Frellingblonde, we live in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and many of my ski bum friends have New Beetles. They never have problems getting to their favorite slopes in any kind of weather!
I would have agreed with you until this season…
And there’s another storm on its way today!
I think the front-wheel drive VWs, including the New Beetle, are really good snow cars. I mean, it snows in Germany, right?
I had a 1990 Jetta GLI. In about 1994, my wife and I were driving in a horrendous storm near Lake Almanor, CA. I had managed to drive about 60 miles, with terrible visibility and about 2 inches of snow on the road. This car had ABS.
Well, we got within about 1 mile of our destination, and it started to pull to the right. It kept going, and going, and going. I pressed the brake pedal as hard as possible, and none of the wheels locked up. ABS…
Then, when it FINALLY got under 10 mph, the wheels locked. I just barely missed a ditch.
Here’s the punchline: Pirelli P700s.
Buy snow tires. You’ll be happy. And I think the New Beetle is pretty cool.