Review and photos by Simon Hill
 2013 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible. Click image to enlarge |
Volkswagen’s Beetle Convertible has always had its share of loyal fans, and they’ve arrived in the showrooms with a pretty simple list of requirements: They want a Beetle, with its unmistakably iconic profile, they want it to be a convertible, and they want it to drive like a Volkswagen.
So far so good, and the previous-generation ‘New’ Beetle Convertible met these requirements just fine. Except it lacked one important quality that cost it nearly half its potential customers before they even opened the door: masculine appeal.
For the current Beetle Convertible, the mandate was therefore simple: Be like the New Beetle Convertible, but man it up a little.
Has it succeeded? I’d say yes. It looks iconic like a Beetle should, but in a more athletic and masculine way (it’s still cute mind you, just not terminally cute). It’s convertible, sure enough, and now with a fully automatic top so you no longer need to manually latch or unlatch the roof like you did with the previous car (the roof can be lowered or raised in about 10 seconds flat, while driving at speeds up to 50 km/h). And it drives like a Volkswagen, in a pleasant but almost entirely unremarkable way. It should sell like hotcakes.
 2013 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible. Click image to enlarge |
I tested a Tornado Red Highline model for a week, and was blessed with warm sunshine almost every day. This allowed me to fully embrace the car’s convertible appeal and enjoy what Volkswagen teasingly calls its “class leading headroom.” In reality, that statement is likely true whether you have the top up or down, because while the latest Beetle is somewhat squashed down compared to its predecessor, its curved roofline still offers excellent interior headroom.
Exterior visibility with the top up isn’t quite so good – the stout A pillars, while entirely necessary for a convertible, are a bit obstructive, and the cloth top leaves a big blind spot in the back where the D pillar would be. The simple solution to this, of course, is to lower the top, which earns you panoramic rearward visibility. Problem solved.
There’s no problem with the car’s body structure, which is admirably stiff and solid for a convertible, with almost no discernible cowl shake at all whether the roof was up or down. As a result of this solid structure, the car’s handling is every bit as good as the Beetle coupe, which is to say that it’s buttoned down yet comfortable, responsive, and decently grippy (it should be noted that the Convertible gets the same independent multilink rear suspension as the Turbo Beetle, rather than the Jetta-based torsion beam setup in the garden-variety Beetle coupes).
 2013 Volkswagen Beetle Convertible. Click image to enlarge |
Under the hood, all 2013 Beetle Convertibles get Volkswagen’s proven 2.5L five-cylinder engine, good for 170 hp and 177 lb-ft of torque (a Turbo Beetle Convertible is said to be coming for 2014). The 2.5L engine offers a reasonable blend of performance (0-100 km/h takes about 7.5 seconds) and fuel economy (city/highway ratings are 9.9/7.3 L/100 km with the standard-issue six-speed automatic transmission – not exactly stellar, but not likely to send you to the poorhouse either). My real-world results ended up including a lot of short hops and stop-and-go driving in traffic so I was never quite able to crack the 10 L/100 km mark, and at one point I saw readings as bad as (cough, cough) 14.6 L/100 km. But that’s after I’d been shuffling the car around taking photos, so it doesn’t really mean much.
I was disappointed but not particularly surprised to find that a manual transmission isn’t available with the Beetle Convertible. The transmission does offer Sport and Tiptronic modes with manual shifting available via the console-mounted gear lever should one be so inclined.
