Interior space in front, head room!!!,
Great side visibility.
55 mpg on highway (Diesel).
Decent stereo.
No cigarette lighter. Allelujah!
Maneuverable and good acceleration.
Handled well in winter. Always started in cold weather.
Extended warranty covered many problems, but not all.
Comfortable seats.

Only small grownups or kids in back.
Cup holders are pathetic.
Unreliable service. In shop for over a month during 2 years of ownership.
Failures:
Both electric window openers,
Dash warning lights frequently on and unfixable by dealership.
Battery impossible to access or replace! (Took 90 minutes at a battery specialty shop!)
Windshield broke twice! (once while in the shop for another repair),
Transmission exploded, with a broken part spinning around inside punching several holes in the casing.

Attracted by design. Car was a ball to drive and made us the center of attention for entire time we owned it. Driven by teenage daughter for 6 months, which was very cool for her.
Eventual repair problems caused us to sell. Got almost what we paid for it because of mileage advantage, during the spring gas price rise.
May hve been a 1st year lemon.

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Various Hondas. Bug is cooler looking but less reliable. Essentially traded it for a Honda Accord. Liked it so much we bought another one of them for our daughter.
Banzai, meinen freunden.

The trunk in enormous, especially once you pop down the back seat. I bought a 27 inch TV and was able to fit the 40 something inch box in the back of my car! The pick up is amazing - it really moves!!!

Absolutely none.

(2000 Model) - This is the car I have been waiting for somebody to design. It looks great, is extremely safe, has tons of power, and you can park it anywhere. I may have paid a little extra to be one of the first people on the East coast to get the new Turbo Beetle, but I feel that it was worth every penny. You cannot be in this car and not be smiling. It just makes you happy.

Looks great for individuals that have fond memories of the old beetles.

The quality of the car stinks!! Some examples are - Exterior driver door lock falls out. Sun roof visor has come off its track, twice. Power window knob has broken off. Cost to fix fog light lens-3 hours labor plus parts. Gas mileage on the low end of the scale.

Frustration. Although no major mechanical breakdowns-yet, we have had numerous problems in just 2 years. Look into an extended warranty if you plan on owning the car for any length of time.

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At one time I owned a mid seventies VW Rabbit. It ran circles around this beetle for quality and gas mileage.

- styling (both exterior and interior)
- surprising back seat knee room
- nicely contoured seats with fabulous fabrics
- fit-and-finish
- controls glow red during night
- front seats that incline then move forward for entry to the rear seats

- lack of power (should have opted for 1.8T)
- loud engine (2.0L I4)
- little head room in back seat
- controls way too small
- lack of storage space
- really small map pocket
- somewhat taut ride
- heavy doors

My first car and i love it. The interior is stylish and functional. I love the seat fabrics and the comfort it provides, but it tends to attract a whole lot of dust and hairs. The front seats offer good room, and so do the rear seats although little headroom. The 2.0L I4 is acceptable providing enough power for everyday driving, though quite loud under hard acceleration and a/c saps much of the 115hp from the little four-banger. The exterior is cute, still turns heads wherever i go even though there are already thousands of it on the road. The power sunroof is a nice feature with no leaks or rattles. The suspension offers sort of a taut ride but is fairly comfortable. The head rests are definitely under-cushioned and is not suitable for protection the back of the head during an accident, though the design is nice. There was only one repair in its first year. The a/c had gone out and had to be fixed. Overall, a cute little commuter.

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none, good gas milage

-the engine caught on fire
-the a/c broke twice
-the battery totalled exploded
-the headlights have broken many times

it was a bad car

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Turbo, need I say more. A rather peppy motor, then add a turbo. Man this car flys. More power than you really know what to do with. We passed cars on the freeway, doing about 80, in third gear. The higher the RPM the more responsive it gets.

Little wimpy looking. to cute. But looks are deceiveing

Small, I am 6'6" and only looked at this car because my wife really wanted one. Boy was I ever wrong! Being able to roll the windows down with the key at the door, unlock the back all at the door.

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Golf gti 97.

Very fun to drive around in.

Reliability.

I love the look of the car; have always loved it. But it is very unreliable. In the nine months that I've had it, I've taken it back to the dealer half a dozen times and have had to fix: door motor, air pump (twice), fuel pump, combi valve, vacumn line. The engine also turns over excessively at times (I was advised to start using Chevron gas instead of Shell). I would NOT recommend this car.

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I had a 1990 Geo Prizm before I bought this car and it never once gave me any problems.

looks, handling, features.

there is not enogh room here.

