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Car Board.
Some vehicles roll along in a class all their own, despite enormously derivative DNA.
* Volkswagen NEW BEETLE GLX
Price: $21,725
Engine: 1.8-liter turbo I4, 150 hp, 162 lb-ft
Curb weight: 2948 lbs
Drivetrain: fwd, five-speed manual
Who cares that the New Beetle sits on the Golf platform, uses Golf engines and resembles the original Love Bug-mechanically, anyway-about as closely as a Ford F-350 does? Who cares that the engine is liquid-cooled, is shaped wrong and drives the wrong wheels from the wrong end of the car, or that the swing arms and crummy heater have been replaced with torsion beams and toasty feet? If nothing else, its whimsical shape and retro style put it in a category all its own. A bud vase, after all, for those of a particularly nostalgic ex-hippie bent, is worth the price of admission. But there's a bonus: It costs $950 less to get into the cutesy little New Beetle than its boxy Golf stablemate.