Gurinder Singh Rance Compares Classic and New Versions of Beetle

Gurinder Singh Rance tells Divya Kapoor as he compares the classic and new versions of the car
Gurinder Singh Rance tells Divya Kapoor as he compares the classic and new versions of the car

The Pioneer (New Delhi, January 9th 2010):

“There can only be one Emperor…”

“…and it was born decades ago. For the new Beetle can never be a contender to the throne,”

Gurinder Singh Rance tells Divya Kapoor as he compares the classic and new versions of the car

Mention Beetle to Gurinder Singh Rance and you will notice a big smile on his face. A proud owner of Volkswagen Beetle (1967 Model, Blue Coloured), Rance says it the “Very Cuddly and Cute Shape” of the vehicle that always fascinated him. He brought his “Wheels of Joy”, as he likes to call his vintage car, way back in 1975. But his love affair with it still continues. Ask him the reason and he gets nostalgic. “I had always been nuts about this car. It has a special emotional value attached to it because i bought it for Rs. 7,000 and that too from my own pocket money when I was in college. I also repaired it with on my own since as a student, i did not have too much money to give to the mechanics,”, he recalls.

I bring him to the present. Now that Volkswagen has launched a new version of his “Old Love”, which way do his loyalties go? Rance gets down to comparison with a tinge of nostalgia. “Volkswagen had to finally give way to the new technology and end regular production of the car. But there are still clubs around the world that assemble Beetle in kit form. In the new model, the company has tried to ride on the wave of the emotional content and the goodwill of the icon they had created decades ago. After all Beetle was the largest selling car of the world. It’s a take on the emotions of the classic era.”