New VW Bug - good and bad?

[Don Plumley]

There's another thread on fixing an old bug for a teenage daughter. This got me thinking about bugs again.

My little girl turns 16 in a couple of weeks. She (like her brother) has saved up her money so we can buy the car as partners. I want her in something that is safe (bags, brakes and a reasonable amount of sheet metal), nimble and reliable. She wants something that is cute, preferably purple.

I'm thinking $5K-$8K. She'd like a new beetle, but I've heard bad stories about build quality, trannys that can't be fixed, etc.

For those in the know - what say you about beetles? Any better/worse years? Any good BBS for beetles? I'm partial to a Golf/Rabbit; probably think a Honda is a best choice. Maybe a 318ti?

Thanks in advance,

Don

[Arizona_928]

A Plum Crazy 440 charger..
the New beatles are very popular at my HS, next to the Nissians, and acouple 5 series

[HHI944]

A good friend of mine had a new golf..........absolute POS. Knobs fell off the radio in the first month, door hinges were loose in just a few months, and at 60k miles with all VW recommended service a couple engine mounts failed catastrophically, leading to transmission mount failure.......... VW gave him all sorts of crap and refused to repair it because it was in one wreck.

[peppy]

New Beetle headlights are a PITA to change the bulbs.

[ChkbookMechanic]

In my opinion all German cars require you to be Johnny-on-the-spot with maintenance where the Japanese and American cars have more of a relaxed, oh you missed doing that, that sucks, but I'll still run mentality. Which is perfect for people who don't really like driving and dislike cars in general.

I know people here might think I'm crazy for saying this, but a GM product is perfect for a first car. Stuff is cheap, it runs no matter what and they don't require the maintenance to be on the time all the time like a BMW or other German car.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by ChkbookMechanic

In my opinion all German cars require you to be Johnny-on-the-spot with maintenance where the Japanese and American cars have more of a relaxed, oh you missed doing that, that sucks, but I'll still run mentality. Which is perfect for people who don't really like driving and dislike cars in general.

I know people here might think I'm crazy for saying this, but a GM product is perfect for a first car. Stuff is cheap, it runs no matter what and they don't require the maintenance to be on the time all the time like a BMW or other German car.

NOT crazy at all...

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by Don Plumley

I'm thinking $5K-$8K. She'd like a new beetle, but I've heard bad stories about build quality, trannys that can't be fixed, etc.

For those in the know - what say you about beetles?

Thanks in advance,

Don

Don, last summer I bought a 2000 New Beetle for my daughter (she paid for good chunk of it with her own money actually) to commute to college with. It had about 95,000 miles on it. It is a stick and has the 2.0 liter NA gas engine.

Repairs thus far:

-Waterpump came apart (thankfully my daughter heeded the temp light and called me for help). I ended up putting a new water pump and timing belt in it..... Major PITA due to an engine mount that must come off to change out the parts.

-Coil pack took a crap.... ended up replacing it and the plugs and wires. (takes a special tool that I made to remove the spark plug caps without damaging them)

-A $2.00 switch buried in a $200 part in the door went bad which allowed her door to auto lock with the keys left in the car (inside lights and door buzzer were constantly on also until I fixed the switch). Of course I had no spare key, so $160 later and a trip to the dealer, we got a new spare key and had it programmed. I ended up tearing the door completely apart and was able to McGuiver repair the switch so I saved $200 on a new lock module. I found some hints for this repair on a Vortex forum IIRC.

- I still need to buy new upper strut mounts as the current ones allow clunking on bumps (known common problem).

Overall the car is kind of simple in some respects, but I have a feeling that it will have many more problems over the next several years. I am happy that my daughter wanted to stick with German cars, but she would be much better off in a 100-150k mileage E36 BMW for the long haul. She was not interested in them however as that is what my wife and I drive daily... just a bit too un-cool in her opinion I guess to drive the same car as mom or dad

I will admit that the FWD VW does much better in snow than all of our other RWD cars. I think she gets mid to high 30's gas mileage wise.

[Don Plumley]

Interesting comment about GM cars. I don't have any problem keeping up with the maintenance and doing the repairs. My son and I refurbed his E30 and he just bought a nify E46 to replace it.

But purchasing a used car, I am always worried about the maintenance habits of the prior owners - and many times the "cute" cars are not well maintained.

The build quality of the late year VW's is a little worrisome. I like the Golf hatch, but I guess if I agree to a Golf there's no good argument against the beetle. Thanks for the insights Tim.

Any other ideas? Mazda 3 Hatch?

[strupgolf]

Buy her a 2001-7 Pontiac Grand Prix. Good car, good mileage, safe, and plenty of them around for very little money. I know its not a chick car or guy car, but for us dads, its a good car for the kids.

[ChkbookMechanic]

Originally Posted by strupgolf

Buy her a 2001-7 Pontiac Grand Prix. Good car, good mileage, safe, and plenty of them around for very little money. I know its not a chick car or guy car, but for us dads, its a good car for the kids.

This is exactly the car I was thinking of. My brother has one (and he isn't a car person) and it has taken more abuse than I could inflict on a car. I had an older one (1995 Grand Prix) and have good memories of it. It never left me stranded and always started the first time. The Grand Prixs have decent power - enough to be fun but not too much to make you regret it.

[Z-man]

Originally Posted by peppy

New Beetle headlights are a PITA to change the bulbs.

+1.

As for safety, on Jan 23rd, my wife's 2003 New Beetle Turbo was involved in an accident. She got out of the car UNINJURED. Here's a picture of the car after the accident:


Yes, the car flipped over - in a freakish accident, a Camry pushed her into the curb, causing the car to get unsettled and finally flipping over onto its roof.

Kim got out of the car without a scratch on her. The roof structure, though caved in, still held up very well. Not happy it flipped, but it was a freak accident - she wasn't travelling more than 40mph, and the Camry darted out into her. She was wearing her seatbelt, which had a lot to do with the fact that she wasn't injured.

We are looking to replace her totalled car, and one of the front runners to replace her car is another New Beetle, possibly a convertable one this time.

-Z-man.

[porsche4life]

We had an '01 TDI. That thing was a rocket. Only issues were that it had an electrical gremlin and kept throwing the code for some sensor malfunction. Fixed multiple times and still did it. Ran fine. And yes the headlights are a PITA to change.

[HardDrive]

I had a 99 turbo beetle.

I had a love hate relationship with the car.

It was fun to drive, and looked cool. Very practical, you can fit a stunning amount of stuff in the car with the back seats down.

But.....it has some minor problems early on, no big deal. But the around 50,000 miles, holy mosses, the damn thing started coming apart. I had never raced the car, or treated it badly, but the doors were literally not flush anymore. The unibody was just giving up the ghost. Water leaks, bad breaks, sensors going off.....I was done.

I traded it in for a Boxster, which was the most reliable car I ever owned.

I would not recommend you buy her $5k-$8k VW.

What about an older Volvo 740+ series? Better yet, a 240 series. Those things are safe and run forever.

[slodave]

I tested the roof of my '84 Scirocco many years ago. I was surprised how little it caved in. I wasn't immediately keen on buying another Scirocco, but after some thought - roof support a major factor, I bought another one.

I'm a big fan of VW's safety engineering, but I'm sure the newer ones are expensive to maintain. I had painful after warranty failures to deal with in my 2nd Scirocco.