Okay so my twin daughters are getting their permits any day. Been looking into adding a car to the fleet. Looking for a good solid car for them along a decent gas mileage car. Love the TDI's but probably just looking for a cheaper gas model for them. They love the new beetle so I am leaning towards that. Just curious if anyone has them or has alot of experience with them. By new I just mean the newer style. Looking at ones in the 98-2002 range. Thanks

One 914'er I know had one with an A/C problem. They have to remove half the front clip to get to the problem, like a $1200 repair or something stupid like that. Made in Mexico. I'd probably try to find a good clean Focus.

I have had two of them, or more acccurately, I have bought two of them for my wife.

I would NOT recommend them for a new driver. Visibility out the back and passenger side is limited, the drivers seat is very uncomfortable, the driving position, sits you way back from the windshield in an awkward way, they are so severely underpowered that it feels dangerous pulling into traffic, electrical gremlins abound, cheap little buttons and switches prone to breaking off, (power mirror switch, fuel cap replease, headlight switch, etc)

I absolutely hate the dang thing and cant believe my wife talked me into buying another.

My best advice: Get them a Camry. And look at it as an opportunity to teach them about value for your money.

My mother in law lives with us and has an '05 w/ turbo. I drive it when I don't feel like driving the Durango. Fun car, works well, no problems but some minor stuff. Has ~55K on it. She's trashed the low pro tires a couple times because of potholes but that's not beetle specific. My daughter can't wait for it to become hers. Everyone likes a bug.

I've had friends that had them and done some work on one. I would not recommend them from what I've heard/seen. Everything in them is pretty cheap.

Being in the field of driver simulation and driver training, I highly recommend the Ford Focus, very safe and a great car for novice drivers.

wife recommends one and husband dont. Kind of a tie.


as far as under powered, that may not be a bad thing for a new driver, less likely to get into trouble with speed. however I dont believe they are slugs, they are still zippy.
they do offer peppy turbo's if you want the new driver to be tempted to lead foot it, why not?

I'd try to find a stick shift as I think that promotes better driver training, enhances attention to the car speed and such, and once learned is vary valuable skill.

diesels are also an option, might be wise for a low wage teenage kid to get a fuel misser.

the car I think will hold it value long term, as they are a cult status in the making if not already. fun car i'd say for her. they also have a respectable safety system with air bags and ABS, high back seats, and such and all the other modern stuff the first bugs lack. the first bugs still have more class to me but the new ones are cool too.

Every single person I know with a Focus loves them. I drove my friends ZX6 or whatever the hot rod version was, it was so fun I tried to get him to trade me for the 914.

i have heard from a vw tech that the auto tranny's are and don't live very long.

I know two people that had the early versions. One got rid of it through the lemon law and VW gave them a free Jetta to replace it. The other couple had tons of electrical problems, but after several years of bringing it back to the dealer they finally got the bugs out of it and now they love it. They loved it so much they traded it in for a new one about a year ago. The new one is the 2.5 liter with manual trans.

interior is crap ,


and for some reason smell like burn't crayons .

got rid of the car really , quick

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Just what I was looking for. I have not even driven on so I figured to see what you all thought before I bothered. I do love the TDI's but think I will go with something else. I am not looking to buy a new car. Just a good solid used one. I am a toyota fan & can pick up my mother in laws Avalon pretty cheap. Just like something a little smaller & better gas mileage. No huge rush to buy. I have some time as they don't turn 16 till may. Could have my wife drive it to work some to save the miles on her MDX. Plus it only averages like 16mpg. I may look into a Focus some as I have heard good things about them as well

If you do the math, adding fuel and maintenance costs you will find the gas is cheaper then a TDI. I have one buddy with 500k/miles on one, but he's a class A wrench and does his own repairs.

NARB....Not A Real Beetle

Look for an LE version... if anyone can find one you can!

I disagree with your contention. A TDi with a manual tranny is way cheaper overall than even the 2.0 gas version. Fuel is more expensive, but your fuel mileage is double, or close to it. I have 2 TDis, and do very little in the way of service to them. Regular oil changes with an approved synthetic oil, filters and such by the book. Had a bad brake booster on the '02, and it had warped rotors when I got it, but both cars have been more trouble free than anything I've ever owned. I service a half dozen others, and they're all the same way (except for the one automatic). I've sold one set of glow plugs, and one injector pump (it leaked), as well as a set of injectors for a car the guy should never have bought.

I've done quite few clutches on gasoline powered Jettas and Golfs, both A3 andd A4, but never one on a TDI. They seem to last forever.

FWIW, the poster who said the automatic is a POS is right, pretty much.

BTW, I'd buy a Jetta or a Golf, not a Beetle.

The Cap'n

Instead of a New Beetle, how about an old Beetle.
or a 914

A fellow I worked with had one. Hated it, electrical problems kept it in the shop. Something about the "comfort group" was making the electrics do wierd stuff. He sold it.
Tom

Todays News!

Used Cars to Avoid!

