Thursday, January 20, 2011

Oh, Okay. You Can Have Your Bus Back...

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I can't help agreeing with whoever posted on the story's page that the insurer missed a golden opportunity, here. The VO guy says, "In fairness, she did get paid for it..." Yeah, in the '80s. What did she have to pay to buy it back? The going price of something like that is ten times (or more) what it was thirty years ago. And she says she sent money to the guy in Germany. I'd say she's been robbed twice, but I'll admit it just may be worth that to have a family member back...

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Wolfsburg Changes It Up Again

Supposedly, the changes VW is making to the 2011 New Beetle (see: Pseudo Beetle) are going to make the beast a "manlier" car. No more does Wolfsburg want their asphalt bubble to come across as wheels for chicks. Apparently, there's no longer enough money in making "cute" cars. They've chopped the roof and widened the stance, added creases and squared the tail lights; and it looks like they've taken a page out of Porsche's book (okay, who can blame them?) and integrated the exhaust into the back bumper. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't look bad. It's just that it's still just a rounded Golf (albeit a little less rounded). And the engine is still in the wrong darn place. I am not ashamed to say that I much prefer my air cooled Beetle to anything spewing out of Wolfsburg these days.

You can, of course, judge for yourself. Examiner.com has posted a few photos for those non-purists who want to ogle. Heck, even I took a look purely out of morbid curiosity. It looks like a squared-up, flattened New Beetle. If that's your bag, have at. I understand they may even take another page out of Porsche's book and put a boxer engine in the back in the near future. At least then, you could almost call it a Bug.