Our long-term New Beetle soldiered through March in sunny southern Florida with no major problems. But our Miami-based database manager is one of the few employees-make that humans-we've come across who is not thrilled with Volkswagen's little bug. He says the car squeaks way too much from the center of the dash, the passenger-side door, and the driver's side B-pillar, and the excessive wind noise is irritating. Luckily, the stereo is powerful enough to drown out the rattles ... most of the time.

Other disappointments include the lack of interior storage and hard-to-reach power window controls, but the New Beetle wins points from our skeptic for its scrappy motor, oodles of low-end torque, smooth, short-throw transmission and powerful brakes. Onlookers continue to gawk at the car, even though it is no longer considered rare in south Florida. Actually, our editors have seen them spilling onto the streets all over the country, which makes us wonder if the car's charm will wear off as the numbers continue to grow.

Our database manager never liked the shape of the little yellow Beetle, but this month he found a new reason to hate it: he had a difficult time fitting his Cannondale mountain bike into the back because of the way the rear end slopes. It took 15 minutes of wrestling with the bike for him to finally get it stuffed inside the hatch with the rear seats folded down. The same bike fits easily into his girlfriend's Jetta.

The car's unique red and lavender gauges soothed our Florida driver during nighttime driving, but others have complained about the legibility of the speedometer and tachometer at night. In April, a Cadillac Seville will replace the New Beetle in Florida and the New Beetle will head West for its stint in Colorado. Our Florida driver has mixed emotions about bidding the Beetle farewell. He enjoyed driving the vehicle, but because of its comical personality and interior faults, he looks forward to a change. Our five Denver staffers, however, aren't sad at all to see the New Beetle leaving Florida for the Rocky Mountain region-they can't wait to get inside the cockpit of the happy little car.

Total Odometer Reading: 17,395
Best Fuel Economy: 41.4 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 37.6 mpg
Body Damage: $0
Maintenance Costs: $0
Problems: None.