2000 Volkswagen Beetle GLS from North America - Comments

Summary of Repairs:

Being I purchase this car used (only 14K miles), I inherited a problem the previous owner was unable to resolve, and the dealer was in denial of. I found out about this issue when at 25K miles, my fuel light came on with this loud beep noise it had never made before. I soon noticed a whole array of noises that the car had never made... like a beep when the lights are left on, a tone when the door was ajar, etc. Well it turns out that the insturment cluster had been pulled out at 10k miles (according to the dealer) when the previous owner had complained about all the warning tones stopping. The dealer took out the insturment cluster, found nothing wrong with it, then replace it. It then mysteriously started working, so they said all was fine.

I told the dealer that all was NOT fine, and this is a symptom of a previous unresolved problem. They Said it was unrelated, and refused to fix it as it was out of warranty. I called an begged VW Customer Relations, with no avail. At 35k miles, the speedometer ceased to work. Again they said it was unrelated. I paid $280 to have the cluster replaced and my keys reprogrammed. All is now fine with the cluster now. Sounds to me like the dealer was in denial!

At 50k miles, I had the rear O2 sensor fail. The dealer wanted $120 labor + $28 for the part. This replacement took me 10min to do.

At 90k miles I needed to replace the accessory belt. The dealer wanted $78 labor. I did it myself in 1min and 30 seconds. Easiest belt I have ever replaced!

At 98k miles It was time to replace my timing belt. The dealer wanted 8hours labor. I did it myself in 4, having never worked on a VW before this one. Are we seeing a pattern of overbilling for hours.

Keep in mind I would always get a qoute from 2-3 dealers, to ensure they were quoting right.

Incredible brakes. I brake VERY hard, and still on the original pads. The front pads were at 50% when I checked at 105k and the rear at 25%.

Clutch still works great, but since it has to fail some time, I called to see the replacement cost. The dealers want between 12-$1300 for this. They claim the parts are almost $600. I found the parts on the internet from a place that claims the get them from the SAME manufacturer as the dealers for a total of $218. I think I will be doing it myself...

All in all, I bought this car because I was so impressed with it's solid controlled ride and handling. It is every bit German as any BMW. After over 100k miles, still drive the exact same way! No creaks or noises either!

Well written review. It sounded very similar to my experiences with my vehicle and with the service.

My vehicle has been quite solid. After reading all of these reviews I feel incredibly fortunate and yet hesitant about my own vehicle. I can attest to the outrageous quotes given to me for minor repairs.

Since writing this review, the vehicle has been wrecked beyond repair. Cruise control set at 65mph, into the back of a stalled car on the freeway. No warning or chance to slow down.

I walked away with just seatbelt bruises. The vehicle does not even look that bad, until you look under the hood. One of the transmission mounts even came off completely. This vehicle may be small, but absorbs shock exceptionally well!

I had similar problems with my beetle; I bought it in 2005 from a certified Volkswagen dealership and they put brand new tires on it. 2 months later my tire went flat, then 5 months after that my headlights went out and maybe this is normal, but I had a Honda for 2 years and never had to replace anything.

Also one year after I had it I started having major electrical problems. First the alarm started going off and the only way to get it to stop would be to pull the fuse. I took it to the dealership 5 times for this problem and first it was the hood latch and a faulty brake switch, the next time it was the trunk latch, the third and fourth times it was the driver and passenger latches and windows, the fifth time I took it in, and this has all been in a month and a half, it was the hood latch again and that still didn't solve the problem. Then 3 months later my headlight went dead again, 1 month after that I couldn't get it started no matter what I did and had to have it towed to the dealership, where they said I had an air bubble in the fuel line, probably because I had just filled my tank to full, which confused me so I no longer put a full tank of gas in my car. During that visit I was told the serpentine belt was frayed and needed to be replaced.

Then in February of 2007 the interior lights started coming on when I would go 40mph or higher and they would either flicker on or off or just stay on until I stopped and turned the car off. So I took it in for that and got an oil change at the same time. Thankfully all of this had been under warranty, this warranty expired April 1 2007 and Mid May my timing belt jumped. One thing you should know about Volkswagen Beetles is that they have an Interference Engine which means that if your timing belt messes up it ruins your engine because the pistons hit the cylinder heads. The dealership I took the car to said it would be $6500 worth of engine damage. So I had them give me the inventory list for what needed to be replaced and it came to about $4500 worth of parts and $2000 worth of labor.

So by this point my family was involved and my father went in to speak with the service guy who was helping me and my dad told him that he thought they were over charging me for parts and labor and the guy basically told him that they probably were, but they could because they owned this area since there is only the one VW dealership in the entire area. So needless to say I will never buy another VW it has been the worst car experience of my life.

I had a 2003 Beetle and the back brakes and lights kept going out all the time. They kept "fixing" it under the warranty until the head lights went out on a dark 2 lane highway one night, and I almost wrecked the car. They claimed to have fixed that too, and when it happened again I traded the lemon. That car was owned for about a year and was in the shop 9 times. DO NOT BUY ONE, no matter how cute they are.