RE: Volkswagen Beetle R Mooted

[SteveS Cup]

Blim_bug said:

Indeed, there's not many affordable cars that suffer zero depreciation. I could sell it tomorrow for the same amount I paid 5 years ago.

Besides that, it's original, a bit qwerky and goes fairly well. Not to everyone's taste I admit, but it makes me smile every time I tickle the accelerator!

I don't want to name roads but you don't live near Caterham / Whyteleaf do you??? If so, I've aren't it in your drive way and looks brilliant IMO!

I love the old RSI's! I think they do have something special about them. I can't say I'm expecting the R to be in the same league though, I'm quite disappointed with all of VW's R range now though.

[aka_kerrly]

AbarthChris said:

Really? You bought one? wow...

May I ask why? not in an arsey way, just intrigued to know what made you buy it.

Give the guy a break.

It's not everyday you see a Beetle with a 3.2L VR6, 4 wheel drive is it. I believe there are 250 RSIs made and not even 20 in the UK so its a pretty dam exclusive car. The only one i can find for sale at the moment is £18,999. Which when you consider that the car cost £38k new is pretty good return for 10 years worth of depreciation!

It is a shame that the new R doesn't have a haldex system and proper VW motorsport geometry as the tuning potential of the TSFI engine would allow you to build a pretty dam good mini 911

dave

[iain1970]

Moan moan moan. "Flogged to death" etc etc. How?

BMW have just launched ANOTHER M car. With turbos! Will they just leave it alone? How fast does a middle manager need to get to the local pitch and putt? I dare say an estate version will follow to turn that dead horse into Pedigree Chum.

230 horses in a Beetle, from a dealer, can't be bad. Be thankful it isn't like that God awful Honda CR-Z thing pretending to be the equivalent of the Civic Type R.

[nsa]

I quite like it. Was it really £50k new though?

Are there any bad homologation cars? Once the list price is forgotten they all seem to benefit from the halo effect.

Blim_bug said:

Oi, I bought one!

The RSi was built for racing homologation of the Beetle Cup car (VW Cup), this on the other hand just further devalues the VW R brand.

Can't see it selling very well myself...

Now, if they'd used the TT RS V5 lump and 4 wheel drive system on the other hand, they might of had me as a customer.

Sticking to the RSi for now thanks!

Edit to add - the car in the picture is mine!

[AbarthChris]

aka_kerrly said:

Give the guy a break.

It's not everyday you see a Beetle with a 3.2L VR6, 4 wheel drive is it. I believe there are 250 RSIs made and not even 20 in the UK so its a pretty dam exclusive car. The only one i can find for sale at the moment is £18,999. Which when you consider that the car cost £38k new is pretty good return for 10 years worth of depreciation!

It is a shame that the new R doesn't have a haldex system and proper VW motorsport geometry as the tuning potential of the TSFI engine would allow you to build a pretty dam good mini 911

dave

Give him a break? I was asking a question, which he's answered without any animosity, so my question cant have been too bad. Stop being so touchy!

Blim - did you buy yours new or used? What's it actually like to drive?

I actually can't stand the Beetle (each to their own and all that) but I am intrigued by the RSI, cant beat homologation specials! Did the Cup cars run AWD?

[Kong]

I have always had a soft spot for the New Beetle, i don't see why it gets a rough time on here. It's a Golf (which is a petfectly acceptable car) with a retro body. The loads of people on PH love the Fiat 500 yet thats just a Panda.

I also think VW deserve respect for always sticking some pokey engines in these things even if there wasn't an official 'go faster' version. The 20v Turbo in the old New Beetle was massively tunable and you could create a real wolf in sheeps clothing, byebye JCW MINI.

200bhp in the new New Beetle and then the 'R' version to come after that, we really should appreciate the fact they are actually making them.

[aka_kerrly]

AbarthChris said:

aka_kerrly said:

Give the guy a break.

dave

Give him a break? I was asking a question, which he's answered without any animosity, so my question cant have been too bad. Stop being so touchy!

Blim - did you buy yours new or used? What's it actually like to drive?

I actually can't stand the Beetle (each to their own and all that) but I am intrigued by the RSI, cant beat homologation specials! Did the Cup cars run AWD?

It wasn't mean to sound like such an overreaction and at the time I was typing that obvious other replies have been posted. Perhaps I haven't acknowledged your use of the ;-) as much as you wanted in your WOW just WOW comment. Made me think that your asking a guy with a unusual car that you appear to know not a lot about to justify his choice which I find irritating especially coming from people with very mainstream cars

[AbarthChris]

aka_kerrly said:

It wasn't mean to sound like such an overreaction and at the time I was typing that obvious other replies have been posted. Perhaps I haven't acknowledged your use of the ;-) as much as you wanted in your WOW just WOW comment. Made me think that your asking a guy with a unusual car that you appear to know not a lot about to justify his choice which I find irritating especially coming from people with very mainstream cars

I wasnt asking him to justify anything, I was asking what appealed to him about the car. It's a highly expensive (for the base car I mean) niche car, that wasnt very well recieved at the time and hasnt had much press about since. Its a leftfield choice and wondered what sent him left. If you see what I mean.

