Evocations of endless summer are common at the Los Angeles auto show, where media previews begin on Nov. 28. Having dispensed with the debut of the workaday turbodiesel version of its Beetle in midwinter Chicago, Volkswagen saved the sunnier product news for Los Angeles.
Scheduled to begin sales in the United States this year, the 2013 Beetle Convertible is fitted with a cloth top that folds flat behind the rear seats in about 10 seconds, Volkswagen claims.
Like the hardtop, the base engine in the Convertible is a 2.5-liter 5-cylinder unit, the same engine that, in his review of the 2012 Passat sedan, Lawrence Ulrich called an “obsolescent lump.†Buyers desiring better low-end grunt and an estimated 41 miles per gallon on the highway can opt for the 2-liter TDI equipped with a 6-speed manual transmission.
Volkswagen's 6-speed DSG semiautomatic transmission can be paired with the TDI as well as the 200-hors epower, 2-liter TSI engine lifted from the GTI.
New to the range is a rollover safety system, which sends two roll bars mounted behind the rear seats skyward when a computer senses that a collision is imminent.
Pricing for the Convertible will be announced closer to its sale date later this year.
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