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Text_Georgia Lewis Illustration_Jamiesneddon.co.uk
 Volkswagen Beetle
The VW Beetle of the 1960s was a simple car beloved by students and hippies. While this year’s version takes some cues from its predecessors – the ultra-curvy and shoehorn-shaped fenders, the round headlights and the dashboard with three dials – it lacks the spirit of the original.
I’m stuck in traffic at Deira’s clock tower – another triumph of iconic mid-60s design – when it occurs to me that, despite the handy vase in the dashboard that’s crying out to have a flower put in it, there can’t be many hippies who have US$20,000 to spend on a car.
Before the arrival of flower power, the Beetle was best known for being the German army’s staff car during World War II; hardly good PR, yet the Beetle enjoyed an unlikely revival as hippies looked for a cheap and funky way of travelling from protests to sit-ins. Around this time, a series of irksome comedy films was made starring Herbie, the Beetle with a mind of its own.
In terms of cuteness, these cars still deliver – the metallic green one I drove drew plenty of admiring stares. But the 1.6L engine is underpowered, the sports mode on the automatic model screeches rather than thrills, and at high speeds you can barely hear the radio. At least the noisy, rear-mounted engine on the old Beetle had that distinctive putt-putt-putt sound that heralded its arrival from a few blocks away.
As I drove from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, I didn’t have any urge to wear flowers in my hair or go to Woodstock. Instead, I turned up the radio and, determined to see what the car was capable of, drove a clearly uncomfortable Beetle at the sort of high speeds that’d make Herbie weep oil.
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