Quote:
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
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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.