Does anyone have an \"older\" new beetle ?

mscabrio Cabriolet Queen

2,308 posts · joined Jan 2004 · 24 Mar 2004, 1:41 pm

#152007

I had my new beetle into the dealer yesterday to fix a dodgy electric window. For the day they lent me a new beetle which was a couple of years old. It had done about 40,000 kms. It was not in very good condition. It was noisy, rattly, the radio didn't work, all of the dash lights kept coming on. Do I have this to look foward to with mine ? or has this poor baby been so traumatised being a service car that she has given up on life ?

nbturbo Veteran Volks Folk

2,171 posts · joined Dec 2002 · 24 Mar 2004, 2:10 pm

#152013

I have a friend who bought his in mid 2001 so was probably a late 2000 build.There wasn't much that didn't fall off it or break/crack or generally shxt itself in the first 3 months.Even with all this happening I still ordered a new one which was built in May '02 and touch wood have had a good run.It's done 16,000 K's with a couple of faults that the dealer in Adelaide hasn't got a clue how to fix.The dash light for the rear spoiler activation didn't come on while travelling but would come on with the dash switch.The dealer said the light shouldn't come on with the switch but only while moving.After they looked at it-it doesn't come on with the switch at all now and flashes when on the road-all wrong.I believe the speedo is showing 10KPH too fast at 110 KPH.Have checked with a GPS and with speedo at 120 car is only doing 110.Dealer reckons its impossible????.First noticed it when coming out of Melbourne on the Freeway with those overhead speedo checkers. This means I have had the 15000 service done about 1000 too early.Only other fault is a creaking noise in the rear seat area which was intermittant B4 the service-you guessed it-there all the time now and really loud.You were lucky to get a car to loan.I was promised one when we picked it up but had to wait around while it was done.Had to travel 400K's to get it done.Got really pissed off after getting home-they had sprayed some liquid stuff into the door and bonnet hinges and it had blown down both sides of the car-Had to use turps to clean it.Also had big greasy hand prints all over the bonnet.Not a happy experience.

mscabrio Cabriolet Queen

2,308 posts · joined Jan 2004 · 30 Mar 2004, 9:08 am

#154420

That is just crappy when they don't look after your car !!!! The dealer I take mine to always looks after my baby well (or so I think!). It is always spotless after it has been there, so hopefully they have looked after it and not done burnouts down their driveway when I leave !!!!!!!!!!!

I am still having trouble with the cabrio windows, first it was the drivers window now passenger. Hopefully when I get it fixed this week it is the end of the window problem !

vanderaj Administrator a suffusion of yellow

3,130 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 30 Mar 2004, 11:03 am

#154485

I had a 2001 Turbo Beetle (one of the first in the country), and it had 21 dealer visits and one tow in 24 months of ownership. Mine was a lemon, but since we don't have lemon laws here, I could do little about it. VW did not cover themselves in glory, and their dealers are perfect examples of how to not look after clients. After five VW's I will not be buying another for a while.

Window problems = 7 year warranty for all New Beetle owners. Just ask and they'll admit it, and fix it for free.

Coil pack problems for all 1.8t owners = new coil packs for the life of the car until all faulty units are replaced. In the US, they replace all of them whenever one fails. Here, they just replace the one that failed. This means every turbo owner (until late 2003 when the new coilpacks went into production) will have their car towed four times before the problem is solved. Absolutely stunningly wrong.

My flap indicator did that too. Since I only drove it that speed a few times, this wasn't a biggy. What annoyed me more was 12 visits to fix the faulty head unit, and the increasing level of rattles every time they took the doors or interior panels off in a stupid effort to "fix" the problem.

The dash lights coming on like that indicate that the computer which runs the instrument panel is faulty and will need to be replaced. Once replaced, all of the car's settings will need to be reset.

My turbo beetle was 6 km/h over on the speedo, but absolutely accurate for the odometer and trip. This is a very common thing with modern cars to get you to slow down a little and to make allowances for poor third party tyre choices. If you know it, and don't mind the risk, drive at 120 km/h indicated (110 km/h in reality). I didn't most of the time but that's me.

Check out "Problems and Concerns" at http://forums.newbeetle.org for more common problems. Like the sticky fuel flap, which can stop you. Or the brake switch / light interlock for automatic owners. There's many common faults that VW know of, but don't fix.

