2005 Volkswagen Beetle from North America
Summary:
Reliable, but a few irritating aspects of the car
Faults:
About a week after buying the car new, the airbag light on the dash came on. Evidently this indicates that the airbags are either not working or are not activated. A few days after that, the rear cup holder would not push back into place.
General Comments:
I've never enjoyed driving huge cars, so I wanted the smallest thing I could find. The Beetle was cute and definitely small. I love how it holds the road - takes curves well and wind doesn't seem to have any effect on it.
However, there are a few things that are just irritating about the car.
Road noise seems to be getting worse the more miles I put on it. At first it was pretty quiet, but now it seems to rattle at every bump in the road and especially at highway speeds.
The car gets about 30 MPG on the highway, but around the city it usually gets only 23 MPG. This was pretty disappointing to me seeing that it is such a small car; seems like it should get more than that.
Also, the cup holders in the front of the car are at a strange angle. There are two, but you can only fit one cup in there unless they're extremely small.
The engine seems to rev up at very low speeds. When trying to get up to speed quickly, it almost feels like the engine is about to burst...
Overall, it's a reliable car, but just a few design flaws that should be fixed.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 8th January, 2006
24th Dec 2009, 11:59
I agree with all comments this reviewer made. We bought a 2005 VW New Beetle and had some problems, we were lucky to buy an extended warranty when we bought the used car.
Problems we had:
- Airbag light: tech reseated the plug.
- Left side headlight, we took it in to replace bulb, no easy access to change the light bulb. I believe you need to get the access from the front-side wheel well. Also, I asked them to change the right side as well but they said they don't do that unless it's out. I guess it's also because he didn't charge me for this service.
- Airbag light: They changed the front-passenger-side airbag. After almost the full day, I got it back and it didn't fix it. I took off and notice airbag light was gone. The service rep notice he something that when you locked-up the seat belt to that area, airbag light was gone. I had to take it in another day for them to fix.
-Right side head light went out now. This time I got charged for this repair.
- Took it in because replacing the light bulb for the glove box didn't work. I told them it never worked when we bought the car. They fixed it under warranty. Fix was blown fuse and also the connector to the light bulb housing was not seating right; they replaced the housing as well.
- Got a weird problem it happens a lot, but not a consistent thing; when we slow down, our automatic Beetle slams hard to the the last gear... not a smooth transaction on the last gear. I took it in and they couldn't duplicate problem. Told me to keep an eye out on it and take it in when it happens more, this time, they will need to send out a special request to have a different tech from the main company to service this problem.
Dislikes:
- Agree with reviewer, lots of noise, creaks and wind noise, but I guess it's because we have a '05 convertible beetle.
- Also dislike the coffee holder, located in the front-middle. You have tome swing out the coffee holder out at times, and also it can swing out on it's own. They need to redesign it.
- Not enough light for night time to see in the car. Only light in the interior is the center mirror and the glove box. I think the convertible should have some type of small dome light on the side walls in the rear seating.
After our extended warranty runs out in about 2-3 years, we plan to buy a different car.