Volkswagen began building buzz for the 2012 Beetle long before we caught a glimpse of the first spy shots. The company's executives were throwing phrases like "fun to drive," "masculine" and "Porsche-derived styling" toward the would-be Beetle successor as far back as the 2010 Paris Motor Show. In this business, you either learn to read through hyperbole or choke to death on it, so it goes without saying that our hackles were quivering with skepticism at the time. Volkswagen could hardly blame us.

We had been living with the Type 1C New Beetle for nearly 13 years at that point, and the vehicle had grown into a caricature of itself. Back in 1997, the plucky bubble design was fresh and innovative, but as other automakers began to cash in on the retro design movement, the half-circle Beetle grew very tired very quickly. As a driver, it was merely adequate when it first bowed, and time hadn't been particularly kind to the chassis. Volkswagen wasn't just asking us to stretch our imaginations to cope with the notion of a sporty-looking, engaging Beetle. They wanted us to snap them in two.

Then the 2012 Beetle debuted, and sure enough, the two-door rolled onto the scene with a more vertical windshield and a longer nose. Those two attributes alone are enough to put it more in line with original Beetle design, and, as a result, give the 2012 Beetle a portly Porsche 911 appearance. Car gods help us, we like it, but what about that whole "fun-to-drive" thing? To be fair, there's much more to the 2012 Beetle than a revised nose. The vehicle is significantly longer and wider than its predecessor while riding closer to the ground as well. That's thanks in part to the fact that the hatch now makes use of the same platform as its Golf and Jetta stable mates. All told, the Beetle is six inches longer and 3.3-inches wider than the 2010 model, and those dimensions do much to give the still-retroish hatch a more planted appearance. That doesn't mean that the designers at Volkswagen have excised the pluck from the three-door, though.