Ditching the Daisy: Will the New VW Beetle Rev Men’s Engines?

Courtesy Volkswagen

With a laundry list of testosterone-friendly design and technology changes, Volkswagen is looking to bring a neglected demographic into the Beetle owner’s circle: dudes. (via Techland)

They’ve cast off the cutesy and made room for the macho. The iconic driving machine gets a facelift to become a little rougher around the edges – but is its look still too female-friendly?

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VW popped the old bubble roof and opted for a sleek rounded-off top.  Designers swapped in a couple of fierce-looking LED headlights and stretched the car slightly to give it a “powerful appearance with muscular tension,” the company said in a statement. Most masculine of all are the Beetle’s wheels. It rolls on eye-catching 10-spoke wheels that span 19 inches. All the plain Jane details – right down to the circular tail lights, have been scrapped in favor of more futuristic features. But still, it’s no pickup truck.

In the redesign, Volkswagen says it looked to its legacy. The original Beetle was driven by men and women alike, with no regard for gender-biased details. The generational shift brought a stark preference of pink versus blue, and the New Beetle found itself most attractive to a female crowd. The car’s girly aura was cemented with the installation of a flower vase on the dash. While that daisy, which has become a symbol of the Beetle itself, has now withered and replaced by a sleek instrument panel, can they transform the entire Beetle’s image with just a bit of plastic surgery?

So, will we see more men driving Beetles?  It appears we’ll find out this fall, when the car hits showrooms.

Head to our friends at Techland to see the nuts and bolts of the car.

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Nick is a writer and producer for TIME with a penchant for breaking news and viral videos. His work is often found at the intersection of celebrity and technology.

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