It's odd being inside the New Beetle. Not only does its interior styling divide opinions, but its use of cabin space does as well: while its round shape

Nothing to get excited about. Unless you get excited about cupholders and storage bins. MP3-compatable stereo is a welcomed addition. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press)

provides plenty of headroom for front occupants, it's a different story for those who ride in back. You sit low, the desk-like dashboard stretching to the horizon, making you wonder how else the space could have been used. Then, there's the centre console which nonsensically juts out forward. Unfortunately, it's also at knee-height, making it a bruise-hazard for taller drivers. Unusually, there's an abundance of shinier, harder plastics - something we're not quite used to seeing from Volkswagen, but they're durable, as is the beaded texture of the dashboard. Body-coloured caps on the door-frames add colour, as does the pretty red and blue instrumentation.

The ultra-round shape of the Beetle also affects those who ride in back. For starters, the roofline prevents anyone older than 12 from riding in the rear seats, while the plastic-lined rear pillars intrude on space. Taller occupants often find themselves canting their bodies towards the centre of the cabin to prevent knocking against the pillars. Kudos, however, go to the engineers who designed the double-hinged seat-tilt mechanism: it frees up so much space, making entry and exit for the rear seat a breeze. Trunk space remains small, but the hatch's tiny, oddly-shaped trunk is further improved by folding the seats down.

The biggest changes take place under the hood. While VW has been basking in the spotlight with its 134-hp 2.0 TDI motor in the Passat and

Good grunt, amazing fuel economy. If you must have a New Beetle, the TDI is the one to get. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press)

unparalleled 5.0 V10 TDI for the Touareg, the main seller and sole diesel available in the Beetle is the 1.9 TDI. Using Pump Düse technology, Volkswagen has steadily modified the engine from the early '90s to its current state, at the 100-hp mark it may seem vastly underpowered, particularly for a car of this size, but the diesel's forte is its near constant supply of 177 lb-ft of torque. Capable of reaching 100 km/h in ten and a half seconds, the New Beetle TDI may not be the fastest bug out of the starter blocks, but it's more than confident when passing on steep, uphill grades.