Glad I Got an ‘05!

April 19, 2006 – 4:33 pm by Becky Singson
Filed under Recalls, Volkswagen New Beetle

It came down to the 2005 and the 2006 New Beetle… and after reading some folks’ rants on newbeetle.org about their 2006 acting up, I think I made the right choice (actually the higher powers made the call for me — I would not accept an automatic transmission, and no local dealer could find me a platinum gray or gecko green ‘06 with a manual transmission!).

Turns out many folks are coming close to citing the Lemon Law for their 2006 New Beetles. I have read reports (read: horror stories) about the Electronic Immobilizer flaking in the ‘06. Now, I’m no mechanic (far from it), but that doesn’t sound so hot. There are individual accounts of folks whose NB won’t read the keys, heat not working, radio not working, window going nutty, and so on. Most of the cases involved the 2006 TDI engine.

I cannot find any official recalls for the equipment, just multiple stories of folks’ trips to the dealer. In the state of Ohio, three trips to the dealer for the same problem is subject to the Lemon Law.

The lesson learned here is never to take on the first version of a new engine… I’ll stick with my 2005 2.0…

Glad I Got an ‘05!
April 19, 2006 – 4:33 pm by Becky Singson