My first car was a 1968 VW Beetle convertible. 
It was a fun car.
I did consider the VW, but I heard that the new VWs don't have good reliability. A couple people I know have them, and they have all kinds of mechanical problems. I don't know about the diesel, but the regular (manual) VW gets 18/29 mpg. Another shock! I expected better mpg.
