January 29, 2004 - Slug Bugs New and Old

By 1920, the United States had changed from a country where most people live on farms to a country where most people live in cities. 1972 was the first year more color TVs were sold in the United States than black and white ones. By the mid 1990's, Michael Jackson began looking more like a woman than a man. These turning points in history define the world we live in.

And, there is yet another one afloat that you might not be aware of. The Volkswagen Beetle, a revolutionary car that dominated the streets in the sixties and seventies, has been holding on strong. It has outlasted many popular cars that came afterwards, like the Pinto and the Pacer. But now, there is a new Beetle - a sexy and colorful car that is making everyone forget about its predecessor. Kids call them 'slug bugs', and there is even a game that allows the first kid who spots a bug to hit another kid on the arm. Parents are quite fond of this game, especially in bad traffic or while trying to use their cell phone. But, enough about that, the million-dollar question remains. Are there now more new Beetles than old ones on the roads of Santa Barbara? The dedicated staff of edhat.com went to find out.

These types of assignments are becoming 'old hat' for the dedicated staff - drive down streets and through parking lots observing and counting. VW Beetles are an easy target. They stand out from the crowd like tourists at the beach. In a matter of no time, we had 77 bug sightings. We wrote down partial license plate numbers to avoid double counting. We spotted some twice. It was like seeing an old friend. We waved, but no one waved back.

Of the 77 bugs we encountered, 2/3 of them were the new Beetle and 1/3 of them the old. The turning point in history we were testing for was long done and gone. Very soon, the only place you will be able to see an old VW Bug will be in a car museum in Las Vegas. And, of course, one needs to remain hidden in a cave for Woody Allen to find in Sleeper.

The other part of our survey was to find out what Beetle colors were the most popular. Our survey found Silver as color of choice (21%) and black as the least popular (3%). The others were found at about the same rate. Blue was the most popular color for old bugs (27%).

Silver? No one picked silver in our survey. Oops, that's because the dedicated staff of edhat.com didn't add it to the drop-down box as an option! Blame it on the aftereffects of counting 1,299 palm trees, or maybe the 29 water bottles rolling around on our office floor, but a mistake was made. Sorry. Anyhow, since Silver was not an option we are awarding today's prize to the subscribers who picked Blue, the second most popular color. Seems fair to us. Blue was a popular answer. A lucky drawing determined NtGrt as the winner of the Peet's card. A word of advice to NtGrt, to avoid spilling when you drink coffee in the car, put your kids in the back seat for the Slug Bug game.