Volkswagen AG said on Tuesday it would price the base model of its new Beetle small car at about $19,000 in the United States. The third generation of the iconic car that decades ago was the top-selling car imported into North America will be introduced to the US market this fall. While the base retail price is $18,995,most sales will transact a few thousand dollars higher,said analyst Jessica Caldwell of Edmunds.com,which is the norm for most car models. The base model has a 2.5-liter engine with five cylinders and 170 horsepower. A sport model Beetle will have a base price of $23,395,Volkswagen said. "The 21st Century Beetle is an automotive icon reinvented,a nod to the heritage and character of Volkswagen and our remarkable history," said Jonathan Browning,president and chief executive of Volkswagen Group of America. Jesse Toprak of TrueCar.com and Caldwell of Edmunds in separate interviews each said that consumers interested in the new Beetle also likely will consider the BMW Mini Cooper and the Fiat 500. The Fiat 500 has a base retail price of $15,995,and the Mini Cooper has a base price of $19,400. "The Beetle is priced right but there's no competition to compare it with. The Beetle is a statement car for most buyers," said Toprak. In 2010,more than 60 per cent of the VW Beetle's US buyers were women,according to Toprak. No other car was as reliant on women for its sales,he said. Caldwell said,"Volkswagen learned a good lesson by setting a low starting price for Jetta,and pricing the Beetle favorably is even more crucial given its place in an economy-driven segment." The Jetta is VW's most popular model in the United States and it recently cracked the Top 20 of models sold in the US market,ranking No. 18 in May. Volkswagen recently opened a new plant in Chattanooga,Tennessee to make its Passat car. The new plant,the push for the new Beetle and aggressive advertising of the Jetta are part of Volkswagen's plans to sell 1 million vehicles in the US market by 2018,including its luxury Audi brand. Its 2010 US sales were 359,000 vehicles,which was up more than 20 per cent from 2009. In May,Volkswagen was ninth among automakers in the US market,with a 2.8 per cent share of sales,up from 2.1 per cent a year ago,according to industry analyst Autodata. Caldwell said that Volkswagen can't change the looks of the Beetle much,because its rounded-top appearance not only gives the car its name but is a key attraction to buyers. "It's a bit of a novelty car," said Caldwell. Interest in small cars is growing because of high gas prices,so there is a bigger pool of shoppers for Volkswagen to pull in during its quest for market share,Caldwell said. The Beetle will get a combined city and highway fuel economy rating of 33 miles per gallon. In 2003,the Beetle was the No. 1 subcompact in the US market,but by last year was No. 10. A dozen years ago,the Beetle made up a quarter of Volkswagen's US sales,which had slipped to 7 per cent last year,Caldwell said.
