We were riveted to the TV set as countries across the globe welcomed the new millennium.
By the time the celebration reached Dick Clark in New York, who finally looks like he has lived a millennium, give or take a year, it was obvious that Y2K glitches weren’t going to materialize.
Still, we had a 2000 Volkswagen Beetle GLS parked in the driveway waiting for the stroke of midnight central standard time so we could turn the ignition key and learn whether the Y2K bug would infect a Bug.
The clock struck, the Beetle started and all systems functioned as we took a brief ride to experience the fireworks displays at neighbors’ before heading back to the house, toasting the new year, decade and millennium with what the astronauts sip in space, and going to bed.
The evening may have been a bit dull, but the Beetle isn’t.
With sales of 83,000, the Beetle was the reason VW topped the 300,000-unit sales mark in the U.S. last year for the first time since 1974.
Beetle is still in more demand than supply. Still one of a handful of vehicles on the road that captures admiring glances–the Dodge Viper, Plymouth Prowler and Audi TT coupe being the others.
Still a fun car, though now that it’s been around for a while and the novelty isn’t as dramatic as it was, you realize the 2-liter, 115-h.p. 4-cylinder engine is designed more for its 24-m.p.g. city/31-m.p.g. highway rating than for darting into and out of traffic.
And the suspension is more in keeping with that of an economy car than any of its TT coupe cousins at Audi.
And the back seat, as it has been from Day One, isn’t the place you’d want to spend the next six hours on the way to the vacation retreat.
And the 15-inch radials probably would do a better job in keeping the machine traveling its appointed course if they were replaced by 16-inch treads.
And the bud vase was cute the first couple times you plucked a wilted flower out of it after a week’s test drive, but now it’s simply one more item to gather dust and keep from breaking on your travels.
And yet, it’s still the vehicle that stands like a magnet in the driveway, forcing you to stay up past your bedtime to ensure that Y2K doesn’t perform any of its evil tricks on it.
And it’s still the vehicle that, starting at $16,850 (add $875 for 4-speed automatic and $525 freight), offers ABS, four-wheel disc brakes, front- and side-impact air bags, power mirrors, AM/FM stereo with cassette, air conditioning, power windows, power locks, cruise control and an eyeglass holder in the headliner as standard equipment and is within reach of most consumers with a desire to be different.
In the 2002 model year, Beetle adds a convertible companion, which will only make it an even more popular nameplate.
