2008 Volkswagen Beetle S 2.5 from North America
Summary:
This car stinks
Faults:
- Third brake light has come out four times.
- Various warning lights have appeared.
- Received recall notice for leaking fuel lines.
- The car makes strange creaks and pops for no reason.
- Secondary hood latch became stuck, not allowing the hood to fully close or open.
General Comments:
This car is absolutely terrible. The negative reviews on this site do not capture the pain and torment that is owning a VW New Beetle.
The suspension is made of stone. The seats feel like rock. The transmission feels as if there is a small man with a sledgehammer in there, changing gears whenever he feels like doing so.
The car has some power, but mine has a tendency to torque steer. The center of gravity is too high, so the car feels like it's going to flip in a more than gentle turn.
I hate this car, and I will never buy another Volkswagen. I have a good dealership, and they are very nice. But even the mechanics shrug when I take it in. They don't know what to tell me. Every time I am there, I see the repair bays full of Beetles, and occasionally one GTI or EOS.
It's just a horrible, expensive-to-fix hunk of junk. The bumper-to-bumper warranty is good, but do yourself a favor and dump it before it's up.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 8th May, 2012
4th Mar 2019, 03:22
We have owned our 2008 VW Beetle for 3 years now. Purchased used from the original owner at approx. 105K : it has 131K now. All systems function as designed, the car rides very comfortably, the interior has held up immaculately; some wear though experienced on the convertible cloth top, but quite minor (has been up and down hundreds of times so no surprise there) and is still water tight.
The manual transmission is a joy to shift and the car gets about 28 MPG on the highway. Only routine maintenance needed since new except for replacing a secondary air pump. The original lasted 131,000 miles.
I’d buy another in a heartbeat. The original owner was diligent at maintaining it and so were we. I guess that’s the key. Doing required maintenance instead of doing optional maintenance.
8th May 2012, 11:11
Please read your Consumer Reports annual auto issue that comes out every year in April... it has a section for good used cars. Very few VWs make onto their list... and no Beetles made their list this year.
VW has just come out with their newer version of the Beetle. Hopefully that will be a lot better model, and VW will stop dumping their unreliable Beetle on the American public...