It’s hard for me to wrap my head around, but my kid is now somehow 14 years old. How did this happen? The passage of – what, time? Is that how this works? Is that why he’s taller than me now? My phone keeps showing me pictures of him from years that I have to remind myself aren’t the present, like 2021 or 2018 or whatever, all of which just feel like yesterday and there he is in those pictures, all kid-like and tiny, next to me, a me wearing the same damn clothes I just threw in the hamper yesterday, and then I see that lanky tube of a teenager clomping around my house and realize holy crap, that’s my kid. A kid who will be driving in two years.
As you can imagine, the First Car decision is a big one for me, being such a hopeless gearhead as I am. One’s first car is, I think, a Big Deal in life, and of course I have all sorts of ideas about what makes a good first car. My own first car was a $600 1968 VW Beetle, the color of Wrigley’s gum or maybe a long-unwashed prosthetic leg. I loved that thing. My parents were not particularly interested in buying me a car, and we had none to hand down, so I worked my ass off at my job at the Byte Shop to save up the money, getting the job when I was 15 (which required special paperwork) so I’d be ready to buy the car the nanosecond I turned 16.
I’m happy to buy my kid his first car, and I want it to be one he actually wants. My kid, Otto, used to be very into cars, and I tried to expose him to all sorts of good weird car goodness. Like this:
I think because of the weird shit I exposed him to, Otto ended up with some happily perverse car tastes. For example, for a while, his favorite car was a Denzel. One of these:
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Of course, the odds of me buying him a Denzel are about on par with me buying him a winged sasquatch to travel around on, so that’s a non-starter. And now he’s much less into cars than he was as a younger kid, perhaps because of how hard he and I were into cars for so long. But I know he still likes cars, and has his own car preferences,
When it comes to finding out what he wants for a first car, it’s been interesting. For a while he wanted a PT Cruiser, which I think would be a decent choice for a charmingly weird kid in 2026 to drive, but just the other day, he expressed a new first-car choice: a Volkswagen New Beetle. In green.
I was happy to hear this, because I’ve always liked the New Beetles, even if I know they’re a sort of costume on a Golf and plagued with all the late ’90s/early 2000s VW issues, of which there are, sadly, many. But I still like them. And part of me likes the idea that both dad and kid will have a kind of Beetle as a first car.
Otto’s reasons for wanting one, though, had nothing to do with any of that, and are actually a lot more interesting. He wants one because he says they are “Frutiger Aero.”
Now, I suspect that many of you are by now decanting more brandy into your snifters and thoughtfully sloshing it around as you wonder, aloud, “the fuck is Frutiger Aero?” And that’s a great question. Frutiger Aero is an aesthetic, one that started around 2001 or so and peaked in the mid to late 2000s. It’s the colorful, glossy sort of look that interfaces like the “Aqua” look Mac OS X started with, and the Windows Aero visual theme.
It’s all of those iMac-inspired semi-transparent candy-colored plastic computers and microwaves and bubbles and glossy lozenges and waves of crystal-blue water and tropical fish and all of that glossy crap you remember from the early part of the century. I remember when this look first hit the scene, and I remember being delighted. It was so optimistic and high-tech but also strangely “natural” in a sort of idealized, artificial way. It was a high-tech future that, for a change, wasn’t all gleaming steel and silver and smooth lines and massive metal monoliths. It was actually fun.
I think I even had one of those iMac-like microwaves, in glossy, transparent blue.
Oh, and if you’re curious, the name comes from Adrian Frutiger, who designed fonts that were commonly used with this look.
From the very beginning, the New Beetle was part of this aesthetic movement; in fact, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, talked about the New Beetle in a well-known article about the iMac. Here’s that Newsweek article about Steve Jobs and the introduction of the iMac, which starts with Steve Jobs seeing a New Beetle:
“Look at That!” says Steve Jobs he pulls his Mercedes into a parking space. He’s pointing at a new Volkswagen Beetle, and as soon as he parks, he dashes over, circling the shiny black Bug, taking the measure of a well-publicized update of once great product design. “They got it right,” he concludes.
Steve Jobs is about as good a spokesperson for Frutiger Aero as you can get, really. The New Beetle was absolutely as much a product of its time as the original was a product of 1930s advanced automotive design. And it’s even weirder that the new one is an update of that 1930s one, but if we keep going down that road our brains will start to hurt.