We bought this Scion xb for our daughter for her 16th birthday, figured this was a good choice to get her through college. She just started her 3rd year at Cal State Fullerton. The car has held up real well, very reliable, just what you'd expect from Toyota. I would Highly Highly recomend looking at the Scions. Yes it looks like a toaster, clown car etc. but she loves it. We got better financing with this car than looking at a used Honda, reliablity etc. also factored into our choice. I was surprised that Insurance was very reasonable. We gave her the option to pick the car she wanted....within reason....she was leaning towards the bug, honda and the scion tc. I think it was a very good choice.

Imagine how our 914's would fare

My CJ-7 was sort of junky but I had fun driving it. I've never been a Consumer Reports kind of guy.

I say get the Avalon and make them pay for the gas. They will learn between "I need to go someplace" and "I want to go someplace"

Good luck with the search. I'm in the middle of trying to sell my gf's old car, a 2005 Jetta. It has been reliable and is very good on gas but something just doesn't "feel" right, like every time I drive it I'm waiting for something to go wrong.

I had a 2000 Beetle and it went to the Dealer 78 times, all under warranty.

I have a new Beetle as a rental car right now while my Jetta is in the shop.

The new beetle has only 8,000 miles on it and already several things are broken, including the ignition switch and the passenger seat rails.
Andy

One of the major things that worries me about the Jetta is when you put the car into drive/reverse it takes a good 5-10 seconds be engaging, which may not sound like a long time but seems like forever when you're just sitting there and I hear thats a tell tale sign of bad things about the happen.

Tranny's are good, it's the $800 control module that sucks, goes bad, then the new one craps out and so on.

We had our 99' for about 2 years, went through 2 auto tranny ECU's. That hurt. General fit and finish of the car was so-so. We heard the newer 00' and up's were much better.

So we traded in her 99' on an 02' 13 months ago. It's been better, but this last couple of months it's been having issues with the door lock sensors.

I've pulled apart the pass door, removed the locking mech attempting to restore proper operation of the system and alarm. Got it going.....for now.

This will probably be our last New Beetle.

The complication is present, but the quality is not.

I work on quite a few here. They have all the usual VASS module/electrical promblems, but the components are definately of worse quality.

Did a roof module friday. I had the back seat out and the interior welds were awful. Very poor craftmanship.

Head/tail light changes are a real pain.

Funny you mention that:

Yesterday noticed drivers headlight was out. Cool, $10 bulb, I've changed the pass side once before.

Took me 10 minutes fiddling to get it back in. The drum for the locks doesn't line up with the guides. Real PITA, you have to "find" the right spot.

Worse than the 986/996's

My long time mechanic Hans who was VW & Porsche factory trained recommended a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla & their other models instead of a VW.

The new Beetle is essentially "A Rabbit in Bug's Clothing!"

Re Stick vs. Auto - my son picked up the stick easy, my daughter didn't - fortunately we had an auto in the 88 Westy (wife's choice as it's her DD), which was the initial "learner car" for both of them.

AAA recco's an auto to start with, for what it's worth.

I would not buy any VAG product from 1992 - 2004. VW, Audi, whatever. No way. The product at the time was so bad that VW almost closed up shop in America - and would have if the Beetle had not saved them.

The xB was a good choice.

Zach

take the stupid high resale price that you would spend on the beattle and go look at hyundia's.

OK, I have to add my 2 cents here. I own a 2001 New Beetle Turbo. It has been a very good car, and I have not had any real problems with it. I have also owned a 2000 non turbo. Of the two, the turbo feels and drives so much better.

My wife likes her '95 Golf the base 1.8 gas engines and MT go forever. I'd have to guess it has 400+K miles on it, the odometer quit working 3 years ago at 282K. Smokes on start-up (but it doesn't use much oil) the dash lights never work, handles bust off in your hands, good thing I have a parts car. I can do all the repairs myself so it's just parts. It's starting to get real soft, but a friend gave us a '96 golf that in good shape and it goes on the road soon.
To her it's a super cheap way to go to work (120km round trip) and the kids can trash it. She work's at a mental hospital and lot of vandalism happens. Saves the wear and tear on the good car and I don't drive near as much.

Man, you got to love a low maintenance wife.

We also had a '99 Passat 1.8T which is basically a re-badged A4, what a POS. The coils gone 3 times, auto tranny has gone into limp mode several times, plastic console has fallen half apart, power window issues and timing belt needs doing every 60K/miles. But the big one is the $800 (parts only) front end that wears out about every 18 months. I had no problem but they have had sludge take the whole engines . Good thing I got it super cheap, but the coils and front end have gone again so it's done at 275K/km

I appreciatte all the input. Only considered the Beetle because my daughters like them. Figured it was worth looking into. I do love the TDI's but I would go for a passat before a jetta or a beetle. Still I don't think I am leaning that way after all the input. I will keep my eyes open in the coming months. As it goes I buy at least 4 914's before I buy any other kind of car .