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Updated by user Feb 16, 2013

I made a mistake of my calculations... I've actually spent $1,493.00 in 8 months

Original review posted by user Feb 16, 2013

Well, when many people told me not to buy a Volkswagen, I simply ignored them and thought, "they are a ford/Chevy die hard fan, what do they know?" Turns out, then know a lot! I bought my 2002 Volkswagen Beetle Turbo off of an old couple. They wanted to sell it so they could get a van to haul their grand kids around. I was so happy to buy it. It's been my dream car since I was a freshman in high school. And there I was, a sophomore in college getting my dream car. I fell in love at first sight. She was bright yellow, a sunroof to tease my hair, and the coolest interior I've ever seen. But that's about all it was, pretty. Eh, about 1 month of having my car, I was driving down the bypass with my pregnant friend in the passenger seat. We were having a good ole' time! When suddenly, my abs light blinks, radio shuts off, and then there goes my car. Everything off going down the bypass at 50 mph. I've always been a quick thinker, thanks to playing softball since I was 4. I quickly went in the center lane, and by the grace of God whipped it into Ryan's restaurant parking lot. Now sitting there with a pregnant woman, who is hysterical might I add, I am trying to think of what to do. Once again, thanks to my Father up above, my uncle calls me asking what I was doing. I told him I'd broke down. So he quickly came to help. In the meantime, my friend had called her mom to pick her up. Her mom waited to make sure my uncle came before she left. Well there me and my uncle are with the hood up. It was very hot! But since it was raining I'm sure that helped.... The motor that is. I was still hot headed. We lifted up the fuse link cover and there it was! A fuse link had been completely melted in half, along with half the fuse link box! My fuse link had caught on fire! My uncle is a great hillbilly rigger, so we went down to the o'reilly store and bought 3 fuse links to put together so it would equal the amount that was there before, since they didn't sell any of the ones I needed (of course). That was $7.00. We ended up having to buy a completely new fuse box! Totaling $56.00..... Thank you volkswagen for story #1 :)

Now, story #2 is a trip!

I was always having trouble starting up my car. Sometimes I had to be jumped off. Really embarrassing when your picking up your boyfriend at his high school and his fellow classmates have to jump you off. Anyways, we traveled to advance to see if they could check my battery. Sure enough it was dead! We bought a battery totaling $20.00. It was an interstate battery that had been clearanced. Not a thing wrong with it, just it sat on the shelf too long. But problem is, no one could get the old battery out. It's been bolted in. So naturally, you have to take it to the dealership. When they were done, they charged me $200.00.

Thanks again volkswagen.

Story #3

On my way home from work, suddenly my car shuts off. . . Again! I was stranded on the side of the road. I called my uncle to help. I didn't call my parents simple because their both sick. I don't want them worrying. But my uncle came after he finished closing up his shop. He popped the hood, nothing was wrong. He started my car right up. But earlier it wouldn't even turn! Never knew what happened.

Story #4

In December 2012, I was driving home from work, I was 2 miles from my house when, once again, my car shuts off going 45 mph. This time was so joyful, my power steering went out along with it. I pulled off, straining, into a side road that I knew. I then steered it into a driveway that was up for auction. I tried to start my car several times, but it wouldn't turn at all. As a girl, I cried. I was so tired of things messing up. I have bills to pay. I shouldn't have to worry about something messing up on my car every month. So I called a guy I go to church with who lived on the same street. He was there within 5 minutes to try and help me. He couldn't figure it out. So he went across the street to get our pastor. When my pastor arrived, he was checking everything. We couldn't figure anything out. The kid from church drove me home. I had to get my car towed to the mechanic my rather knew own the street. Towing was $50.00. When the mechanic got to look at it, he broke my heart. My timing belt broke at 74,000 miles. I had no idea when I needed to change my timing belt. Volkswagen doesn't send out mail like everyone else. So I had to have it towed, again, to a mechanic 6 miles away. Which cost me another $40.00. The mechanic is an amazing person. He is cheaper than everyone else around. He is a good guy. After he fixed all 20 valves, replaced my timing belt, head, and hoses. It cost me a heart wrenching $1,070.00. Once again, thanks volkswagen.

Story #5 (final & continuing story)

Well, 3 days ago, I was at Walgreens and was fixing to leave to go to work. When suddenly, you guessed it, my car wouldn't start..... It would start then die.... Start then die.... Then nothing. I had to have it towed again :) $40.00. We towed it to the same mechanic who fixed my valves. He got to looking at it and told us it could be the key or the security system. He's not sure which one. But either way we have to get it towed to Johnson city. .... To be continued

To some of you, it may seem like I got off good. But I'm a college student whose parents can't help her at all because their both dealing with an illness. I have a minimum wage job, working 30 hours a week plus a full time college schedule. I have a car payment, insurance payment, and phone bill. These car troubles cripple me. Sad thing is, volkswagen knows they have all these problems and yet refuse to find the problems and fix them for good. They haven't had a recall either. I will never own another volkswagen again.

Monetary Loss: $1293.

Location: Greeneville, Tennessee

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Guest

Ever look back at an old post and think "why did I post this?" I was young and head strong. This taught me a good lesson of taking others' advice.

We live and we learn. Enjoy the soap opera written above.

Guest

I'm really sorry you had so many issues with this car. VW's really aren't bad cars, you just have to know what your getting into with a used one or make sure you're buying one brand new.

They can be finicky. I, myself, have always driven a Honda or Acura, which in my opinion are some of the best cars on the road. Until recently, I have always had the good fortune of always driving a brand new car, leased or purchased. This last Acura I purchased outright, it's a 2002 MDX with 150k miles.