Anyway, look how close, aesthetically and conceptually, the advertising was for the New Beetle and the iMac:
So, if Otto is into Frutiger Aero, it absolutely makes sense he’d want a New Beetle. And why he’s into Frutiger Aero is interesting, because while to me, that period just feels kind of dated, to him it’s the exciting time just before he was actually born and into his youth. When I was growing up, this period would have been late ’60s and early ’70s design, and I was a sucker for that, too.
To this day, I think 1960s-era car design is my favorite, and I have a fondness for things like avocado-colored appliances and conversation pits and 1970s computers and all other sorts of bullshit that my parents likely couldn’t wait to be rid of. Otto is just doing the same thing, just with a different set of garish colors and absurd design cues.
I’m happy to indulge this. If he has an outdated favorite look, who am I to tell him no? Besides, New Beetles are pretty cheap, and they’re not the same kind of deathtraps that the Beetle I grew up with was; the IIHS gave these a “good” overall rating:
Now, the early 2000s VW reliability stuff is a bigger issue, but I think the basic 1.8-liter ones and even the 1.8 turbos weren’t too bad, and for all the other stuff that fails, well, that’s a chance for him to learn something about cars. Hell, I spent lots of my early driving years rolling under my Beetle with a screwdriver to bridge the solenoid terminals to get it started and all that kind of thing, and I’m pretty sure it either built whatever “character” is or at least got me used to things going wrong, which is a valuable life skill, right?
Whatever. It’s the Frutigerest, Aeroist of cars, and if that’s what he’s into, then, well, that’s a dream I think we could make happen. I have two years to find a good one!
My younger sister is 12, and she’s obsessed with Beetles too. I hope that she’s able to get one, but who knows how many will be left in good condition in 4 years.
My 16 year old asked for a manual New Beetle for her first car last year (OK we told her she had to learn on a manual). She was obsessed. We couldn’t find one that was in good shape, though. Apparently those who had manuals drove them hard.
My brother still has New Beetle that his ex-wife dumped on him after the divorce. She was exasperately frustrated with its frequent technical issues and wanted to spite him.
He replaced lot of “decontented-for-the-US-market” parts with ones made in Germany for German market. That solved 99.95% of mechanical and technical issues that plagued New Beetle. His is so reliable and troublefree that he still drives it every day to his work to this day.
So, if Otto wants New Beetle, be sure to do the same that my brother did. This way, you wouldn’t have to be Otto’s own Triple A every time his New Beetle ails on the side of the road…
I was expecting “Frutiger Aero” to be along the lines of “skibidi toilet”, but I was pleased when I read the explanation! I was a little older than Otto when the original iMac was released. I had a second generation one, in Ruby, which I absolutely loved. I have very fond memories of that aesthetic, probably for the exact reasons outlined above. I feel like I’m not old enough to experience that particular fashion coming around for a second time, but now I must come to terms with the fact that I am. But that’s cool. I’ll be here for it! Otto is lucky to have a dad who allows him to embrace the weird.
When one kid had some difficulty figuring out the whole driving thing, turned out it was just a bit overwhelming. Too much happening all the time to pay attention to it all. Once I relayed the video gaming tactic of threat awareness, the kid finally figured it out. Make the quick assessment of what isn’t a threat, and pay attention only to the threats.
As you may remember Torch, my daughter is about the same age as Otto. She’s been thinking a lot about this topic, too. She hasn’t mentioned the New Beetle, but she does like the Golf, and she’s pretty partial to a Fiat 500 like her mom’s been driving since she was 4. Miatas are also part of the conversation, but I’ve said it has to be at least an NC for safety reasons.
You read that right: Despite me being me, and driving her around in ’80s deathtraps on a regular basis, I’ve told her she can’t have a Rad-era tin can for her first car.
Torch, please tell me you don’t currently have avocado color appliances and mauve shag toilet seat covers and whatnot in your house. There is a reason your folks wanted to ditch those things pronto.
Only in the RV…
Avoid examples with automatic transmission. The 01M 4 speed automatic on the early cars fails early and often, and frequently makes lists of “worst automatic transmissions evar.” Nobody knows how to rebuild them and good used units from a junkyard aren’t available; any used one is just as likely to fail as the one you’re replacing. The 5-speed Tiptronic 09A is better but not by much.
My brother’s ex-wife dumped her New Beetle on him as to spite him after the divorce. He fixed pretty much everything (that his ex-wife deferred too long) as well as replacing several “decontented-for-US-market” parts with ones made in Germany for German market. He said that the car has been so reliable and troublefree, including the automatic gearbox. The car is still his daily drive to this day.
