The VW Beetle: it's time for another revival

STONEHENGE. The Royal Family. Patrick Moore. All things which, like Volkswagen's reinvented Beetle, have seemingly been around since the dawn of time.

You'd forgotten Volkswagen still makes the Beetle, hadn't you? It arrived, in 1998, amid a fanfare of nostalgia, brouhaha and people poised with their flower stickers, desperate to get a bit of the Sixties back, but this time without the acid trip.

With cute, retro looks melded to a modern Golf chassis, it was brilliant. For about five minutes. Then the new MINI came along and suddenly it was old hat. Yet Volkswagen carried on making it and - with technology that the Golf ditched two generations ago - it's now looking about as sophisticated as the Peoples' Car that inspired it.

The problem with the Beetle is that it's a retro car, which means that it'll only ever be fashionable when the era it's trying to evoke is also in fashion, which meant that it was only ever cool for that brief bit of the Nineties when it was first launched. Remember the Chrysler PT Cruiser? The one that looked like a hot rod? Of course you don't, because once the Fifties novelty wore off everyone realised they could buy a roomier and much more practical Renault Scenic for less. The UK just didn't get it.

The only retro cars which have actually pulled off the trick are the MINI and the Fiat 500, but they've managed by being brilliant beneath the skin, and cars that are cheap, well made and good fun to drive NEVER go out of fashion. That's the challenge Volkswagen have got with their long overdue replacement for the Beetle, because otherwise it'll end up having to wait for the Sixties to get groovy again.

Will Volkswagen get it right this time round? Well, you'll have to wait until April 18 to find out, although getting the Black Eyed Peas, best known for mashing old pop records up with the sound of car alarms going off, to promote it probably isn't the best start.

Although for the record I think the company's reviving the wrong hit from its back catalogue a second time round. Where's the reinvented Volkswagen campervan?