As far as I am concerned I will not be buying another new VW until they are just behind Toyota in the quality stakes. They can't beat Toyota, so I wont put that restriction upon them as it's unrealistic. Last year, they were behind all but Kia in the 2003 JD Powers IQ survey. Yes, even Daewoo produced higher quality cars than VW last year. The New Beetle was VW's best quality car in the last few surveys.

thanks,
Andrew

kombi_kid Moderator Good Kid too many projects

124 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 30 Mar 2004, 11:16 am

#154493

will see how our 2003 NB turbo goes!!! will report any probs with it!
cheers
rhys

it aint just cool its aircool'd

nbturbo Veteran Volks Folk

2,171 posts · joined Dec 2002 · 30 Mar 2004, 11:48 am

#154526

I have been on that site checking out problems with the cars-frightened the life out of me-staying away-what I don't know can't hurt me.The head unit you mention-is that the CD player?I remember that we had heaps of trouble with ours(how quickly you forget the teething troubles)It broke about 2kms from the dealer when we first picked it up and and it took about 3months to get it fixed.One time I drove the 400 Kms to have it looked at and they were going to get a changeover unit for me which meant another 800k round trip.I went off so they fitted one from one of their used NB's and it didn't even make it home.After a few heated phone calls they had a new one sent to me direct from Eurovox with the tools and I fitted it myself-never played up since.I hope that I don't have any of the troubles you had Andrew.My mother bought a Turbo the same time as me and she has done 12,000 kms and has only had the normal CD player trouble.Hers was built in Aug 01 from memory so we should be expecting the worst????

vanderaj Administrator a suffusion of yellow

3,130 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 30 Mar 2004, 12:06 pm

#154531

I was starting to get to the stage of resignation with mine. Work was getting shitty with me for all the days I was late due to going to the dealer.

Yes, the head unit was the CD player. It seems the troubleshooting procedure documented by VW does not include using a ohm meter to check cables before some apprentice hack goes to town on your doors and undoes the pop rivets holding in the speakers. If they had taken five minutes with a multi-meter, and a signal injector or even used another head unit, they could have saved themselves (and me) a lot of grief and just replaced the head unit on the first (sorry, second as they NEVER have head units on hand as Eurovox require the first one before they'll send the dealer a replacement) visit. I used the CD to cover up the extensive rattles, moans and groans in the car (particularly when going over humps and bumps), so the CD farting along to the music didn't make me happy.

That said, all the really serious problems were starting to get sorted after so many trips, although getting towed just before I traded didn't make me happy at all.

The worst problems for me:

rusted out right wheel bearing - could have killed me or someone else if the wheel assembly had come off at speed whilst cornering in head on traffic. Only took a Repco person (as I refused to take it to VW for servicing at that stage due to criminal negligence and gross incompetence on the part of the two dealers I had been dealing with to that point... even though I had asked both dealers between them three times to look into the noise I correctly described as bearing noise. The repco person put it up on the hoist and showed me the four way play in the wheel and recommended that it be towed to VW for them to service. The car was just six months old and had two weeks off the road whilst they waited for the part to be freighted in from Mexico. No loaner, even though they should have been kissing my arse and thanking their lucky stars I wasn't suing them. I tried getting the rental I had to get for one weekend repaid through VW. No luck. I complained about the first dealer to VW. No call backs, no action taken against the dealer. No apology.

Coilpack - required a tow. This is what spurred me to trade the car. I couldn't have this level of unreliability. The car does not drive on three cylinders. Car off the road for three days. No loaner.

Divertor valve - terrible fuel economy and performance when this baby fails. Required four trips before they had the right part and more importantly before the engine stopped throwing DTCs and performing correctly. It's a $30 part and anyone with a screw driver can replace it, but fixing the DTCs requires the car to be hooked up to the computer to clear the codes.

The left window failed during summer, so I didn't mind that one so much and it didn't take long for them to fix it, but thank goodness it didn't shatter like they often do. Pain in the ring though.

So, basically, if you don't have these things going wrong, thank your lucky stars. let's hope you never have the same problems. But I'm not the only one to suffer these issues, so basically I'd expect many of you to suffer them as well. I hope not.

Andrew

[Edited on 30-3-2004 by vanderaj]

kombi_kid Moderator Good Kid too many projects

124 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 30 Mar 2004, 12:12 pm

#154533

i want to ring dad and tell him to take it back!!! i can see where your coming from with the dealers (the one we are buying we put a $1000 deposit as agreed by both parties and then get a phone call the next day saying that the trade in value is different and that they require more money in the bank to secure it???????)
dad has to drive it back from melbourne and i was talking to him before at which he was loving it and had no problems!!
cheers
rhys

it aint just cool its aircool'd

nbturbo Veteran Volks Folk

2,171 posts · joined Dec 2002 · 30 Mar 2004, 1:09 pm

#154568

All the dealers seem to have different rules about deposits.I ordered mine over the phone with no trade in-never went near the dealer until delivery day-and they wouldn't process the order until I sent $2,000 cheque.I had phoned dealers in Melb and Syd to get the best deal possible and some would do the deal with as little as $500 deposit.This was for a car that had to be ordered from the factory because none in stock in Aus.Just did the same for a new Ford ute and they wouldn't do a deal with less than $1,000 deposit.