Back in the late 90’s, the VW Bug was the queen of cute and the dominant purveyor of ‘retro’ car design.
You couldn’t get away from the painfully hip commercials. The fake yellow flower with the vase. The adorable exterior that seemed to attract women better than a Prada purse giveway.
Then something happened. The designers and engineers of ‘Das Bug’ met a penny pinching force of nature called José Ignacio (“Inaki”) López de Arriortúa. A former head of purchasing for GM. Inaki decided to drive down costs at VW using the same strategies (and sources) he used at GM.
13 years and $1915 later… I get to invest in what can only be called a ‘VW money pit’.
Rent: There are three ironclad rules I have for all my rental vehicles.
- No stickshifts (Renters always screw em’ up)
- No European cars (They break and are expensive to repair. Old Volvos are exempt, but nobody ever rents them.)
- Absolutely, without any solitary shred of a doubt, no diesels (I thought this car took gas?! Why doesn’t it start?)
Finance: In order for me to finance any vehicle, I have to be assured that it will last for the customer. Many of the folks I deal with simply can’t afford to pay for breakdowns. So when a repair is needed, I foot the bill and put it in the back of the loan at no interest.
What frequently goes wrong with a 1998 VW Bug? Let me give you the short list.
Ignition switch, window regulators, starter, alternator, evap leaks, compressor, interior light malfunctions, really anything remotely to do with electricity, trunk release, sagging headliners (that are always stapled back up), leaking sunroofs, automatic transmission and/or torque converter (depending on whether the year is odd or even), taillights, turn signals, suspension squeaks, shift nob pops off, door panels scratch/fall off, engine relay, intake manifold, mass air flow sensor, motor mount (has to be removed to change timing belt), oil pan cracks, electronic control module, oxygen sensors, vacuum hoses, seat adjustment knobs, and most of all anything that is touched or given an evil eye at a VW dealership.
There are only two things that will last in this VW Beetle. The plastic flower and the TDI engine. I would love to finance them instead of the rest of the car. But I can’t.
Sell: $2995. Why so cheap? Because the check engine light is off.
At the auctions, a late 90’s VW without a check engine light on is like an old Mitsubishi without a smoking tailpipe. Even in the most extreme examples of maintenance and care you will still get that dreaded ‘CEL’ and have to pull out your diagnostic tool.
You can always tell the buyers of VW’s at the dealer auctions. They’re the ones holding their diagnostic tools in their hands instead of in their jackets.
Keep: If I had the time to make my own biodiesel like Chuck Goolsbee. If I did tons of interstate driving. If my wife even had a remote interest in driving a stickshift. I still wouldn’t consider it. Not even if Inaki gave me a years worth of his ‘Warrior Diets’ would I keep this vehicle… and I do like old VW’s.
Why? Because despite this representing a high point of VW design, the 1998 VW Beetle was a horrific creation. The material and workmanship of a 1998 model may represent the absolute lowest point of quality in modern automotive history. The only thing that kept running when these things were being sold was the VW parts and service departments… and later the junkyards.
VW lost nearly 90% of it’s sales in the United States due to cars like this. So I know what I’m going to do. The question now is, “What would you do?”
Give it to your 16-year-old. He/she will crash it. The insurance will write it off. You will have cash to buy C-class Mercedes with only 20K more miles than the VW. True story.
Sell it. You don’t mention the mileage on it, but whatever it’s at, someone will buy it. And you’ll probably get a decent amount of money for it (definitely more than if it was a 2.slow)
ALH TDIs are sought after because people know what to expect with them and they aren’t super expensive to repair and keep on the road (if you can do the work yourself). Plus they’re highly tunable and still frugal on diesel.
Mileage is 165k…
That is barely break-in mileage for an ALH if it has been even remotely maintained. If it hasn’t broken through neglect already it’ll last a while.
165k isn’t a problem. I sold my 1996 Passat tdi with 196k on it, original turbo. That car was seriously rough in every other respect, but the running diesel engine meant I could have asked at least $2k for it. There’s a lot of hobbyists driving prices up for that drivetrain.
