VW Beetle (1998 - 2011 shape)
Discussion
My girlfriend has taken quite a fancy these as a replacement for her Peugeot 207 - whilst we all mock the Beetle for being a girly car, it's basically a mk4 Golf and thus a fundamentally decent, solid car underneath, and something I would definitely condone as a replacement for the French POS.
We're looking at spending maybe £2-3k on one, which appears to put us in reasonable-mileage 2002-2003 vintage. Would be looking for a 1.6 or 2.0 petrol, ideally a 1.6.
Thought I'd post here just to see if anyone has any experience with these or any buying info / experience to share, or things to be wary of?
Thanks a lot!
We're looking at spending maybe £2-3k on one, which appears to put us in reasonable-mileage 2002-2003 vintage. Would be looking for a 1.6 or 2.0 petrol, ideally a 1.6.
Thought I'd post here just to see if anyone has any experience with these or any buying info / experience to share, or things to be wary of?
Thanks a lot!
Decent enough cars. Although a fairly common fault is the oil pump failing.
I bought one in for my SIL, 100K miles 2001, one owner from new, silver. Nice enough car.
They had it a week and the oil pressure light came on. Fortunately they had the foresight to stop it immediately. Turned out the oil pump had failed - probably through lack of regular servicing.
Other than that, i've had no bad experiences with them. Pretty much a golf underneath.
I bought one in for my SIL, 100K miles 2001, one owner from new, silver. Nice enough car.
They had it a week and the oil pressure light came on. Fortunately they had the foresight to stop it immediately. Turned out the oil pump had failed - probably through lack of regular servicing.
Other than that, i've had no bad experiences with them. Pretty much a golf underneath.
i've posted on this before but here goes again, spare the jokes i've heard them all before 
the wife has had her 07 1.4 luna beetle in pastel yellow for near on 3 years now & it's been relatively stress free.
for what she uses it for it's fine-bimbling to work & back around town. good on fuel & serviceing is fairly cheap through our local specialist.
the only bugger has been the airbag warning light which came on when the car was still under warrenty. this necessatated a new drivers airbag that wasn't covered by the warrenty but we got plenty of goodwill so it wasn't all bad...
..until it came back on again. long story short is it's a design fault on the seat & you either need to adjust the loom or just rest the fault code every mot. not the end of the world but i was a bit pissed off at the supplying dealer (none vag) charging us for a spurious fix.
other than that it's fine. it can seat 4 adults with ease & as i said is economical enough around town but is horrendous on motorway journies. it's a 5 speed box that sits at around 4500rpm in the 75-80mph range, if you sit at 70mph or just below it's fine but try & motor on & it drinks the fuel.
apart from that it's been a good little car that she particualry loves which is the main thing.
routine servicing has amounted to a few oil changes & this year we did the cam belts & followers but that was still only around £250, we also replaced all the tyres due to age not wear (it's only done 34k), oe spec contis were around £75 per corner which i stuck with rather than going budget.
my only thing would be that it really needs parking sensors as you can't see the corners too well with the daft driving position being so far away from the windscreen & the slope of the rear.
we're selling it soon as she wants a 5 door so she wants a countryman, any questions feel free to ask
the wife has had her 07 1.4 luna beetle in pastel yellow for near on 3 years now & it's been relatively stress free.
for what she uses it for it's fine-bimbling to work & back around town. good on fuel & serviceing is fairly cheap through our local specialist.
the only bugger has been the airbag warning light which came on when the car was still under warrenty. this necessatated a new drivers airbag that wasn't covered by the warrenty but we got plenty of goodwill so it wasn't all bad...
..until it came back on again. long story short is it's a design fault on the seat & you either need to adjust the loom or just rest the fault code every mot. not the end of the world but i was a bit pissed off at the supplying dealer (none vag) charging us for a spurious fix.
other than that it's fine. it can seat 4 adults with ease & as i said is economical enough around town but is horrendous on motorway journies. it's a 5 speed box that sits at around 4500rpm in the 75-80mph range, if you sit at 70mph or just below it's fine but try & motor on & it drinks the fuel.
apart from that it's been a good little car that she particualry loves which is the main thing.
routine servicing has amounted to a few oil changes & this year we did the cam belts & followers but that was still only around £250, we also replaced all the tyres due to age not wear (it's only done 34k), oe spec contis were around £75 per corner which i stuck with rather than going budget.
my only thing would be that it really needs parking sensors as you can't see the corners too well with the daft driving position being so far away from the windscreen & the slope of the rear.
we're selling it soon as she wants a 5 door so she wants a countryman, any questions feel free to ask
The other half has owned many!! The 2.0 petrol is a very old engine and not very fuel efficient, given the performance you get out if it. Have never tried the 1.6. As much as I hate to say it, the 1.9 diesel is the best engine, if you can stretch the budget. Getting one with parking distance sensors is good, as difficult to judge the rears on these sometimes.
Have owned hatchback and convertible versions, all have been really reliable.
Have owned hatchback and convertible versions, all have been really reliable.
The missus had one a year ago and only kept it for 6 months. It may have just been that she sourced a pup but it seemed that different things went wrong every month on the damn thing. These included:
Air Bag light went on and off every other day
Engine Management light on (issue with throttle body)
ABS Light always on (new sensors installed with new pads still didnt fix the recorded fault)
Suspension was hash, very clunky
As a car it served her needs however she changed up as the boot was too small for her.
Air Bag light went on and off every other day
Engine Management light on (issue with throttle body)
ABS Light always on (new sensors installed with new pads still didnt fix the recorded fault)
Suspension was hash, very clunky
As a car it served her needs however she changed up as the boot was too small for her.
Thanks guys, they seem like a fairly safe bet overall. I just don't want to buy a lemon as she needs a reliable car for work, and whilst the Peugeot hasn't yet left her stranded, it's had a few niggles; it is newer than the Beetle will be, but I'm sure that is cancelled out by the Frenchness
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