Matano is the director of industrial design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and back in the late '80s, he led the design team that made a splash with the MazdaMiata.
But versus, say, a MazdaMiata, the only other fun car in this price category, the New Beetle is loads more pragmatic, since you could legitimately take another passenger and still go buy a potted palm tree at the garden center.