I’ve owned more VW’s than any other make of vehicle and I have always enjoyed them. I bought a bright yellow new Beetle as a commuter car in 1999, a safe but fun vehicle with some class. And it remains all of those things. It has been abused one way and another and its stayed good looking, solid feeling and fun to drive.
It now looks like I am about to replace the third battery which is supposedly good though I find it odd since its the only vehicle I’ve ever had to replace a battery more than once. I’ve had the fuel gauge stick once and strand me on the road….out of gas and absolutely clueless as to why the car had stopped running. The passenger side window motor blew in the middle of a Commute around Boston in the middle of a Noreaster once, which was bloody interesting….

Which brings me to my only beef really, they are expensive to have work done on and they are almost impossible to work on yourself these days.  The old New Beetle, is, was, a Rabbit (sorry a Golf) with a swoopy outline, making it hard to work on. I’ve had to replace the headlamps and that’s expensive since you have to take it in to the dealer, there is no what to get at them without removing something  important.  So the shape compounds the problem with upkeep cost.

But on the whole I have no regrets and I notice a lot of ‘bugs’ around these days.  They maintain their ‘fun’ a lot longer than other cars and they really are good commuter cars and a fun but safe first cars for the kids (having a certain panzerlike ruggedness.)