TheSamba.com :: View topic

Tue Oct 31, 2017 12:59 pm

Everyone I know that's owned new VW's from 2000 onwards has had nothing but problems with them. Transmissions, electrical, rust, cheap plastic parts installed in radiator connections that fail, etc, etc..

I rented a brand new 2013 new beetle on vacation out of curiosity. It was a total POS. Gutless, all plastic. It just felt cheap and drove like it. Anyone who bought one new was IQ challenged.

Now VW is doubling down. They are advertising their extended warranty on all new VW's while playing on the nostalgia of their golden days of the 60's with the bus in the commercial. 6 years, 72k miles. I bet that attracts some foot traffic back into the dealers.

My 2015 Honda just went out of basic warranty. 36k miles or 3 years or 5 years 60k miles power train. I'm not feeling real good about this short warranty. It's already been back to the dealer for new AC hoses that leaked at 20k miles. Fingers crossed nothing else fails anytime soon.

Thu Nov 02, 2017 12:05 pm

Well, our 69 bug is the only VW we've ever owned, but my dad bought it brand new and we still have it. Does that count as "sticking with VW?"

Wed Feb 14, 2018 3:56 pm

I started with a 1973 Super Beetle when I was 19.

I went through 14 other VWs, mostly Beetles, Buses and Ghias. Had to leave for University on the left coast. Sold my 68 Beetle to pay for the first Semester of tuition and bought a 77 Scirocco. Drove cross country with it. No big. Swapped that for a 71 Bus that I cross countried with for 3 years. Lost my mind and sold it for a Porsche 924, which was FUN, but was exactly a capacity hauler.

Exited the scene for 10 years driving mostly Toyota that you couldn't beat to death with a stick, esp. my wife's 83 Cressida, which had the DOHC 2.8 straight six from the Supra. We stayed a Toyota family until I bought a 72 Super Beetle and decided to rebuild it. Many moons and $$$$ later, the damn car owned me, and attracted the wrong sort of attention in Philadelphia. Sold it to a collector and got a 77 Bus. Was given a 2000 Jetta, which despite being made out of plastic, has run fairly well. But it is getting to the 185k POP! mark where the auto trans falls out of the bottom of the car. I expect it will expire this year.

A new VW? As many have already said, after VWoA abandoned us in the 1980s and then went on a lawsuit spree (which they did not need to do; there's C&D and then there's the kind of assholery that sues over a vintage dienst sign outside my local shop. They went all in for the second kind.)

After that, it was nothing to do with a modern VW for me. The Jetta was given to me by family at a time when we didn't have the scratch to replace my Corolla which I had been in a serious accident with. So I drive the Jetta until the autobox falls out. I've got a lot more respect for Subaru now than I ever had for VWoA.

There are three VWs: VWoA, which never did give a damn about its customer, even back in the day. There is the modern VWAG who seem to have learned all of the worst lessons from VWoA and applied them globally, and there was the pre-68 Nordhoff era, where they made damn fine cars that the owner could maintain themselves. But Heinz has been in the ground my whole life, and I just play with the legacy vehicles that still had some of his influence.

webwalker

Fri Feb 16, 2018 8:55 pm

... have had almost 100 air cooled VWs... have never owned a water cooled VW. I'm a Nippon man, after 1967 VW s... Honda AND Toyota

Sat Feb 17, 2018 8:33 pm

aAways had ACVW's mostly as secondary cars except when i had my 67 bug as my daily before i went away to college. Since then i have had Hondas as my daily appliance and usually get over 200k+ out of them. Current CRV 2014 has 130k of issue free driving and the 2008 crv before that got to 252k or so before the driver side door lock wouldnt lock anymore and i traded it in for the newer 2014 for blue tooth and the "newness".

Had a 1991 Fox 2 door i bought new and loved. Drove it for awhile and sold it for more than i owed VW. Bought a 01.5 Passat in late 2002 and traded it in on a new 04 accord. The passat was a money pit. custom vw only wiper blades?! 70 dollar oil changes? No thanks.

My mom had an 06 NB convertible. Total garbage. Windows didnt line up, the quarter window stopped going up and down and then the passenger door window broke for no reason. Total turd

Sat Feb 17, 2018 9:06 pm

Funny how so many of us have air cooled VW's in the garage and Honda's or other Japanese cars in the driveway. Wasn't Japan's cheap, entry level cars of better quality in the early 70's that sent VW in a spiral?

Maybe I'm getting grumpy as I get older but I simply have a bad taste in my mouth with VW abandoning any parts support for their classic VW's that made their company. Of course, they use these same air cooled VW's in all their latest advertising campaigns. :roll:

So to recap, VW abandoned their customer base who bought these cars in their heyday. They knowingly lie and cheat with their emissions. Their current lineup of cars quality isn't anything to brag about.

