Pros and Cons of New Beetle

[MISS VDUB]

Hey Waterpumpers,

My Dad is looking at buying my Mum a New Beetle (preferably with sunroof), either a second hand model or a run out sale model due to the 2012 Beetle being released.

Would really appreciate some advice on what he should look for, problems with certain years/models, and pros and cons that you can think of.

Really appreciated!

Ash

[OZChris]

I believe that the 'BlackOrange' special editions were the runout models before the 2012 Beetle - these were available in hatch / convertible, auto / man, petrol / diesel, black / orange. We bought my wife's earlier in the year, so not sure how many new ones are still out there?

Good Luck.

[phantomcamel]

You will probably struggle to find anything as most dealerships have cleared out existing stock

[blutopless2]

depends upon how early you want to go in the models... the pre 2004 models had problems with the window regulators (electric windows) which was fixed when the new shape came out. The convertibles also had issues with some of the roof mechanisms, particularly the little side flaps that lifted to allow the roof frame to go into the body when the roof was down... i believe this was also fixed when the newer shape came out as they removed the flaps and redesigned the mechanisms etc.
usual things to check is timing belt changes, water pump change, depending upon the age of the car etc.

[razz]

I have a 2001 New Beetle Turbo with 135,000 KMs on it now. My mother bought it new in 01.

It is a great, enjoyable little car with solid power. Mine has the turbo alloy wheels and sunroof.

Major faults :

We have had the Auto Trans fail. 1st time VW reconditioned it under warranty. 2nd time it failed I made them replace it. Since then it has been fine, but I would be terrified of this happening out of warranty as the (VW dealers) repair cost is $15,000!!! And when it did fail it got stuck in gear on the freeway which was a terrifying experience!

Minor Faults:

I have had 1 windows regulator fail - minor cost
Have had the AC fail. This was the fix : No Compressor Operation in Volkswagen New Beetle
Also had the sunroof shade jam up on me, but that was because I somehow wrenched it out of its slides...

Mods:

Recently I have refreshed the front shocks, bushes, swaybars and brakes. Besides the front shocks, these were WANTS rather than NEEDS. An ECU re-flash also gave a significant HP/Torque increase which has transformed the car.


Comments:

If you plan to buy one, get a mechanic to check the Transmission. if you check some Newbeetle forums you will see a few posts with transmission horror stories. It was surprising that VW did not issue a recall on them. Note however that this was not an issue with the manual or the newer 5 speed trans.

Service costs are nothing out of the ordinary. Besides the fact that you might get a bit of extra labor as some major servicing jobs are 'engine-out' ones due to the restricted space in the engine bay.

All in all I love the bug. Especially coz it looks so silly but has some decent power!

[jamesatfish]

I bought my wife one of the very first NB Cabrios when they were released back in 2003. As blutopless2 mentioned we had problems with the roof mechanism which failed twice in the first 6 months - on both occasions VW fixed under warranty and the 2nd time they changed the components to a slightly different design which resolved the problem for good.

Other than the roof problems the only other mechanical fault was an issue with one of the tail lights that again was covered under warranty. I'd put both down to the fact that we had one of the very early Cabrio builds - had we waited for a late 2003 delivery these issues would probably have been ironed out on the production line.

Sadly the Cabrio was only available in the 2.0 petrol engine, which is pretty low on power especially in today's terms - I'd probably suggest looking for a Turbo (with the brilliantly tuneable turbo 1.8 ) or a 1.9 TDI from the later cars.

Ours was an auto but only the Cabrios at the time got a 6 speed 'tiptronic' style automatic; the tin-tops had very basic 4 speed boxes. I can't recall when the 6 speed auto became standard across the Beetle range but again I'd recommend that version if you want an auto.

For all the stigma and poor reviews I really enjoyed driving the Beetle when we had it, and it turned more heads and garnered more attention from the opposite sex than anything I've owned before or since.

[mikk]

I think the others just about said it all.

timing belt, water pump, window regulators, and convertible roof. the window regulators are cheap to fix. the timing belt and water pump are part of major service, usually at 100000km I think, although the same engines also had 60000km or 120000km for these items in other cars or years. that could be expensive but you should be checking servicing for any model of car you buy.