2002 Volkswagen Beetle GLS from North America - Comments

Smells like a crayon!!!

Well at about 50,000 or so miles, my car started smelling like crayons!!! So I thought to myself my daughter must have shoved a crayon down the air vents!!! BUT NO!!! Here I find the confirmation to my nightmare!!! It's the car!!

So I called the dealership when I didn't know what was wrong with my car, and I said my car smelled like crayons, and as if the rep didn't know anything about VWs smelling like crayons, he said oh it's only 1,000 to take the dashboard part and look for the crayon!!! Ah! thank god I decided to look it up on the internet... well for those people that think that the smell is a VW trait, why does the car not smell that way right away? Why doesn't it smell that way when it's parked at the dealer? Because let me tell you something if that car smelled that bad (and it's not a little smell, it's like I get out of the car and I smell like a crayon!!!) I would have NEVER purchased that vehicle!!!

VW should know better and how long have they been making cars??? Don't they know what not to use!! I can't even imagine how bad that is to breath in anyways!!! So what are my choices?

1. SELL THE CAR? AND WHO WOULD BUY IT? AND IF SOMEONE DID BUY IT BECAUSE I SOME HOW MASKED THE SMELL, HOW TERRIBLE WOULD I FEEL?

2. TRADE IN THE CAR AND GOOD LUCK TO ME.. I'll get a penny!!!

I think it's time for a class suit!!! I am calling my lawyer... and if anyone is with me e-mail me at maria1985268@yahoo.com

VW SHOULD TAKE CARE OF THE ISSUE... NOT FAIR!!! PLUS PROBABLY NOT GOOD FOR YOU AT ALL!!!

I didn't believe this review at first, but if you google the phrase 'smell like crayons', there are a lot of results regarding VWs. It's either the undercoating or sound deadening material the factory used. One person even convinced VW or the dealer to buy the car back.

I can sense your frustration and your desire to get resolve. But if you try something like a class action suit, there has to be enough owners with a similar problem (and a lot of them too), plus the lawyers would have to prove that VW was negligent- that's not as easy as you think. Not to mention, this could be tied up in the courts for years. This should obviously be a last resort. In the meantime, here are a couple of solutions:

1. Try to locate the crayon smell. It's likely due to the kind of the plastic that was used for an interior component. I've heard of this before. Do some research. Get a couple of opinions if necessary, both at VW and independently. Remove the offending plastic and replace as necessary. That will solve your problem. You could even work out a compromise with the dealer to pay for the cost or go 50-50.

2. A more drastic situation would be to sell/trade-in the car. You mention, correctly, the lack of curb appeal with this problem. So I strongly recommend rectifying this problem first. Perhaps you could work a compromise with the dealer whereby they give you a handsome trade-in. Do research (on the web is fine) to find out what your car is worth approximately. If you trade up, many dealers are pretty accommodating, but you have to be clear what you want, otherwise you'll get less.

I definitely recommend #1 over #2. Your car is still young and has a lot of life ahead of it. The VW New Beetle is an unusual model in that it has remained relatively unchanged since its introduction in 1998. As a result, it has held its value well (comparatively) because of the lack of introduction of a new model (which immediately devalues a previous model). Granted there have been some reliability issues, especially with the earlier models (look at this website), but that seems to have improved significantly, the longer the car has been in production.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Good Luck.

I was lucky - our Jetta was leased so when the lease was up I just threw the keys at the dealer and told them good riddance! They steadfastly denied any crayon smells or anyother problems with the car after a half dozen trips to the shop. When I found out it had something to do with the undercoating on VWVortex dot com, I showed it to the dealer and they still refused. I hired a lemon law attorney and demanded that VWNA repurchase the vehicle, whhich they denied. Since by now the lease was only a year out and it was going to cost me out of pocket to engage VW, I sucked it up.

Complete bad faith by VWNA IMHO.

MY car was a Jetta, but I got in my buddy's Beetle and it brought back memories - same stink. It got to the point where no one wanted to ride in the car because it smelled toxic.

The crayon smell isn't that bad, it's not worth getting rid of. I kind of like it, it reminds me of my childhood. But really is it that bad?