though, isn’t it?

Absolutely. Volkswagen is more than happy to lean on the Beetle’s heritage, so this Cabrio is offered in three nostalgia-heavy trim levels aimed at tugging those ageing heart strings and summoning up its former glory. Your choices are the ‘50s’, ‘60s’ or ‘70s’ special editions.

The ‘50s’ version comes in monochrome black with smart wheels and plenty of chrome detailing. The ‘60s’ is offered in denim blue and candy white. And the ‘70s’ model gets a beige roof and a beige cabin. Beige.

On the road, inside, and what it costs

But I’m deeply passionate about lift-off oversteer and nudging apexes!

In that case, we’d recommend you quietly put the driving gloves back in the drawer. It’s a perfectly decent thing for pottering and cruising, but it won’t pull you into long, nerdy debates about turn-in, balance and exit speed.

On smooth tarmac - the sort we don’t tend to enjoy in the UK - it’s fairly satisfying to hustle along. Even so, the steering feels a touch too light, and while it does have multi-link rear suspension, the ride becomes irritating once the surface gets more broken up. It will still get you from A to B without fuss - particularly with the rather tasty 2.0-litre, 200bhp TSI engine - just not with much polish.

Ah. Driving gloves burned! Should I get my sun hat and Ray Bans out instead?

If you fancy it, yes - because realistically, if you’re shopping for a car like this, you’ve probably decided already.

Inside, it’s a familiar mix of modern Volkswagen and retro touches, and there’s enough room for four. The slightly strange bit is the trio of gauges perched on top of the dashboard (turbo pressure, stopwatch and oil temperature), which feels a little out of place. The hood itself drops in just 9.5 seconds and raises again in 11, and you can do both at speeds up to 31mph. With the roof up, the three-layer fabric does a good job of keeping things insulated, too.

Again, if you want to see more, search out more pictures of the new Volkswagen Beetle Cabriolet.

That’s quite enough road-testery nonsense: give me prices and some facts I can repeat on Internets!

The range kicks off with the 1.2-litre TSI - a keen, lively little engine - from £18,150, which is £3,000 less than a Golf Cabrio.

At the top end, the ‘60s’ edition 2.0-litre diesel, with 135bhp and a six-speed DSG gearbox, comes in at £28,095.

And for trivia you can deploy at will: more than 330,000 original Beetle Cabriolets were produced between 1949 and 1980. Plus, over 230,000 of you - and yes, you know who you are - bought the second-generation New Beetle Cabriolet. Evidently, if you like it, you like it.