Fire up the... Volkswagen Beetle 1.4 TSI 160PS Design

ASPIRING hippies looking for bit of a flower power in the new Beetle are going to be dissapointed. Look as hard as you like but this openly retro Veedub doesn't have a vase.

The old Beetle - by which I mean the cutesy hatchback of 1990s vintage, not the clattery rear-engined original - had a slight notoriety because it was the only new car on sale which offered you a vase rather than an ashtray. It's a novelty that's vanished from the latest version, but don't let that put you off. If you really want somewhere to stick your flowers, go to a garden centre.

What it lacks in floral storage systems the new arrival makes up with having something much better; substance to match the groovy, Sixties-inspired styling. While there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the outgoing Beetle it was trying to compete with the MINI and the Fiat 500 with nothing more than a twelve-year-old shape and Golf mechanicals long past their sell by date to call upon; the new one, on the other hand, is genuinely new and an an awful lot better.

By far and away this Beetle's best bit is the interior, which is not only easier to live with than the last one but genuinely stylish too. The body coloured dashboard, the neatly integrated stereo, and the glovebox seemingly inspired by a SMEG fridge are a joy to behold, and has the same chunky, bombproof feel as everything else the enormous VW Group, Europe's biggest car company, makes.

It's no hot hatch to drive but for something that doesn't pretend to be it's a reassuring companion, with handling that's tidy rather than grin-wideningly fun. That said, the 160bhp petrol version I drove pulled more than quickly enough, and settled down to offer nothing more than an ambient hum on longer runs.

 The new Beetle, however, is all about looks and it's here where I genuinely don't know whether it'll thrive or flop. I like it because it's more sophisticated and less cute than the old car - something I'd happily be seen in - but it loses a little impact in the process.

For nineteen grand it's a genuinely good offering. Perhaps one you'll love a little bit less, but definitely one you'll respect a whole lot more.

The VW Beetle: it's time for another revival

STONEHENGE. The Royal Family. Patrick Moore. All things which, like Volkswagen's reinvented Beetle, have seemingly been around since the dawn of time.

You'd forgotten Volkswagen still makes the Beetle, hadn't you? It arrived, in 1998, amid a fanfare of nostalgia, brouhaha and people poised with their flower stickers, desperate to get a bit of the Sixties back, but this time without the acid trip.

With cute, retro looks melded to a modern Golf chassis, it was brilliant. For about five minutes. Then the new MINI came along and suddenly it was old hat. Yet Volkswagen carried on making it and - with technology that the Golf ditched two generations ago - it's now looking about as sophisticated as the Peoples' Car that inspired it.

The problem with the Beetle is that it's a retro car, which means that it'll only ever be fashionable when the era it's trying to evoke is also in fashion, which meant that it was only ever cool for that brief bit of the Nineties when it was first launched. Remember the Chrysler PT Cruiser? The one that looked like a hot rod? Of course you don't, because once the Fifties novelty wore off everyone realised they could buy a roomier and much more practical Renault Scenic for less. The UK just didn't get it.

The only retro cars which have actually pulled off the trick are the MINI and the Fiat 500, but they've managed by being brilliant beneath the skin, and cars that are cheap, well made and good fun to drive NEVER go out of fashion. That's the challenge Volkswagen have got with their long overdue replacement for the Beetle, because otherwise it'll end up having to wait for the Sixties to get groovy again.

Will Volkswagen get it right this time round? Well, you'll have to wait until April 18 to find out, although getting the Black Eyed Peas, best known for mashing old pop records up with the sound of car alarms going off, to promote it probably isn't the best start.

Although for the record I think the company's reviving the wrong hit from its back catalogue a second time round. Where's the reinvented Volkswagen campervan?

True grit, German style

BLIZZARDS giving Britain's roads a battering is snow joke but it seems our continental neighbours have been having the last laugh throughout the big freeze.

I've just got back from a New Year's party in Solingen, near Cologne, and I'm amazed that while our German friends have had to cope with just as much snow as we have, they've just gritted their teeth and got on with life.

That's right, no tabloid-style ROAD CHAOS whatsoever, and not a single story of cancelled buses, councils warning they're running low on supplies, or multiple car pile-ups on the autobahns. In fact, mein host just got into his BMW, backed out onto a stunningly snow-free road, and floored it. No drama whatsoever.

I love the German attitude to motoring, which dictates that every motorway, regional route and town thorougfare must be kept completely spotless at all times, even if it's minus 16 outside and snowing the sort of snow which causes politicians to go all frosty. I'd be lying if I said every Wolfgang and his dog were out powersliding Porsche Caymans, but at least people were still getting to work.

Even the pavements got the gritting treatment; it seems an alien idea in Britain but if Uwe slips on snow outside your house, he can call in the lawyers and have you sued. So it's a second nature to buy your own grit, keep it handy when things get icy, and keep the German equivalent of Claims Direct at bay.

I've been lucky enough not to get behind the wheel of anything during the worst of the winter weather but I know if I did, I'd rather be piloting something on roads that haven't been turned into ice rinks. Even if it's a rear wheel drive executive express that's doing a completely legal 120mph.

Given it was New Year's I was expecting a little too much Currywurst and continental ale but the real holiday was from the chaos a bit of snow had plunged panicky Brits into.

I don't think it's a case of there being wildly political failings over here, but that over there they just know more about coping when things get slippy. They did give us the Audi Quattro, after all.