Hi I'm Al, the creator of this site
and the second driver of Nancy's New Beetle.
What follows is my impression of our first
1000 miles in our new toy

First of all I would like to say that up until now I was a died in the wool believer that the only good cars were American cars. Driving the new beetle has caused me to alter my opinion, especially when it comes to Volkswagens.

Nancy and I live 45 miles from our workplace so we have lots of time each day to evaluate our vehicle. So far our new bug has proven to be an outstanding ride. The seats are very comfortable and you get the feeling that you are driving a much larger vehicle. The car handles very well at highway speeds (even when you are traveling down a crooked and bumpy back road. Local law enforcement please disregard this statement.) and there is very little road noise transmitted to the passenger compartment. The fuel economy with the diesel is great. We haven't done an actual mileage calculation yet, but we went over 600 miles on the first tankful. Another thing that I am impressed with is how quiet the engine sounds. Most people don't believe us when we tell them that it's a diesel.

We live in a fairly remote area and radio reception is often a problem for us. We like to listen to NPR news in the morning and with all of our other vehicles we have to switch stations every time we go over a hill. This is not a problem with the beetle, the reception is rock solid all the way to work.

This little car is quite an attention getter also. It seems like we can't go 10 miles without someone waving, beeping or pointing at the car. We didn't know that celebrity status was standard equipment.

Now for the negative points. Don't worry they are minor, but what kind of a review would this be if I didn't find something to complain about?

The "running boards", at least that is what they used to be called, should be coated with some sort of scratch resistant material. It requires a conscious effort to get in or out of the car without dragging your foot over the running board and scratching the paint.

The turn signal and wiper controls are mounted a little too close to the steering wheel. I find myself hitting them by mistake occasionally while steering the car. I believe that I will learn to adapt.

The fuel gauge does not go all the way to FULL even when you can see fuel in the filler neck. It stops at about 7/8 of a tank. Not that this actually matters, it is just irritating.

Well enough with all the negative stuff, I think that our new beetle is a great little car and anyone who can get their hands on one of these scarce little jewels would be wise to do so.

5/4/98 update: We bought our second tank of fuel and checked the mileage. We got 45.4 mpg and this time the fuel gauge went all the way to FULL so the mileage may actually have been even better. We have noticed a little plastic squeak coming from the dashboard. It seems to be coming from around the radio. We will ask the dealer to check this when we go in for service.

5/11/98 update: We bought our third tank of fuel and experienced a mileage improvement. This time we got 51.3 mpg. We purchased a CD player from the dealer and experienced some difficulty. We discovered that the dealer had failed to give us the section of the owners manual which covered the sound system. This booklet also includes the security code for the radio. This code is required to make the radio recognize the CD player. Also the installation of the CD player mounting bracket requires drilling holes in the car and the template to layout the holes is not included with the parts. The CD player and mounting bracket costs about $350. Since no instructions were included with the parts I am taking the car back to the dealer for installation. We have also noticed that the car consistently pulls slightly to the right. We will have the dealer check the alignment when he has it for the Cd player installation. The car is running great! Now that we have a few miles on it I decided to see what it could do out of the hole and to my surprise it broke the tires loose a little when I hit second. Even with the P205 55 R 16's. Not bad performance for a diesel!

5/20/98 update: In order to install the CD player you have to drill out the mounting holes which requires a special template that is not provided with the bracket. The dealer had the template and installed the bracket with no problem. However the player which they had sold me turned out to be defective. They replaced the defective player, but the player and one of my CDs which was stuck inside is on its way back to Volkswagen. Also we were not given the Audio System portion of the owners manual when we purchased the car. The security codes for the radio are in this portion of the owners manual so the dealer had to remove the radio to get the serial number and then call VW to get the codes. I now have the codes, but still do not have the manual. We received the wiring problem on Saturday, but as of Monday the dealer did not have the instructions to make the repair. We will check back. Here is a picture of the CD player.

5/20/98 update: We had the battery box recall installed this week and got the royal treatment. The dealer washed, waxed and vacuumed the car, filled the tank (if I knew that they were going to do that, I would have brought it in bone dry) and even put fresh flowers in the bud vase. The next day we got a call from our local florist saying that Nancy had a delivery. When we stopped by to pick it up, we found that it was a bouquet of flowers from Morong (our dealer). I guess they feel guilty for letting the car go to production with this serious safety flaw. We also received our new license plates this week. We choose to use our internet address because NEWBUG was already taken.

11/1/98 update:This will be the first service that we have had to pay for so I hope it isn't too much of a shock. The only problems that we have had so far is that the odometer has stopped functioning a couple of times and and the coating on the interior door handle on the passenger's side has started to bubble up and peel. We intend to have these items checked when we have it in for service. The odometer is really strange. It stopped working for more than a week, but when it started again it remembered all of the miles that it didn't display and jumped ahead about 1100 miles. So much for my idea of extending the warrantee! The only design feature that I can find anything to complain about is the extreme lack of ground clearance. We have some pretty bad roads up here in the sticks and you need to be real careful anytime that you leave the pavement in the bug. I am wondering how it will do in the snow because of the low clearance. I guess I won't have to wait long to find out. Here in Maine the snow comes early and sometimes it gets pretty deep. (Some people say the same thing about my writing, but I think that they are referring to another browner substance.)

If you have comments or opinions relative to the new beetle, email them to me and I will post them on this page.