And the wow comment was a joke aimed at the list price of £50k for a beetle.

[Blim_bug]

AbarthChris said:

Give him a break? I was asking a question, which he's answered without any animosity, so my question cant have been too bad. Stop being so touchy!

Blim - did you buy yours new or used? What's it actually like to drive?

I actually can't stand the Beetle (each to their own and all that) but I am intrigued by the RSI, cant beat homologation specials! Did the Cup cars run AWD?

The cup cars are FWD only, in addition they originally had the 2.8 lump (instead of the 3.2), however most teams seem to be moving towards the R32 3.2 lump nowadays.

As for what's it like to drive? I'd guess pretty much like an R32 (although I've never driven one). It's got the same Haldex four wheel drive system, 3.2 V6 engine and 6 speed box. The weight of the engine makes it prone to understeer, but thats only on the limit. Loads of torque which makes progress fun as well.

I imported my from Germany 2nd hand over 5 years ago. It's been my daily driver ever since!

Edited to add that I didn't take any offense at the comment! You've got to have thick skin to drive this motor :P very much a marmite car!

Edited by Blim_bug on Friday 17th June 12:23

[CapR225]

tyrrell said:

I like that looks better than there first effort

Totally agreed, though I also agree that people who by Beetle's aren't really interested in performance, no doubt they'll sell a couple but not many!!

[TOENHEEL]

I really think this will sell very well. Its a new option to the Mini or Fiat 500.

[va1o]

TOENHEEL said:

I really think this will sell very well. Its a new option to the Mini or Fiat 500.

Well that's the problem, it isn't, as its costing a lot more. Can't see entry level models costing much less than £16k, whereas a new 500 can be had for under £10k and a MINI for under £12k.

[TOENHEEL]

va1o said:

Well that's the problem, it isn't, as its costing a lot more. Can't see entry level models costing much less than £16k, whereas a new 500 can be had for under £10k and a MINI for under £12k.

Yeah but your obviously talking about fiat 500 1.2's and Mini Ones? Surely this will be competetive towards the Mini Cooper S and Abarths etc. Mini's arent particuarly cheap once you add a few options, I paid 17k for a Mini Cooper when they first came out.

[va1o]

TOENHEEL said:

va1o said:

Well that's the problem, it isn't, as its costing a lot more. Can't see entry level models costing much less than £16k, whereas a new 500 can be had for under £10k and a MINI for under £12k.

Yeah but your obviously talking about fiat 500 1.2's and Mini Ones? Surely this will be competetive towards the Mini Cooper S and Abarths etc. Mini's arent particuarly cheap once you add a few options, I paid 17k for a Mini Cooper when they first came out.

Either way the Beetle will cost more! They aren't going to make it cheaper than the Golf given they share the same parts, a 1.2 85PS base model Golf is £16k, a GTI is £25k-ish.

[TOENHEEL]

va1o said:

Either way the Beetle will cost more! They aren't going to make it cheaper than the Golf given they share the same parts, a 1.2 85PS base model Golf is £16k, a GTI is £25k-ish.

Erm..have you seen the price of a well specced cooper s diesel!!!

http://pistonheads.com/sales/2677267.htm

Edited by TOENHEEL on Friday 17th June 14:13

[vintageracer01]

Fuelbrother DC said:

Clarkson is right. A 911 is just a squashed Beetle...

[va1o]

TOENHEEL said:

va1o said:

Either way the Beetle will cost more! They aren't going to make it cheaper than the Golf given they share the same parts, a 1.2 85PS base model Golf is £16k, a GTI is £25k-ish.

Erm..have you seen the price of a well specced cooper s diesel!!!

http://pistonheads.com/sales/2677267.htm

And have you seen the price of a well specced Golf GTD diesel?

Thats not the most expensive either, there was a thread on here a couple of months ago with a link to someone selling a fully loaded GTD for £35k http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Lost soul]

V8 TEJ said:

TheRoadWarrior said:

Doesn't seem like such a great idea- I mean no one bought the last 'hot' beetle.



Given that one of the selling points of the new beetle is that it comes with a lovely flower in the dashboard I very much doubt any of the owners are remotely interested in going fast or spending money on fuel..

An 'R' model will not temp hot hatch or coupe buyers into a car thats about as cool as James May's hair.

Also I think the list price of the Beetle RSi was around £50k (IIRC) so that would have put off a lot of buyers.

Yes it was , a good car by most accounts just way over priced

[TOENHEEL]

Well any car can be specced mentally, cant imagine VW pricing themselves out of the marjet though..if somebody wants to spec a VW for that much fair enough.

[sprinter1050]

Don't know why they couldn't have put the engine from that 200mph Octavia project in it.

That would have been a larf if they wanted to do summat special ???