Just got a new Beetle for my wife... anything I should know?

[goonthirty]

Got my wife a new Beetle (I prefer the oldies) for Christmas, it's an '06 Convertible. Anything from you more experienced owners I should know or look for?

[dimples0077]

keep EVERYTHING maintained!!!! Be checking everything in that car constantly, the rumor that parts and pieces are getting cheaper and easier to find for VW is not true. The spark plugs alone are expensive!!! Sorry just venting but yeah, just make sure to get the regular tune ups!

[dribbler]

Yes................... they are a lemon

[hako]

They're not all lemons, and the sparkplugs they use are exactly the same as any other car. Look after you NB just as you would any other thing you care about and it will give you years of good service. Mechanically they are a VW Golf and there is nothing exotic about them to cause grief.
What other car can give you the same feeling as when you ride in your NB!

[dbbyleo]

Originally Posted by hako

They're not all lemons, and the sparkplugs they use are exactly the same as any other car. Look after you NB just as you would any other thing you care about and it will give you years of good service. Mechanically they are a VW Golf and there is nothing exotic about them to cause grief.
What other car can give you the same feeling as when you ride in your NB!

I have 99 NB. I haven't have any major problems with the drive train (knock on wood...). If you have manual-tranny, you want to change your oil may be at 100K... regardless of what the dealer says about not having to. My got real sticky... I replaced it with RedLine's product, and the problem is gone.

Be prepared to spend a ton of money on small things failing and breaking.... such as your electric window mechnicals, your gas flap solenoid, your trunk latch parts, your window switches, your door lock switches, etc. 2 years after my bumper-to-bumper warranty was over, I spent $1000 in small minor repairs such as these. I got so mad, I wrote VW a letter and attached all the invoices. They eventually gave me $200 back. Real big of them!

If you ever let your battery die on you, like you left your lights on or your dome lights, you'll need to have the dealer reset your throttle bodies after you re-charge/place the battery. In fact, anytime you take the battery terminal off... expect the same. These will set you back $80-100 everytime... and all dealer does is hook up to a computer to fix this.

Speaking of computers... if you are a DIY kind of person, you can save yourself a lot of money by investing in a VAG-COM - find it at www.ross-tech.com. It's the computer software/cable that will allow you to diagnose why your check engine is on (for example among other things). I bought my and it paid for itself within 1 year in avoiding "diagnostic" costs from dealer... when the problem is only things like broken vacuum hoses, sensors, or even reseting the throttle bodies. It's a fantastic product with a huge user base and support at groups.yahoo.com.

Having said that, it's a neat little car with a lot of cool design aspects. I just wish the extra you pay also went toward quality, instead of just looks. I would never recommend buying a VW to anyone. May be the higher end models may be more quality made... but I can't vouch for them.

Good luck.