That is a surprise. My wife had a 2001 Beetle. Worst car I've ever had bar none. Considering the contenders I've had; Fiats, a banana yellow 1972 Caprice station wagon, and a 1978 Buick Regal Turbo, that's saying a lot. I'm sure there's a rant thread hiding in the archives from me on this topic, but the cliff notes version is that the car was in the shop about 30 times in our 5 year tenure. At 700 miles it needed new gaskets. At 13k it needed a new engine! Numerous parts falling off. Gas lid freezing shut. It was miserable. When we returned it on lease the girl went over it pretty thoroughly stating that VWs
always come back with the engine light on and needing much repair. We just happened to have it serviced. Yes - to get the engine light off.
Needless to say, we will
not be purchasing a VW (or Audi) in the foreseeable future. Pity because I really liked the VWs (83 GTi, 84 GLi, 79 Scirocco) I had before that.