HERBIE may have been the most lovable Beetle ever, but even in his heyday, when it came to style, the Cabriolet was the winner every time.
The same can be said of the car's second hand value. Cabriolet prices always did command an impressive premium.
Now while it's too early to talk about the latter, the former is certainly true of the new generation Beetle.
But while the original Cabrio was stylish, its successor is both stylish and cute, exuding glamour but at the same time retaining that Herbie-like quality that makes it look like a real character.
I collected my test car from a multi-storey car park, and while looking down a line of cars, the face of the impish new "Love Bug" stood out a mile.
Launched in early April, the car is still new enough to be rare on the street and commands a lot of attention. It also commands a lot of smiles from people who see it for the first time.
There is just something about the car that brings a grin to people's faces.
But the reincarnation of the original Beetle is more than just cute. It is a superbly engineered new car in its own right.
This is one of those rare beasts - a full four seater convertible. And, unlike a lot of soft top cars, this one does not lose boot space when the hood is lowered.
For instead of folding the hood into the boot area, VW has followed the lines of the original 1950s Beetle Cabriolet, leaving the canvas hood on view behind the rear seat passengers.
The frame has three sections, and when the roof is folded down these cleverly lie on top of each other in the form of a Z. After releasing a catch above the windscreen the hood is operated entirely electronically and takes just 13 seconds to lower.
There is a cover which fastens over the lowered hood and a wind deflector is an optional extra, although topless motoring in the Beetle is reasonably wind-free.
Space inside is impressive, and the high hood line means more headroom than anyone would ever need.
The car comes only as a two-door, but I found access to the rear seats easy, thanks to the folding/sliding action of the two front seats.
Like all Cabrios the Beetle has a couple of blind spots when it comes to reversing. The heated glass rear screen is larger than most but the amount of canvas on either side of it does impair your rear vision for reversing.
Despite its size, the Cabriolet has a reasonable size boot, although the opening is not very wide so you have to push large objects through the gap and then manoeuvre them once inside. A panel in the rear seat back folds down so you can load long objects.
My test car was a two-litre model whose engine was remarkably quiet. So much so that on tick-over it was hard to discern if it was running.
On the road the Cabriolet is more about fun than performance. Its 0-62 mph acceleration time of 11.7 seconds is adequate if unremarkable, but then this is not meant to be a GTi. It does give reasonable economy however averaging more than 32mpg.
The ride is good and the car comes with the usual refinements of anti-lock brakes, an electronic stability programme and traction control.
There is no obvious roll over protection, but special sensors detect an impending roll over situation and trigger two supports which shoot up in a fraction of a second from behind the rear seats to protect passengers. Even Herbie would have been proud of that.
FAST FACTS
Volkswagen Beetle 2.0 Cabriolet
Price: £17,520
Mechanical: 115 bhp, 1,984cc 4cyl petrol engine driving front wheels via 5-spd manual gearbox
Max speed: 115 mph
0-62mph: 11.7 secs
Combined mpg: 32.1
Insurance group: 12
CO2 emissions: 211g/km
BiK rating: 28%
Warranty: 3yrs/ 60,000 miles; 12yrs anti-rust; 3yrs paint