2013 Volkswagen Beetle 2.5L 70's Edition Convertible review

The 2013 Volkswagen Beetle 2.5L 70's Edition Convertible is loud and a little slow. 

The Beetle is one of those cars that I would never buy, but I'm glad Volkswagen is making it. Sort of like the Nissan Cube. It's not for me.

Styling aside, it's pretty noisy with the convertible top letting in a lot of road and wind noise, which was made more painful by the fact that I had to listen to my phone through the phone speakers because there's no USB port. I suppose that's how they did it in the '70s. So where the heck is my eight-track!?

2013 Volkswagen Beetle TDI review

This 2013 Volkswagen Beetle TDI is possibly the most fun I've had in a Beetle ever. And I never liked these things, either. 

Our Beetle stickered in at $26,990, with most of the goodies included in the base price

It's all about torque. This diesel has a lot of it and it's a small car. You need to get into that turbo range, and I think that's why I stalled it. But once you get going, it's quick. Not, GTI quick, but quick in the mid-rev ranges, when you get up high in the tach, it loses steam. But that's diesel.

The wheel was a bit skinny for my hands. I felt like I should be driving it with two fingers. On the plus side, it is a VW, so it handles better than many of the cars out there. The shifter action was sufficient, nice and solid, with no flex and no notchiness.