Before buying it, I researched it for about a month prior & knew what I was getting into & what to expect. That particular model year had two open recalls, one for the transmission & another for the front springs. Since the recalls were safety issues, the dealer honored the recall & fixed the issues before I even signed the papers & wrote them a check. Even though it is an older vehicle, I have always been really fond of that particular body style of MDX & am so satisfied with my purchase.

Hope you're having better luck with your mazda, a car I particularly don't care for, because they have rotary engines & tend to wear quicker than other engines, but that's just me. Good luck.

Guest

Welcome to the real world. Good luck.

Guest

What is the VIN of your vehicle?

Guest

amen sister, Im going through the same with my vw bug.

Guest

I Leased this car brand new in 2002. At 300 miles computer went.

Then ignition coils recall was done. Window regulator recall (cant remember if my window dropped or not but that was the issue.) CD Changer stopped working and finally armrest latch broke. In 2004 I totaled the car.

I actually loved the car but today i am so thankful i am out of it after hearing what nightmares others are having with VW. LOL, considered a 2014 VW Beetle R line convertable, so glad i went with the 2014 Miata.

Guest

That's why the Bug , Bora and EOS VW'S were discontinued great cars with inherent engineering issues.

Guest

You buy a 11 year old car, The timing belt breaks, and it is the fault of Volkswagen cause you did have the belt replaced the at the proper interval?

Sounds like this old couple knew what they were selling, and you got stuck with their old car that had issues they did not make known to you.

Of course, you chose to ignore the advice of others and NOT buy this car.

Guest

buy a Mercedes and spend 3,000.00 for a window, nothing is guaranteed for life

Guest

Had two VW's (purchased new) and both were highly problematic. By the way, there is no god.

We come into this world alone and we leave it alone.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1022208

So true on the God thing and the VW new beetle thing I'm glad to see some people have a brain

Guest

Sell it! To expensive to maintain.

Dealer hourly rate to high and most garages don't know what they are doing. We have a 02 VW diesel , love the car but do not trust it any more. Waiting for it to break down again.

Put a lot more in the than have. It is a car that takes constant maintains.

Lizzy Wfp

I love my 2002 Turbo S

It now has over 200k miles

Its on its 3rd timing belt and water pump as routine maintenance by myself,easy job took around 90 minutes from start to finish $130 in parts each time.

Dipstick tube broke $9.00

Drivers door actuator at 200k miles, door window motor and door wiring harness, got all used for under $175 easy fix.

Still has original clutch working great. 3rd battery since new.

4 sets of tires since new Oil changes every 2100 miles And has no check engine light on or any others except a low fuel light on occasions. Only new problem is it needs a new hood lift support I'm over 50 yrs old and treat this car with respect and it treats me good

Guest

I hate that all this happened to you. But batteries fail -- and you got one for $20!

That's wonderful! They're usually up around $60-$80 for that vehicle. As for the timing belt, no company I know of sends out warnings about timing belt replacements unless you buy the car new and are on some sort of mailing list. The owners manual in the car has the maintenance intervals for that stuff as well.

If not, the internet and dealer both know those things -- just call or look it up.

I am sorry to hear that you had so many problems, but some of those are just normal age problems. The engine in that beetle is an "interference engine". That means the valves open into the cylinder area occupied by the piston, so if any are open when the piston comes up, they are destroyed. Thankfully it was ONLY the vales.

Many times it's the piston that is damaged -- and that's either an entire engine rebuild or even another engine. If you have a vehicle with an interference engine and something causes the valves to stop (the timing belt breaking does this) it's bad news.

Again, I feel for you and the problems you have had. I know that it is difficult.

I also think you shouldn't be insulted. But much of the problems were just "age" issues and you must read and understand the maintenance on the vehicles you own, and act accordingly.

God Bless you.

Guest

Hey guys. I forgot my login, naturally, so I have to post as anonymous.

But, my fuel injector also went bad in this car... So I finally got rid of it!! I hated this car... I am now a proud owner of a Mazda.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post!

I hope I helped a few people out. God Bless!!

Guest

we own a 2002 sport.

what an unbelievable heep of ***.

I have owned 5 used vehicles the past 25 years and combined they haven't costed 1/10 of what this piece of *** money pit vw beetle has.

what a complete incompetent poor excuse for a car this is.

when its time this car will be ghost driven of the highest cliff in California I can find!!!

Guest

I'm 50 year old man who got a great deal on a 2002 VW beetle turbo S six speed with fancy wheels and sunroof..The car immediately had have new battery and alternator after owning it couple weeks..Then rack in pinion steering was going bad causing power steering fluid to pour out..Then air conditioner tore up then the lights all went bad then the starter then something if I remember fuel throttle if I'm saying that correctly went bad and this college girl you all can rag on her all you want but I'm fairly mechanicaly inclined and in my life ive easily drove over million miles using various vehicles and I can categoricaly say volkswagon is the absolutely worse vehicle ive ever drove and has matter of fact ive had more problems in last year with volkswagon than previous 30 years with all vehicles combined ive owned i'm stating the truth the VW is a piece of junk id say far as im concerned its the worse car on the road....

Guest

omgg same thing here i have wasted $ 2000 and my 2002 beetle doesn't work and til this day i am having those problems all over again don't :sigh recommend anyone to buy VW beetles lots of problems

Guest

Agreed, you bought an old car and have to perform maitanence on it? Go figure.

The only legitamite problem was the melted fuse box.

Did you have a mechanic look at the car before you bought it? If you dont know anything about a car, dont buy from a private sale, they may not know whats wrong with it either, only that they want to get rid of it.

Guest

You are a fool and should not be allowed to own a car. You buy an 11 year old turbo car and expect no problems.

Get real and get a life. It is real tough to change a battery.

Could have been done by Pep Boys and you take it to a dealer. You are a scary critter who should stick with a motor scoooter!!!!!!!!!!!

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