Along with replacing the dreadful 2.0slow with the 'pretty good' 2.5L, it's too bad that VW also didn't upgrade (the NB) to the newer MKV suspension. An upgraded interior also would have been welcome with more soft touch surfaces.
For these two reasons alone (antiquated suspension and hard plastic-laden interior), I went for a MKV Jetta instead of getting another New Beetle. Granted, I still stayed in the 'VW family', but the current New Beetle is starting to get a little dated to my mind and I would have a tough time recommending it to anyone over a MKV Rabbit or Jetta.
I'm certain that this type of comment has been posted before - but as one of the first New Beetle buyers in the USA - I wish VW would have upgraded the New Beetle with the entire suite of MKV related improvements. A New Beetle with the 2.0T, DSG transmission, GTI interior, and GTI suspension would have been especially appealing. With the somewhat poor sales of the previous gen Turbo S, I suspect that VW didn't think that the limited sales volume of a new Turbo S style Beetle would be able to justify the development cost. But many of us didn't go for the old Turbo S Beetle because of the lack of an automatic transmission. The availability of the DSG, mitigates that previous limitation.
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