Red 2012 with Sunroof

[Opelmania]

My friend happened to stop by yesterday on his way to TN to visit the VW plant. VW gave him and his friend a 2012 Beetle 2.5 to drive there and to write articles on the car and the plant. I hadn't noticed until looking at the pics I took that this Beetle has a sunroof! This is a press car from VW and the production date was in May. Here are a couple of pics.

[iluvmyVersa08]

I was pricing out the beetles on the VW Canada website, and you can add a sunroof for an additional cost (between $1-$2K). Looks good with the glass roof ...

[Opelmania]

I agree that they look good with the glass roof Ash! I heard they had problems with them though and you can't get them with one yet. That's why I posted. My friend knows of the issue with the panels hitting the hatch, so I'm sure he'll see if this one has that problem. I would guess that it does hit because of the early production date.

[2004NBTURBOS]

Thats the fist 2012 I have seen that has a good looking stance. Most of the others sit like 4x4's. Did ya get any interior pic Joel?

[pinkbeetle2000]

i drove one of them a few days after my dealer recieved one

[digitalputty]

Now I want one with a sun roof. GAH!

[dnyed]

That is the car I am holding out for! But, it will have a Clean Diesel TDI engine under the hood.

[Opelmania]

Originally Posted by 2004NBTURBOS

Thats the fist 2012 I have seen that has a good looking stance. Most of the others sit like 4x4's. Did ya get any interior pic Joel?

You're right about the stance, Gene, but I'm pretty sure they had the back loaded up pretty well for their trip so that might have helped. Can't wait to see someone lower one. No pics of the interior on this one. They just made a quick stop so I could see the red. It had the Fender system and the Nav screen. Love the painted red dash too! Big surprise there, huh? I haven't heard from him yet about their trip, but I think they might be heading back today.

[Tommy]

In Belgium, the importer of VW has decided to remove the panoramic sunroof from the options list. Because too many pick them, the waiting time to get a beetle delivered with such a roof is almost a year. Everyone who has ordered one will get his sunroof, but new orders will not be possible with the sunroof.

[Pushing Fifty]

The waiting lists are long here in the States, too, and what has resulted are thus far dismal sales numbers for a brand new model. Base 2.5s without sunroofs seem to be sitting on lots unsold. I test-drove a Candy White 2.5 Base with auto that included a first aid kit as the only extra option back in November, and that very same car is still sitting at my dealership!

I would think that at least 50% of potential Beetle buyers wouldn't care if it had a sunroof or not. Don't get me wrong. It looks very cool, and it would be awful if VW put out Beetles with sunroofs that don't work properly just to raise sales numbers. Remember the power window and coilpack problems of the early 2000s? This almost destroyed VW's reputation for reliability and sales dropped about 65-70% until these issues were fixed.

However, and with that said, the Beetle's low sales thus far really bother me, and to the point where I have often questioned whether this model will end up being a flop. I've received my fair share of criticism for expressing these views, but it nevertheless appears that the latest Bugs are not as popular as the NBs of 98-10. I've made noises about trading my 2000 NB in for an older Passat to use for VW shows because Passats (along with Jettas) are by far the most sought-after Volkswagens here in the States. Call me strange, but I want a VW that I know will be around for decades to come. For example, I could never be comfortable owning a Corrado, Fox, or Karmann Ghia, because they are long discontinued and therefore as obsolete as a Packard. I would have never even bought a 69 Beetle if not for the fact that VW decided to bring the model back, albeit in a new form, in 1998. ( As it turns out, I got rid of it 3 years ago because it kept crapping out on me).

It's an ongoing dilemma for me because I grew up with Beetles back in the 60s and am very emotionally attached to the Bug in any form. The reason I no longer own a classic air-cooled Beetle is because I have no mechanical skills. I also prefer factory stock VWs for shows, and the water-cooled Beetle community embraces this mindset far better than all water-cooled events that expect Jettas, Golfs, GTIs, Passats, etc, to be modded to the point that they're not even recognizable as VWs. Thus, the water-cooled Beetle people are a perfect fit for me. For that reason, I still hold hope that the sales of the latest Bug will turn around.

The question is, how long will I wait? In the meantime, my 2000 NB depreciates about $100 in trade-in value each month as I wait to see better 2012 Beetle sales numbers. What do sales of the 2012 have to do with keeping my NB? Answer: the entire future of the water-cooled Beetle community is at stake here, and as much as I love my NB, I don't want to be stuck with an older version of a car that has failed to appeal to the VW crowd. The NBs of 98-10 will wear out in time, and if those owners don't replace them with 2012+ models, and if only a third of freshly-initiated people are buying 2012+s as there were that bought 98-10 models, the water-cooled Beetle community will become extinct. Thus, for those who keep telling me that 2012 sales will jump after the production issues are resolved, I hope they're right and that I was just unjustifiably paranoid. Then I could enter a rare Base Beetle into shows!