Just ask Chicagoans Liz McCorry and Phil Koesterer, who found themselves perplexed at the prospect of replacing their Volkswagen New Beetle for a more accommodating ride with a child on the way.

FORBES: Best Cars For New Parents

Carmakers have overhauled old designs for the modern era: Volkswagen's New Beetle and the new Fiat 500 are obvious examples.

ECONOMIST: Corporate history

To revitalise Ford's floundering design department, Mr Nasser turned to a young outsider, J Mays, who designed the wacky new Beetle for Volkswagen.

ECONOMIST: The prince and the pauper | The

Moving between the worlds of architecture and graphics, Rizzi also designed the Happy Rizzi House - an office building in Germany, the front page of a newspaper in Hamburg and three versions of the New Beetle for Volkswagen in 1999.

BBC: James Rizzi, US pop artist, dies aged 61