Volkswagen's Beetle may be slated for discontinuation, if a Tweet from a trusted source is to be believed.
2016 Volkswagen Beetle Dune
Enlarge PhotoAutoline recently Tweeted: " Good bye Beetle. VW to axe its iconic car at end of 2018. Sales are slowing to a trickle and VW needs more CUVs."
It's not clear where the information came from, but it wouldn't be much of a surprise given the current Beetle's lackluster sales.
VW introduced its current Beetle for the 2012 model year, but it has never sold especially well for the automaker. Through the first three months of 2016, VW has delivered just over 5,700 Beetles in the United States, which represents a 42-percent decline over the previous year.
That drop in sales might be due in part to the discontinuation of the Beetle TDI, a model under investigation as part of the brand's emissions cheating scandal.
VW first rebooted its Beetle in 1997 as the stylish New Beetle, but the car took on a more enthusiast-oriented personality with its 2012 redesign.
Unfortunately for the Beetle, enthusiasts have generally seemed more interested in sporty models versions of VW's Golf line of hatchbacks.
To that end, VW has sold more than twice as many Golfs as Beetles in the U.S. since the beginning of the new year.
The T-Cross Breeze-inspired modelwill be based on the next-generation Polo subcompact, while the larger T-Roc-inspired crossoverwill square off against the MINI Cooper Countryman.
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