New Beetles

hey people
dads in contemplation of buying a 1.8L turbo beetle or a 2.0L turbo or just standard 2.0L
what are the pros and cons of these new beasts???
cheers
rhys

Check with vanderaj as he has one but was thinking of getting rid of it due to some problems with it

1. Pro..... they are really "spiffy". and come in Good colours.😀

Okay, you need to go to newbeetle.org - there's about 7000 members there. 🙂

If you buy new, you should be fine. The earlier cars had problems, sometimes galore.

The New Beetle is the safest VW you can buy until the Phaeton and the Touareg get here. It has an arch for a roof, and can support its own weight on there without collapsing. I've seen some shocking photos where the driver has simply walked away, shaken but not hurt.

The 1.6 is decent enough but a bit basic for my tastes. The 2.0 is plenty fast enough for most people, but drinks a bit (particularly in auto form) in the city. The 1.8 turbo is the most frugal of all three engines (don't take my word for it - it's the official EPA sticker values, too), and by far the fastest. Look for 8.1s to 100 km/h in stock form, and the engine is easily and cheaply upgraded to 132 kW, and with a bit of cash (about $7-10k) to 165 kW in return for losing your powertrain warranty.

I like the turbo - when I bought mine, it was the only way to get cruise and leather. You can now get these on the 2.0 by buying the 2.0 Ikon model. Cruise and sunroof is a must have, regardless of engine.

There is no factory 2.0 turbo. Any you do find are after market. As the New Beetle scene here is so small (and thus parts for a turbo conversion insanely expensive to do a one off or import), it's certain that the car would have been raced. Look for cage mounting holes under the carpets.

Do NOT get suckered into thinking that the 1.8t's are hard to get. They sit on dealer lots for ages and there's no backorders. Haggle for a decent discount in exactly the color and options you want.

Feel free to ask more questions! 🙂 Or even better, if you're in Melbourne, come to either of the cruises this month, and I'll take you for a spin (sorry, no drivers under 30) or let your dad have a spin.

Andrew

hey
we found a 1.8L turbo 2002 model with 3000 k's on it for 27 grand and its manual!!
so would this model have any probs vanderaj??
whats the specs for this model?
cheers
rhys

I have an A3 1.8T (same engine as the beetle) and havent had any probs with it when buying a late VW or Audi make sure it has Warranty or if something goes wrong it can cost u big $$$.

The one u found sounds good:thumb

I have spent $3500 on engine mods which makes it now produce around 160kw 🙂 at the dyno day i got 120kw at the wheels so im really happy with the tuning

tuning was done by Muller & Muller who import Oettinger from Germany and have so for 25 years so they know their stuff

check out the website for some goodies www.oettinger.com

Cheers
Costa...
:beer

kombi_kid wrote:hey
we found a 1.8L turbo 2002 model with 3000 k's on it for 27 grand and its manual!!
so would this model have any probs vanderaj??
whats the specs for this model?
cheers
rhys

All the 1.8t's are spec'd alike - loaded, and the spec hasn't changed for the 1.8t since introduction. Go to VW's web site for the specs. There are precisely three options in the 1.8t: metallic paint, sunroof and auto transmission.

The 2002's are in general - fine. Things to look for are:

* service history - must have! but with 3000 km, doubtful if anything has been done. If the car has been built more than a year ago (compliance plate is front and center when you open the bonnet), get them to do the first oil change before you sign, and put a decent synthetic oil in there, or take your own for them to put in. Synthetic ONLY. I use mobil 1, YMMV.

* window regulators (early 2002's were the last to have the faulty ones - there's a silent recall, don't worry and you have 7 years to fix it for free)

* peeling interior door handles (unlikely to be a problem with post-2001 NB's)

* MAF failures were common, now aren't

* O2 failures were common, now aren't

* coil packs are subject to a recall, make sure that they are covered off prior to you picking it up. Doesn't matter - you have 7 years to fix these and it's really obvious when one or two of the coil packs have gone bad.

The engine is the least of your worries, it has the fewest problems of all the engines, and is practically bullet proof.

Other than that, most 2002's are pretty reliable and $27k is a bargain. Man, my depreciation must be shocking!

Andrew

Thats a good price if it hasn't had the life belted out of it.I bought a Turbo in August last year.A friend had a 2lt manual which really impressed me but figured if I was going to buy one,may as well get the best optioned available.There were some at dealers and in the holding yards but your choice was Silver or Black with limited options.I placed the order for a Double Yellow Turbo with auto and sunroof and glue on rear spoiler in March '02 and took delivery 2nd August.I changed the wheels straight away to the 17 inch Toccata VW mags.My 73 year old mother fell in love with the car so we got her a Silver Turbo with auto and sunroof and rear spoiler-the only one in the country with those options at the time.Now about the car-Awesome.I had driven my friends 2lt a couple of times but had never even seen a Turbo until the day I picked ours up.It was worth every cent extra over the 2lt.Do yourself a favour and find a dealer with one so you can test it.I live 4 hours from Adelaide so it only gets used for that trip and it is the most amazing thing to drive.Dont know how I have escaped the police yet but I have had the auto rear spoiler pop up plenty of times.

nbturbo - Does your spoiler deploy at 75 km/h or 150 km/h? The MY2002- NB's in the US deploy at 75 km/h and that'd drive me nuts, especially as it does sweet f.a. until ~150 km/h anyway.

Good to hear a turbo being driven the way it's supposed to be! 🙂

Andrew

Man, I would consider buying that car for that $$..

Thats an awesome price.

hey
its at a dealer in sydney so i will go tell dad thats its a bargain and where shaw to have it.
cheers
rhys

It lifts up at just before 150 - I think. When overtaking,the time between 130 and 150 happens fairly quickly,so each time I hear it open and look at the speedo,its allready showing 150.The first time it happened with the rear of the sunroof open,shxt myself--suddenly my ears popped like in a plane--didn't know the sunroof is linked to the sensor for the spoiler-will close tight as spoiler pops up.Have found on the U.S. VW web site they have recalled all Turbo NB's with the Glue on rear spoiler to have it removed because of stability problems.The hand book also mentions the two spoilers should not be on the car.I haven't found any problems with the handling of ours - in fact it is fantastic at high speed.But it only gets that for short bursts.The only fault to show up on the car so far(have done 12,000 kms to date)is in fact the warning light in the speedo to indicate the spoiler has activated-it comes on when it is lifted with the manual button, but not when driving.Another thing I have found on the car-They have fitted a small air to air intercooler just in front of the RHF wheel fed by an intake in the front air dam.I found it by accident when laying down in front of the car looking at how to adjust the small fog lights.I have been all through the manual supplied with the car-checked all VW web sites on Turbo's-can find no mention of it.Some people I have spoken to think it may be a trans cooler-but it is clearly in the intake system.The trans is on the other side of the motor anyway.Will try and get it onto a hoist one day and have a peek underneath.A friend of mine from NSW was here today, and showed me some pics he took of an RSI New Beetle he took at a VW dealer in Orange about a month ago.V6 motor,4 wheel drive,big wheels,brakes and guards.Did any body see it? Awesome looking set of wheels.

hey
my mistake in the price its 32K (mixed up in the add) and its a dealer demo model, but dad has got the local VW dealer onto chasing him one up (he wants silver this ones black)
cheers
rhys

Thats the one you need to road test.If you like it, then screw them for a deal on a new one.The Dealer in Adelaide had one when ours arrived last August,and they were trying to sell it to my Mother,it had done 6,000kms and they wanted $4,000 more for it than we paid for a new one(with no sunroof)We had no trade ins so haggling was good fun.