The Beetle wasn’t killed because people were bored with it – how could they be? Rather its demise was due to its air-cooled engine’s lack of green credentials.
Porsche ditched its own air-cooled units in the mid-1990s for the same reason. The evergreen 911, itself a direct descendant of the Beetle, has never been the same since, at least not in the eyes of aficionados. If you’ve ever heard a Beetle’s flat-four engine note, you’ll understand why. The flatulent rasp that emerges from its twin exhausts is addictive, adding to the bags of character the people’s car already possesses.
The engine’s location over the rear axle also gave it some personality, while saving production costs because it was located over the driven wheels. This made for “interesting” handling and, again, we miss that in our cars today.
And we didn’t realise what we had until it was gone. Consequently, values are on the up, and the earliest Beetles are now out of reach for all but the most minted collectors. How ironic, that the people’s car is fast becoming a status symbol for the world’s wealthy. Will we be saying the same about the current one in 60 years? I doubt that very much.
Kevin Hackett is The National’s Motoring editor.
khackett@thenational.ae
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
Rating: Two out of five stars
How to get exposure to gold
Although you can buy gold easily on the Dubai markets, the problem with buying physical bars, coins or jewellery is that you then have storage, security and insurance issues.
A far easier option is to invest in a low-cost exchange traded fund (ETF) that invests in the precious metal instead, for example, ETFS Physical Gold (PHAU) and iShares Physical Gold (SGLN) both track physical gold. The VanEck Vectors Gold Miners ETF invests directly in mining companies.
Alternatively, BlackRock Gold & General seeks to achieve long-term capital growth primarily through an actively managed portfolio of gold mining, commodity and precious-metal related shares. Its largest portfolio holdings include gold miners Newcrest Mining, Barrick Gold Corp, Agnico Eagle Mines and the NewMont Goldcorp.
Brave investors could take on the added risk of buying individual gold mining stocks, many of which have performed wonderfully well lately.
London-listed Centamin is up more than 70 per cent in just three months, although in a sign of its volatility, it is down 5 per cent on two years ago. Trans-Siberian Gold, listed on London's alternative investment market (AIM) for small stocks, has seen its share price almost quadruple from 34p to 124p over the same period, but do not assume this kind of runaway growth can continue for long
However, buying individual equities like these is highly risky, as their share prices can crash just as quickly, which isn't what what you want from a supposedly safe haven.
The specs
Engine: 2.9-litre, V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: seven-speed PDK dual clutch automatic
Power: 375bhp
Torque: 520Nm
Price: Dh332,800
On sale: now