Volkswagen's good vibrations

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

This is how Volkswagen's head office in Germany will divvy up annual production of 50,000 convertible Beetles.

The car is being built on the hardtop assembly line at VW's Puebla plant, in Mexico.

About 30,000 will go to the crucial American market and the balance will end up all over the world.

VW expects the rag-top to boost overall Beetle sales in America to about 80,000 a year, or where sales were in its first two years on the US market, in 1999 and 2000.

It expects it to kickstart sales in other markets, too. One will be Britain where, despite record wet winters, sales of convertibles are increasing.

Another market will be New Zealand, where hardtop Beetle sales have averaged around 400 a year since its millennium launch.

The new Beetle soft-top was always going to be built, just as the original was a couple of years after British occupying forces helped to get the VW factory up and running after World War II.

But VW needed guarantees that the new convertible would sell. The engineering investment wasn't overly significant, because the car is based on the Audi TT platform.

What concerned VW was demand. Would bringing a soft-top on to the market so soon after the hardtop be a mistake?

The company looked at the history of the convertible and found that the original created a new market, albeit much smaller.

Coachbuilder Karmann Ghia styled the first soft-top Beetle in 1948, soon after export markets for the hardtop were opening up.

Until 1980, VW built 330,000 Beetle cabriolets, almost all bodied by Karmann Ghia and another company called Hebmuller.

The best book on the history of the open-top is called, not surprisingly, Volkswagen Beetle Cabriolet, by Malcolm Bobbitt. It is printed in Britain by Veloce Publishing and costs £15.99, or about $45.

"Today, these convertible Beetles are much sought after as practical, durable and attractive classics," Bobbitt writes. "The quality of their engineering has ensured a high survival rate."

VW went to Karmann to help to shape the new model. It wanted the roofline of the soft-top to follow that of the hardtop, to keep in step with the car's interior dimensions.

What was sacrificed was boot space - the convertible's power-operated hood assembly swallows up a sizeable chunk of the luggage area.

The rear seat had to be redesigned, in part to accommodate the folding hood and heated-glass rear window.

The open soft-top rests on the area of the imaginary C-pillar, but thanks to a Z-folding system, the new soft top lies considerably lower than on the original.

A portable wind deflector keeps passengers' hair in place and when not in use is folded and stored in the boot.

The car comes with a range of detail changes necessary for a convertible which also provide increased convenience for drivers and passengers.

For example, there are no conventional door-lock buttons. They have been replaced by LEDs and with the roof open and locks activated, the doors cannot be opened from the outside.

The centre armrest includes a lockable compartment and as open-top cars create special security challenges, the interior features a radar-monitored anti-theft alarm.

The top is released by a handle just above the rearview mirror and powered by a switch on the console. A temperature gauge on the windscreen turns into an orange indicator light until the operation is completed.

The convertible offers several VW firsts, including an automatic rollbar and a six-speed automatic gearbox with manual Tiptronic mode.

The rollbar consists of spring-loaded headrests that pop up and lock into place when sensors anticipate the car is about to end up on its ear.

VW says its engineers paid extra attention to making the convertible as vibration-free as possible. The engine and transmission were designed to absorb vibration, it says, and stabilisers were added to reinforce the steering column, again to prevent vibration.

The engine in the convertible is a 2-litre four-cylinder unit, similar to that under the bonnet of the hardtop.

The new model comes with the choice of two gearboxes and several colours.

The five-speed manual costs $47,990, the six-speed Tiptronic $49,990.