Sat Feb 17, 2018 10:59 pm

I have not had a VW as my daily year round driver since 2001. Actually have never had any water-cooled VW as a daily. (my 1970 Beetle was my daily for 17 winters). All my daily drivers for the last 17 years have been Toyota's and Honda's bought very cheaply, usually with very high km, and all of them were completely reliable, (other then my crappy $100 Acura). I work on late model VW's all the time and have no interest in buying one of them whatsoever...

Sun Feb 18, 2018 5:46 am

Not trying to be a VW apologist, but VW did what every other auto maker does. You can say they abandon their older vehicles, but lets be fair ... ALL automakers do it. None of them offer much support for their "classic" vehicles. Go into any dealer of almost any make and ask for parts for a 1957 or a 1969 model and see what happens.

I have ordered lots of parts to help my Pops rebuild a 1957 Chevy pickup, and none of those parts come from Chevrolet. :wink: Anything past 10-15 years old and you will find very little dealer support.

Sun Feb 18, 2018 8:31 pm

obus wrote: 70 dollar oil changes? No thanks.

don't buy anything that takes A5/B5...you'll miss the 70.00 oil changes.

Mon Feb 19, 2018 10:24 am

Almost 15k miles in on my GTI, and I love my car. Completely different vehicle than the aircooled rides, and the love is different as well.
I’ve been in same year (2017) cars from Honda, Toyota, and Subaru. Volkswagen’s quality, at least aesthetically, is bar none. I think it’s the best on the market under 30.
Toyota is my sister’s 4Runner, which ran $46k. Not impressed.
Tuning to come, and probably going to lower it about an 1”, not trying to be a young punk, it’s just such a joy to drive.

Mon Feb 19, 2018 11:08 am

I started with Air Cooled Type I's in the 1960’s..... have had literally dozens of Beetles, Ghias, Buses, square backs, etc.

I am the guy that STRUGGLED with VW's horrible update of the Beetle in 68, though I completely embraced the 67.
Then when the 70's rolled around and the Super Beetle came....... I was done with VW.
I absolutely hated the Vanagon when it came out, though I ironically own a 86 Westy today. I outgrew my hate I guess?

I didn't like when they made the move to pumping water, I didn't like how the prices soared either, so I moved on to Japanese. Datsun and Toyota mainly. Haven't ever owned a Honda....... Have had a Mazda.

Funny but during the 60's /70's while I was the VW guy, my brother was THE Corvair guy!
He loved those cars.

Ironically as the years ticked by and I went over to the Asian offerings, he went to VW. He has had VW's for decades and is currently driving a Tiguan.

I'll probably never have a new VW in my driveway.
There is a 69 Ghia in the snow waiting for some love.....

Dave

Wed Feb 21, 2018 11:35 pm

Grew up in VW Bugs. Dad was stationed in Rhode Island in the Navy in 71. I was born in March that year and Dad flew home (Whittier, CA) to then turn around and drive Mom and I cross country in a 68 Bug. Out of the Navy, the parents bought a 73 Super. That was the family car until it was rear ended in rush hour traffic on a freeway in 89. I bought my 55 in 87. Parents bought a Rabbit after the Super accident. I sold the 55 and got a 71 Square Back. Sold that and went to work at an independent VW repair shop. Drove thousands of air and water cooled VWs. Went on a no VW segment in life due to marriage, house buying, health issues, kids. Starting 6 years ago, started restoring Bugs again. Not goving them up again. Will always have a Bug in the garage from here on out.

Thu Feb 22, 2018 7:00 pm

As you can see from my signature, I'm a bus guy. In my 19 years driving I've only ever had an air-cooled VW as a daily driver. My wife drives a toyota sienna and we had a 1995 toyota corolla for a while. We keep the GTI for when she doesn't need the van anymore; she loves that car. We bought a 2010 Tiguan brand new at a really good deal, and though it was a blast to drive when it ran right, it was a lemon. I would never buy a new VW these days (petroleum powered anyway). IMHO the last good VW was the mk4 range, anything mk5 or greater is over-engineered, unreliable, expensive junk.

Sat Feb 24, 2018 6:54 pm

Hmm...
59 splitty van - mine - gone
61 Beetle - parts
64 Beetle - sister
66 Beetle - mine - sold
66 squareback - sister
68 Bettle - mine - wrote off by a drunk
70 van - parts
69 7 pass van - Dad - I have it now
70 411 squareback - waiting resto
71 squareback - sister - sitting in my yard
71 Super Beetle - mine - the best ever Bug!- sold
73 westy - parts
74 Audi Fox - to use a spare Rabbit engine in - drove until too rusty
76 Rabbit - mine bought new still have it
83 Rabbit - turbo diesel lasted through me, daughter, brother and a friend - finally died - over 400K
92 Jetta - daughter - still have 360K waiting on a head gasket
02 Jetta TDI - daughter - 370K running good
04 Jetta TDI - 470K running good deer hit - right off
04 Jetta TDI - 380K running good - roll over
06 Jetta TDI - daughter 300K serious junker and rust bucket - traded off
Toys:
vintage undetermined - sand rail - current
72ish Manxs clone - serious money pit - too stubborn to give up, current
83 & 85 944 awesome! very durable/dependable! current

The TDIs were the undisputed best VWs we have ever owned both from a dependability and cost/mile stand point the exeption being to 06. Since the demise of the TDI nothing VW offers now interests me.

