2000 Volkswagen Beetle tdi review from North America

At 111,400 miles, my dealer wants over $3,000 for maintenance repairs.

Drive and Timing Belts (I understand need replacement) dry rot. I had them replaced at 60,000. $1,182.

Glow Plug Relay and wiring harness + Water Pump w/coolant= $900. I had two previous Check Engine visits where they told me there was a fault with the glow plugs, but woudl just reset the computer. Now it costs me. They claim it's a different computer code.

Coolant Temp sensor = $78 OK.

Mass Air Flow Sensor = $818. Engine needs it, I suppose.

Fuel Filter = $110. replaced a year ago because the silly people didn't tell a new diesel owner that diesel gels below 15 degree Fahrenheit.

Oh, and once these repairs are done, the turbo may need to be replaced. = $2000. They don;t know until the 3K of work gets done.

Thye swore up and down that this was a great car that would run long. Repairs would be far and few between. I have spent nearly 1/2 of the original $18K in repairs and have 6 months left in payments.

Maintenance has been *expensive* form the get-go. It's $50 to replace a headlamp.

It rode great at the start, but performance decreased over time.

I loved its handling! She hugged the road tight.

The electrical in the windows goes wacky after a while. Other Beetle owners asked me if it happened to me yet whenever we met.

Volkswagen service is way too expensive.

Beetle owners: get rid of your car now. get something that costs less to repair.