Minneapolis Street Sighting: VW Beetle convertible

Some vehicles have a stereotypical "vibe" to them. The Ford Mustang is the iconic ponycar, the Corvette the iconic sports car, the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla are iconic economy cars, and the Beetle, well, that gained a cult following for a variety of reasons. Hippies loved them for the cuteness, hot-rodders loved them because they were cheap and RWD and good alternate "hot rod", VW fans loved them because they brought "cheap speed" to the masses. In all, the Beetle is one of very few cars that has a wide spectrum of fans. So why is it that so few good classic examples are seen today? Rust problems plagued the Beetle from the start, and then there's the whole "Hitler" issue, which I won't delve into.
The example featured above is a much later car, evidenced by the ugly, Brazilian built interior and those ungodly wheels that resemble a really bad trailer wheel pattern. As the classic Beetle aged, attempts to keep it modern were relatively futile. Sure, you had the ever changing array of funky colors, but the wheel choices got worse as worse, as did the interior.
As the 1960s wore on, new safety standards emerged, meaning changes for some of Beetles most distinguishing features. The turn signals got bigger and bigger, as did the taillights, not to mention the bumper. For me, this is the worst Beetle generation I can think of. Everything that made the 1949-1964 cars awesome was all but gone by 1973. The slim, chrome bumpers were replaced with heavy, ungainly units, the wheels had been restyled and now resembled low-rent trailer or lawnmower units. Even worse still, the addition of new cues, and new script. An attempt to make the legendary little vehicle modern destroyed it in my book. VW knew it couldn't keep ruining a legend, and in 1979, finally killed the "classic Beetle".
From 1979 onward till 2006, the Beetle stayed alive south of the border, as did its stablemate, the VW T2 and T3 van, or VW Bus as its commonly referred to as. Gaining new features since 1980, like catalytic converters, and (gasp!) finally, an airbag. In 1996, VW Mexico did away with one of the car's most recognizable styling cues. Chrome bumpers. I've never seen a "new" classic Beetle, but my guess is that it looks downright awful compared to pre-1964 cars.
While I despise this generation of VW Beetle, I do admit that this one is good shape. The paint is a great color, and is in awesome shape, save for a dent in the front fender. Again, even though I hatehatehate those wheels, they're in decent shape, and have not (surprisingly) rusted through yet. Even that terrible interior seemed to survive the elements. Well, it was living in California for most its life. Maybe that explains it. Is it bad I almost want this one to rust away? I loathe this generation, and will forever do so. Give me a 1961 instead, thanks.