My buddy has a turbo'd '99 Beetle, one of the cars right before they came out with the 1.8T motor for them. He's had roughly 35k+ miles on it without much problems, but it's true, the MK4 and New Beetles are having a lot of problems. Almost seems like if it wasn't assembled in Germany, then it just ain't right.
But chicks dig it, so that's why he still has it (even though he's got a lovely girlfriend).
$21k can buy you (i mean your girlfriend) a nice E36 M3