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Volkswagen, as it slides further into sales bedlam, has decided the best thing to boost its profile in America is a pink Beetle with a hashtag for a name.
I wish I was making this up.
Volkswagen announced production of the #PinkBeetle, hashtag and all, this morning. It wears what Volkswagen calls Fresh Fuchsia Metallic paint. I call it a bright shade of desperation.
Everything else is the same as the typical Beetle nobody buys: a 1.8 TSI engine, six-speed automatic transmission, and the choice of coupe or convertible. Also standard is catastrophic depreciation and an overwhelming sense of dread born from not buying a Golf.
40 Comments on “Because Volkswagen Has Nothing to Sell, This is Happening...”
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Buy one for your Lyft gig and put a pink mustache on it!
Another doom and gloom story about VW on TTAC? What’s new? Actually I think VW has been doing this for close to 30 years when a model is getting to the end of it’s “sell by” date. More power to them I say!
Not just VW. Special paint and trim is something every company does when it’s vehicles are getting long in the tooth.
I had a 2006 Ford Ranger that was a “limited edition” bright yellow color.
I think I remember those, were they called the splash and had red graphics?
The “Splash” actually had a rainbow fade in the graphics most years.
Back when you could have rainbow graphics on your truck and no one batted an eye.
Oh yeah, the #DangerRanger. Who could forget?
yup, please change TTAC to TOAC.
Waaaaa!
Give it a rest.
The fact is, VW royally screwed up, and their sales in North America were already in the tank. Pushing out a silly hashtag name on a pink version of a wildly unpopular car in a desperate attempt to generate interest deserves chiding.
Should TTAC just pretend all is fine and dandy with this joke of a car, VW’s cheating, and their terrible sales so you won’t be offended?
Add my 2008 Bullitt Mustang. But, with no bling and a timeless color it was hard to resist.
I agree, however this method has spawned some pretty cool cars in the past like the 1984 only Jetta GLI, some pretty sweet deluxe Vanagons (carat), the Champagne series, etc . This is just severe dead horse beating a la . I wish the beetle went out with the PT cruiser, I couldn’t believe they did the refresh. VW’s special editions walk a fine line between sublime and ridiculous and this errs toward the latter.
Don’t you know? All these Keyboard Kommandos love to spew negativity but the thing is they would never purchase a new Volkswagen anyway.
You can replace Keyboard Kommandos with Irish-Americans, Giants fans, Trump/Clinton/Sanders/Rod Silva voters or any other demographic because ain’t nobody buying Volkswagens in general in the United States. The only person I know who “willingly” chose a VW had absolutely no credit and the dealer was willing to finagle numbers to get her into a 2.slow Jetta.
Like they did with the two limited edition “Love Bug” editions in 1974, and the “Sun Bug” also in 1974.
The tampon holder is a nice touch.
I’m amazed that they are still selling the retro Beetle almost 20 years after it first went on sale. That’s either impressive or stupid, not quite sure which.
Brett, it is possible for it to be both. VW knows how.
I’ve loved the return of both Beetles as I was brought up in the original (it was blue and had the side turn signal stalks, but Dad can’t find the paperwork to tell me what year it actually was).
I’m also one of those folks who was never in a salary bracket that my cars didn’t have to solve problems and could just exist in wonderful colors and plaid interiors and take one person point-to-point. My cars/trucks have to do double duty, also carrying extra passengers/cargo, handling all-weather, or at least being economical or fast (maybe one day).
The original Beetle my Dad drove to work served in the economy function: it cost almost nothing to fuel and very little to purchase or maintain. This Beetle does neither. It also won’t carry people well, or compare well to an average Focus if the cost of oil turns around.
No one, including me, wants to be stuck making payments on an unsalable car if any of our current crop of global catastrophes hammers the economy. Maybe a rear-drive Polo-based “cheap” Beetle would have raison d’etre?
Semaphores are what they call those VW turn signals.
Thanks! Always thought that was a pretty neat and very German solution.
Semaphores go way, WAY back (but don’t bother googling it as you you get is links to the computer science version).
Sweet jesus, I can’t imagine that even my wife or daughters would be seen in a car that color…Pepto Bismol Pearl. My first wife’s Reflex Yellow Beetle Turbo was bad enough…
My wife is NOT one of the pink people, and wouldn’t be caught dead in a car that color.
She might compromise on a deep purple, but then VW would have to address the fact that a coupe with no cargo space is pretty useless for our lifestyle.
She seems sold on the Tesla Model 3.
Landed her a first husband though, amiright?!
Is it time yet to initiate the Volkswagen #Deathwatch series?
No, because they aren’t dying.
They sure seem to be struggling in the US.
They’re doing fine globally, but I still wouldn’t be surprised to see.them give up on the US. Selling cars that don’t fit the American duty cycle or American tastes suggest they already have given up for the most part.
This is the modern version of the ’55-’56 Dodge LaFemme.
The color matches the most obnoxious shade of pink nail polish available.
VW can expect it to fly off the showroom floors as well as the Harlequin Golf.
You know the Harlequin Golf was just a VW Golf owners’ group pranked by a high school autoshop class?
These will be the 2016 Mary Kay cars. No repaint necessary!
I don’t know, with the 1.8 TSI and a manual, and some mods, you could become quite the stealth street warrior in one of these.
VW is self medicating on pepto-bugs.
While I don’t like this car, I wouldn’t begrudge others who do. Nice to see a variety of rides on the road. /highhorse
This shade reminds me of the original Chrysler / Dodge / Plymouth Neon colour palette when it came out in the late 90’s… A couple colours that i never understood:
Magenta
Electric Blue Pearlcoat
Nitro Yellow – which looks like coughed up phlegm.
My ex wanted a 2003 yellow beetle. I got her one only if she would learn to drive a stick. She agreed. Best $16000 spent. I would drive it once in a while and I promptly put a tampon on the flower holder. We got divorce the next year and she got stuck with it and the payments too. Somehow she couldn’t afford it and it got repoed. Funniest thing about her in that damn car….the headlight popped out while driving on a highway at night….funny as hell!!
Does Jack know that somewhere out there is a lonely but fertile and lighty used hottie who knows how to drive a stick?
Back in the mid seventies, VW sold some Beetles with wild colours. There was Hippy Green, Beat Blue, and I don’t remember the name of the purple one. At the time, there was a local body shop who would order VW black paint from me any time he was painting a Cadillac or Lincoln. He said it was absolutely the best he could find. (That’s getting a bit off topic though.)
Praise the Lord! I can finally get a VW that’s the same color as my denture cream…
Volkswagen used to have an enthusiast following that would buy this car because it is odd and dopey. Those people are likely long gone.
At least this VW gimmick is only one color…
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2013/03/volkswagen-golf-harlequin-vws-strangest-idea/
Barbie beetle?