Date:         Fri, 16 Mar 2012 18:27:24 -0400
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Friday New Beetle Question
Comments: To: Pete O <pnoceanwesty@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <CAKA=wSb6ppwq3MJ0sRkL7cfMjb24Yqt+LmEdN3k7LH9YfGijUg@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

> Any of my list sisters and brothers have experience with early New
> Beetles?  Looking at a 1999 New Beetle with 147,000 on it for my daughter.

Had one.  Great crash test ratings for its class, great dry road handling,
not as good on wet/icy roads (probably due to the wide tires).  Moderate
blind spots in the rear corners.  You could comfortably sleep a family of 4
on the dashboard. For the first 100k miles our Beetle was incredibly
reliable, needing absolutely nothing but routine maintenance. Once it hit
100k it started having the issues you'd expect for that mileage (02 sensor,
muffler, CAT, water pump, all of which added up). My own almost-14-year-old
daughter has her heart set on one as her first car when she hits 16. In
terms of safety and build quality you could do a lot worse for an
inexpensive used car. (And most parts are relatively cheap, we sell the full
range of VW car parts at comparable discounts to our Vanagon parts.) So I
wouldn't talk her out of it, but I would think twice about a high mileage
one unless the common wear items have already been replaced, lest it become
a money pit.

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  www.busdepot.com
  (215)  234-VWVW

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