Slight detour as my 'British Built Beetle' thread has been locked, and really, with respect to the site's owner, why - it just means that postings are disjointed and posters put off!
Anyway, it is interesting to note in the current Practical Classics magazine they have the familiar Morris Minor versus VW Beetle test. While they 'seemingly struggled' to find a good thing to say about the Beetle, the end result was a draw between the two cars. To solve this problem they awarded a winning point to the Minor because it is 'British'. Says a lot about the magazine and its reader ship.
I can say as the owner of both types, our 1968 Beetle Old Blue, is a more capable car in 21st century daily traffic, I can't say the same for our oval Beetle though, its been lowered and so is awful to ride in.:(
1956 VW Beetle, 1962 Morris Minor, 1968 VW Beetle (Old Blue), 1972 Morris Mini, 2005 MGTF
Blue, blue, Electric Blue, that's the colour of Old Blue!