The Beetle: car or cult?
04/14/2020
It runs and runs and runs and runs ... and that's still the case. The car has been sitting in its garage for the last few months, is then spontaneously taken out into the sun and, after 50 years, runs as if it had just rolled off the production line brand new. Everything works exactly as it did back then. No rattling, no jerking and no twitching.
The engine with its unmistakable sound awakens the past in me. As a child, I often slept lying on the back seat and this typical sound still has the same soporific effect on me as a TV movie.
The only thing I look for in vain is comfort. The wafer-thin steering wheel is barely tactile, there is a blinker lever, a button for the lights and another for the windshield wiper, and that's it. That's all there is to it, apart from the heating controls between the seats. Or is there? Yes, look, it actually still has a sunroof! With so few operating options, there's no need for instructions: just get in and drive off.
Despite the pleasant temperature outside, it still feels a little chilly in the cabin at first, the lever with the red button next to the handbrake is pulled, but nothing happens. Even when the outside temperature gets warmer and the red lever is forgotten in the pulled position, there is no noticeable warmth. Even back then, the heating was the Achilles heel of the Beetle. The gearbox shifts like butter with the stationary clutch pedal - à la Porsche 911 - and the comfortable cruising speed is between 80 and 100 km/h.
While they were still crawling wildly through streets and alleys around 40 years ago, they have become rare today. It's been a long time since young people, whether in a van or a pimped-up C-Class, honked their horns, waved and gave me the thumbs up when I was in the car. The first passer-by I think: It's only a Beetle. The second: Of course, it's a Beetle and the third: Look what a really cool Beetle I'm driving.
The VWBeetle is and remains a car without any comfort, but with much more cult than its trunk can hold. So my conclusion is: the Beetle is a car and, what's more, a real cult car, forever amen!
