Anyone have experience with a recent VW "New Beetle?"

[onehandle]

I'm looking at a 2003 convertible. I'm a twenty year Honda owner and am thinking about a radical change.

It's in good shape, low mileage, and is a good price from what I see elsewhere.

Should I?

[LostinVA]

1. tammywammy on DU has a newish one -- TDI

I have a VW Golf TDI and love it -- about 50 mpg.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

3. Diesel?

Isn't that for tepid anarchists? :eyes:

[LostinVA]

4. It IS for tepid anarchists, and it's GREY

My mom calls me a "diesel dyke" since I bought it. She's just too funny.

[jakefrep]

2. My mom has one...

...a red 2000(?) hardtop. She absolutely loves it. Other than regular maintenance, the only issue has been having to get the instrument cluster replaced.

[onehandle]

5. Anyone else?

[Bossy Monkey]

6. My buddy, who's a pretty handy amateur mechanic, has had to have his in

the shop a pretty substantial proportion of the time. "Run away" would be my advice. Stick with Hondas; I think he wishes that he had.

[Digit]

7. I had a diesel Rabbit which I had purchased new in 1980

Before it was a year old, it needed a head gasket. VW would not even pay for it since I had over 12,000 miles on it.
FOUR headgaskets for that damn car before it even hit 50,000 miles.
I wrote to Volkswagon about it, and they pretty much said too bad.

I wouldn't buy another VW at any price.
Oh, it leaked in the rain, too.

[Maine-ah]

9. dude, that was um, 26 years ago.

to the op, I have owned two VW's, both Jettas, and my sister just bought a brand new one, and loves it (it's also a Jetta). Mine has over 150k miles on it, and still running strong. VW's are a great way to go.

[Digit]

11. I have not heard good things about the quality even these days

Plus, it is about how VW treated me even knowing it was a problem with many of their diesels.
The corporate office just blew me off.

[ccinamon]

8. ck the news stories for model years 2001-2003 (think the dates are right)

they had BAD engine problems -- my husbands 2001 bug had 70,000 miles and the engine stopped working,,,,turns out there is a KNOWN defect with the engines (turns the oil to sludge that ruins the engine) that VW has refused to fix...sadly we did not find this out until after we sold the car to a relative.

we are never buying another thing from VW -- my husband was initially thrilled to be able to buy a bug as he had one as a teenager!

[Bossy Monkey]

10. That reminds me; girlfriend took a new Beetle for a test drive back then

(2002 model year) and it just died on the interstate. She wasn't doing anything untoward; it just died. The salesman kept swinging, though, asking if she'd like to try another car. She said, "Um, no."