Bug tails

To me, it was always a Beetle. But other people have other stories and they are reflected in the tail of the newest Beetle-Bug to hit the road in Australia.

Owners are able to pick their own badge for the back end, choosing between Beetle, Bug and the generic Volkswagen for the chromed strip of script that sits below the traditional round VW logo.

Me? Despite my Beetle history, I'd go for Bug because it's a bit different and says something at a time when too much of the car world is bland and boring. Those two words never applied during my Beetle years.

I got the car - in plain battleship grey - when I turned 18. It was a 1959 model - the first with the larger back window, but still running awful six-volt electrics - and nearly as old as me. We went everywhere together and hit many milestones, from my first start in a forest rally to to my first engine replacement and my first time with zero - drum - brakes on a downhill run through the Kangaroo Valley south of Sydney.

I can still remember the time the back seat caught fire - long before modern seat heaters - because the battery was beneath the back bench and I was carrying someone with a bit of heft. My Beetle also used more oil on a freeway sprint between Liverpool and Campbelltown than any diesel car I've driven over the past 30-plus years.

I ran through a couple of engines and once endured weeks without a clutch, good training for synchronising the gears, when the cable snapped. My youthful enthusiasm led to matt-black bodywork, long before it became a fashion trend for Benzes and BMWs, and I admit that I cried on the day when I traded it for a Honda S800 sports car that was great to drive but a total disaster.

I really caught the car bug during my Beetle years and I've often considered a rounded replacement over the years. I'm looking forward to driving the new Beetle-Bug but I don't think it will stir the emotions of my first true love.

This reporter is on Twitter @paulwardgover