This thing's outlived its sell-by-date. Then again, given that it is essentially a Golf PQ35 platform, it didn't cost much for VW to tweak the things and sell it as the Beetle so they're probably just milking whatever remaining money they can out of it.
So it is a fair assessment to say the Beetle is to the Golf, as the X6 is to the X5?
i.e., similar mechanical bits, but less practical. And yet costs more! Though maybe more stylish - so an easy way to wring some extra money out of an already utilized platform?
The Mk7 Golf is on the MQB platform whereas the Beetle, Jetta, Scirocco, Tiguan, Eos, Skoda Yeti, usw. are still on the PQ35 platform, which the Mk6 Golf used.
The F15/F16 X5 and X6 are on the same platform.