And all the mummies who cooed over the Beetle when it first appeared are now off speccing-up their New Minis, and who, in the UK at least, is going to want a Beetle any more? Mini is yet funkier, more pocketable, more fun too. Crucially, it's this year's, not last year's, thing.

VW has obviously decided it's about time it sexed the Beetle up a bit, and so it has launched two 'performance Beetles', the ΂£16,995 170bhp V5, and the ΂£15,445 150bhp 1.8T you see here, powered by the 1.8-litre turbo four from the Golf GTI 1.8T.

Visually, the 1.8T is virtually identical to the regular Beetle; what you get are front fog lamps and a tiny roof spoiler that pops up at speed. Inside you get a leather wheel and gearknob; otherwise it's as you were. And that includes the softly padded, distinctly unsporting front seats.

They're a dead giveaway. If you hadn't guessed already, there's nothing really very sporty about this bug at all. Sure it goes all right, with plenty of low and mid-range oomph; in fact there's some sport to be had from baiting sales reps - you can only begin to imagine how much these people hate being outdragged by a Beetle. But that's the beginning and the end of it. Soggy is probably the best way to sum up the chassis - or comfortable, if you want to be kind. It rides well.

Reminds me a of the Golf 4Motion; you get the feeling the engineers' brief was simply to ensure it absorbed the lumps, while cornering predictably (i.e. with quite a bit of roll and gentle understeer), and this it does, but no more than that.

So if you want a Beetle with a bit more vigour, the 1.8T does the job. The rest of us are off down the Mini showroom. Last one there's a hippy.