2001 Volkswagen Beetle GL review from North America

The Volkswagen New Beetle was awful. I dreamed of that car from the time I was a child, and I finally was able to purchase it.

After about 3 weeks, the transmission blew out.

It was in the shop for a week and then a week after I got it back, the radiator went.

The next thing to go was the drivers side headlight.

Then the passengers side went a month or so later. The next problem was the oil. They never did figure out why, but it lost oil all the time. I was driving on the highway and the oil light came on, so we pulled off the next exit and went to a store right off of the exit - checked the oil - NONE showed up on the dipstick. We purchased 4 quarts of oil, waited until the car had cooled and the oil had settled, put 3 quarts in, and drove it to the dealership.

They looked at it, couldn't find out what was wrong and said that it must have just had a problem at the last oil change.

A month later, same thing. More oil had to be put into it and this continued for the next few months until my drivers side headlight went out AGAIN.

This time they made me PAY for the headlight even though it was only 5 months old. At that point I got rid of the stupid thing. I wrote a letter to Volkswagen, but to no avail.

A horrid car disguised in a very cute body. I loved the look of it, and it handled really well - when it was working...