I had an ’01 that I bought for cheap and it worked well as reliable daily transport for five and a half years. I replaced it with a 4Motion Tiguan. (talk about a car that was decontented for the US market. 🙁 )
I was born in the early ’80s; my nostalgia-inducing aesthetics come from the Memphis Group. I wanted my first car to be a magenta Geo Tracker (hard top, because someone had slashed the soft top on the PE teacher’s Tracker, and that really disturbed me).
The iMac’s were interesting. But I really wanted one of the colorful iBooks of that era. It’s a look I wish would come back for Laptops.
I’ve owned a couple diesel New Beetles from the era. I like driving them. For a taller guy, they afford way more head room than any other vehicle I’ve been in–especially the non-sunroof variety.
They’re lightweight for a compact car from the era (think around 2700-2800 lbs). The trunk space isn’t very practical, but for a car for a single person to get around with, they’re great.
I would try finding one with a “color concept” interior, which will have more of the exterior color reflected in the interior as well. Plus, they’re just much better, more supportive seats with better bolsters and adjustable lumbar plus the door panels hold up a lot better. I’ve seen a few green color concept versions.
My girlfriend and I managed to find a blue color concept car in Pick n Pull and at least got the seats, the dash grab handle (wrapped in matching blue leather) and the center console, which is black but with a blue leather armrest on top.
Once you understand the common issues from VWs of the era and figure out how to remove the wiper cowl on the New Beetle for better access to under hood items, they aren’t terrible cars to work on. The basic parts of the engines and manual transmissions are very reliable. It’s just some of the plasticky crap that bolts to them that isn’t so great. The long blocks themselves are generally very reliable, though. Cast iron engine blocks, they are all timing belt engines, so just read up on what the recommended change interval is and stick to it (just assume every 100,000 miles, easy enough to remember).
Mk4 VW era cars are my favorite to buy for cheap and fix up. They’re getting quite old now, so some of the parts are getting hard to come by, but their common issues are well-known and usually not horrible to fix, and it’s really the last generation before things got *too* computerized plus before gas direct injected problems… and before they started using plastic intake manifolds.
1.8Ts probably appear to be the most complex with the crazy crankcase vent system and multitude of check valves in the somewhat intricate vacuum system. The 8 valve 2.0L is a pretty stone simple, reliable engine, as is the ALH code 1.9L TDI diesel (my personal favorite, of course). The diesels can be a lot of fun with a couple performance upgrades. Bigger injectors and a tune and they’re actually quite quick.
“For a taller guy, they afford way more head room than any other vehicle…”
I absolutely agree! My brother’s ex-wife dumped her “problem child” New Beetle on him just to spite him after the divorce. He fixed lot of things (she deferred the maintenance too long) and replaced many “decontent-for-the-US-market” parts with ones made in Germany for German market.
That solved 99.95% of mechanical and technical issues that plagued New Beetle. Now, his New Beetle is so reliable and troublefree that he still drives it to this day after twenty years. The body has no rust despite Colorado winters, and the paint is still gleaming.
The only quality issue I had with my New Beetle was the identical passenger window switch and door lock switch were switched. So the dealer switched the switches back under warranty.
I’m taking a deep breath of this nostalgia. Great article, and some great parenting.
Whatever he winds up driving, I highly recommend the Tire Rack Street Survival class once he gets at least his permit. Took my daughter to that and it really seemed to up her confidence behind the wheel while also introducing her to the limits of her car in a safe, controlled environment. Well worth the $100 or whatever it cost now.
Never heard of this! I have 2 teenage siblings and think this might be an awesome experience for them!
My girlfriend’s first car that she had a choice in purchasing was a 2009 Blush Edition New Beetle. It had white-gold paint, a bordeaux red convertible top, and red leather seats. Fun car to scoot around in college but eventually the electrical quirks got to it.
The trunk button stopped working but had no exterior handle, so we had to pull the emergency handle through the rear seat pass-through. The real killer was turning on the headlights would turn off the brake lights, so night driving was effectively dangerous. We wanted to fix it, but VW’s German wisdom meant the parts on this specific model were exclusive to only a couple years of production and replacements were nowhere.
Looks like earlier models had the cool swing out badge trunk handle, I have an irrational love for compartments and lids hidden behind emblems, I wonder if it was retrofittable to the 2009. Shame about the ridiculous electronic problems though.
We tried and tried hoping the badge would do that but unfortunately it did not. That was a feature they should have never done away with. One of those things that was perfectly fitting to the New Beetle and would have also eased our trunk issues.