Okay. I have read all the reviews and now its my turn.
The story starts out the same. The car was a thrill to drive and be seen in. Loved it and still do love THOSE qualities. But from almost day one i have been at the dealership trying to replace loose or missing trim. Both windows were acting up but thank god none of them just stopped. Had to have thermometer replaced and to this day at 12 noon it it reads 00:00. Is this a euro trick? anyhow, cluth began degrading 9000 miles and mentioned this to dealer who said it was fine of course. Well barely made it to 15,000 mile service and the clutch felt bad and slipped and smelled. Well wouldnt you know?? Well after having a heart attack when they told me it needed a new clutch they then told me that it would be covered because i had been complaining about it before. The arrogant jerks STILL say that i was being abusive?? This just gets me so mad when i read everyone elses review!! How dare they?? I have driven clutch my entire driving life! Also, i have noticed the oil burning problem as well and it is really lucky i just thought to look one day. The thing was not even registering on the dipstick!! So now i check it all the time. Out of all the junky old cars i have had, NOTHING ever used this much oil. A good 1-2 quarts between changes. I can go on but its the same stuff you all experience.
I want to know who VW thinks it is pawning this garbage off on us? I mean its a relatively affordable small car and hence i think people who are on a budget buy them. I cannot afford payments and 600+ repair jobs. How dare they? And what makes me even more mad are the dealerships covering there asses by making it seem like we dont take care of our cars!!! i begged them to let me trade for one of there used cars and they could not even bring themselves to help me with it. I want to know how we can defame this car!! I want the word spread out there!! I want to know when we all finally kick there ass for being so arrogant and blah about the whole thing? What other repair nightmares await all of us?? at 50? 60- 70 thousand miles?? I want to cry when i think about how much i have to worry about my brand new car. I hope i can unload this thing with minimal loss before the warranty expires. I just think we should all get together and make a website specifically for vw probs. I just dont know they are going to get away with it?? Anyhow, have a nice day...

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I used to have old beat up jettas and was always amazed how tight the engine always was. I could also justify spending money on some repairs. NOT on a new car in the year 2000. Puuulleeeeaaaaassse!!!!!!!!

fun to drive, unique styling

reliability - after a year and a half, I have had the following repairs:
1) Window regulator on driver's side has needed replacing 3 times.
2) Window regulator on passenger's side has needed replacing twice.
3) The speedometer has been replaced twice - the first one would reset the trip odometer at random times, the second one would not convert from Kilometers to Miles after installation.
4) The power window switch on the driver's side door fell off. (Actually, it flew across the car when it came off.)
5) Battery Cable under the battery hood corroded and broke in two.

I also have the following complaints/issues - glove box useless (too small - in fact, the car manual won't actually fit on the the shelf in the glove box meant for the manual!), cup holders useless, car occasionally seems to pause for a second when trying to start from a complete stop if the weather is hot, coolant level seems to keep going down without any discernable cause, engine eats oil rapidly with no discernable oil leak.

I was elated when I first got this car, but I'm afraid I'm regretting my decision to lease mine for 4 years. The car is nice looking, fun to drive, gets fairly good gas mileage, but has had very poor reliability. I'm afraid I can't recommend it.

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pffft all I can think of is it looks different.
No speeding tickets...even if you tried.

Built in Mexico, terrible quality (and I am hispanic so it is very embarrasing)
Slow, NO POWER, I can ride a bicycle faster than this thing.
Expensive for a normal car, VERY Expensive for car of this quality.

THIS CAR IS A PIECE OF JUNK...DOES NOT DESERVE TO WEAR THE VW EMBLEM!!!

This is actually a review for my wifes car. She drove it, but I paid for it and fixed it. She was on a waiting list for 4 months to buy this thing...salesman refused to haggle since people were lined up around the block to buy these ROAD PIMPLES. She or should I say WE paid more than msrp for it!!

If you complain about owning a car built in the USA that is nothing compared to owning a car built in Mexico. There is NOTHING GERMAN ABOUT THIS CAR, if you want a good german car go buy a Volkswagen GTI GLS 1.8T that car will outperform, outlast and is LOWER PRICED.

We knew we had to sell this piece of junk before the warranty ran out or else nobody would want to touch it. I swear it spend more time WAITING in line to be repaired than it spent being repaired. We had electrical problems (windows, radio, seat) transmission problems, AC problems and the worst one was the broken door handle and all this happened in less than 20K miles. There were more problems but my wife was so tired of walking that she started ignoring problems.

But hey if you think 'IT LOOKS SO CUTE' or 'I JUST WANT SOMETHING DIFFERENT' is more important than a car that will actually last more than 4 years you deserve this car.

Needles to say I warned my wife about this car after I saw the line of people waiting in the repair center (never a good sign). She wined and complained until We bought it. She is now driving a Toyota Minivan (zero complaints).

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97 Pontiac grand am gt - My daily driver like a Mercedes compared to the Beetle.
Volkswagen GTI GLS 1.8T - also ugly but a damn good car same price, faster
Honda civic or Toyota corrola or even pontiac sunfire are better choices.