Exept maybe the TSI... the jury will be out on that one until I see how they stand up.

Just put in an order for a used 02 Lupo, 67K, good gas mileage I hear...

Tue Feb 27, 2018 7:46 am

Bought my wife a loaded new beetle in 2001. 15 times in the shop in 2 years, took a beating when I traded it in for a Mazda. Mazda went 13 years without ever seeing the inside of a shop.

I was looking at a Passat TDI the other day. You can pick them up for a song right now. That's about the only newer VW I'd buy.

I'll withhold judgement on the electric bus until it actually arrives, but I really want that one to be a good car.

Thu Mar 08, 2018 10:01 pm

Full Circle:
Our family in the dune buggy 1969:

Family of bugs all '67s, moms the white, brothers the half n half, mine the blue, parts bug on the right. Buggy is behind brothers bug.

My '67

It got stolen so got a '64 baja:

It got wrecked so bought a buggy, baja is still in the garage as well as a '63 baja under construction

VW Thing, actually a Personenkraftwagen bought in Germany, drove to Turkey and shipped and sold in Okinawa Japan:

Still have the original buggy from '69, just different color and go fast parts:

Got back to Germany and bought a 2011 Touareg nad a 2015 Sharan. Couldn't be happier with reliability and performance. Both diesels get over 28mpg and fly on the autobahn.

I was without a VW for almost a year before I got the family buggy shipped to me...other than that 49 years with VW, blood sweat tears and VW Oil.

Fri Mar 09, 2018 5:47 am

I don’t get the VW hate BS. Yes they did away with aircooled, but so did Porsche in the long run. Should they perhaps have supported the ACVW market more? Maybe, but look how friggin cheap VW owners are. It isn’t feasible to continue producing OEM replacement parts for a market that would rather buy 5 $1 replacement parts and dick around with it trying to get it to work than one $10 part that you can stick in and run without any issues. Eventually, some of us realize this, but a lot never do. And I plead guilty to this as well. Until VW owners stop being cheap asses we won’t have nice things. Funny thing is, as prices have been shooting up, typical VW hobbyists are being pushed out. How many times have we heard people here bitch that they are considering getting out of the hobby becsue it’s getting too expensive. They can’t buy rust free cars for $1000 anymore so they are taking their ball and going home. Do you think these cheapskates will pay $3-400 for an OEM quality distributor?

Currently we as a family own 5 VWs. Three vintage ACVWs and 2 new. I’m happy with my 13’ JSW. Only issues I have is the stupid valve body is predictably going out at the typical 100k mark and the interior does weird crap when it gets wet. Impractical for a family that goes to the beach often and has kids with wet bathing suits in it often. Wife’s 14’ NB has some odd issues going on with the roof where it seems to be delaminating or something and go figure it’s just out of warranty. No more or less issues than any other vehicle I have owned. 06’ Honda Civic was a total POS. Bad paint, passenger seat broke, AC died, rear bearings were going. Awful car. Hell BMW I had many years back went into the shop 3 times in one year for the window mechanisms failing. Was getting fairly regular electrical issues in my Durango that was under 100k miles. Fun part was when the column would arbitrarily lock up so you couldnt start or move the vehicle.

Overall I feel they are good cars. I actually like the styling and to me, they still have the feel of German quality. When I was looking at new to me cars I narrowed it down to a Jetta or Mazda3. Until I drove both. The Mazda felt cheap and very plastic. Same year cars with same mileage and the Mazda was actually more money. No brainer. Couldn’t even look at a Honda for the price. Not that I’d want to. Nothing American interests me in my price range.

Fri Mar 09, 2018 8:28 am

Deleted.

I was a little drunk when I made a rather arrogant post her originally.
Sorry about that.

Fri Mar 09, 2018 4:11 pm

Our family has driven six Beetles from late fifties to a '74, two Ghias (wish I could have kept the '58.....) and a '64 Double Cab. Due to job situations, we sold the aircooled stuff. In 1991 we finally bought a new GTI. Seven years later we bought a new '98 Jetta GLX. We still have them both, the GTI has 351,000 miles and the Jetta just turned over 372,000 last week. Both cars have been nearly bulletproof, enough so that two years ago we finally broke down and got a 2015 CC Executive (mainly because I HAD to have another V6) and it's just clocked up 50,000 miles. I also had a rather ratty '84 GTI with 200,000 miles that I used to drive to work when it looked like hail.

All that being said, now we're back in the air cooled business with Ingrid, our "new" oval!