+1
ALH TDI motors are definitely sought after. I’d gladly give you $2500 for this TDI with a stick. I have tons of VW buddies who know how to fix the Mk.4 quirks…
I have an 1998 TDI that I am trying to sell for $2500. It is a running car with no motor or tranny issues. It has the usual weird VW issues with the lights and electrical. And a bad ac compressor. It is drivable. Only 166K on it. In Mississippi. Come and get it. First one with cash can drive it away. Text me at 6015956000 for info.
Steve
Cut the roof off and make a bigger flower pot!
Dump it quick. An older VW is a maintenance nightmare and there are very few mechanics who are competent with the diesels, especially at dealerships.
Or keep it until gas prices go up and sell it for $5000.
it seems you bought it at a price where it should be flipped for a quick sale. It would be really cool to transplant the drivetrain into another more suitable vehicle. If you are into punishment, davidsfarm did this into a dodge caravan (twice) and tools around canadian roads often for very cheap money.
the VW Bug has to me one of the worst driving positions ever made. I could not get comfortable at all while test driving one, and I also agree, the interior was horrid.
Great list of problems. I’d add the thermostat sensor to your list of O2 and MAF.
I’d expect the anti-VW best and brightest to give the ‘kill it with fire’ response.
The TDI resale prices are pretty preposterous. I’d think $3,000 is a floor for a sale. I’d take advantage of that trend and flip it to a VW apologist. A year ago before the new Jetta came out, used TDIs with 10,000 miles were listed at new MSRP. Perhaps there was tight TDI supply when the final US tax credit was expiring.
Ummm, VW lost 90% of their US sales? They used to be 10x what they are now?
Looks like Ebay fodder to me.
A friend of mine bought one just like above new in 1998, still has it. 200,000 miles. Everything in the world has gone wrong with the thing, but it has never left him stranded. He can only drive it during the day because the lights don’t work, has to apply a lot of rain-x regularly because the wipers don’t work, and the entire dash has been out since 160,000 miles. He likes to brag it still has its original clutch.
Exactly why I want one of these for a Lemons race!!
Set ablaze.
+1, Insightful.
Ebay or craigslist. I sold my blown up 02 Golf TDI on craigslist for $1500 so this one will get $3000 easy.
Christmas is coming and lots of daddy’s girls need cute little rides. Some one will snap this up.
How much would it cost to ship it to Portland? There is still a great market for those things around here.
Also my MKIV ownership experience convinced me that it’s not that the cars are destined to fall apart… it’s that you only get out what you put in in terms of love and preventative maintenance.
So sell it to someone who knows what it is and who will love it (edit: referred to above as a “vw apologist.” Ha!) , and you’ll never hear a complaint.
My ex and I had one of these with a stick… third owner… now, ordinarily you would say ZOMG R U NSANE but… the poor first owner, who traded it in at 36k, had been tied to the Tree of VW Woe: a stack of warranty repairs an inch thick – when you pressed down on it. Seriously, it’s hard to name something that WASN’T replaced. Whole wiring harnesses? Check. Suspension bits? Check. I think even the transmission was cracked open. The second owner drove the car for 100k with no major problems, which I suppose is statistically possible considering the amount of components replaced. My ex never had a problem with the car but things were starting to break and fall apart inside and out.
I say sell the thing fast. Too risky.
No way VW was selling 2.5 million vehicles a year any time recently
But yea, the MKIV vintage cars were all generally heaps
Not recently. It was about 1970 when US sales peaked. There was a VW dealership in almost every town back then, sometimes two.
VW’s U.S. sales peaked at little over 500,000 in 1970, if I recall correctly. Competition from the Japanese – the Datsun 510, Toyota Corolla/Corona and Honda Civic – then steadily eroded VW’s position. In 1975, Toyota knocked it out of first place among imported cars.
VW TDIs can be a good investment, but only IF they have had proper maintenance and weren’t abused. My ’01 Golf TDI (bought new by me) has over 433,000 miles on it, and the only major part replaced in the drivetrain has been the injection pump (at 350K miles). Still has it’s original clutch and turbo, and the engine/trans has never been touched. It’s never been abused, and all maintenance was done by the book with top shelf parts/fluids. And yes, it’s mostly highway miles.
In your case….
Pros: It’s a TDI, it has a stick shift (run away from any automatics).
Cons: It’s the Beetle version, unknown history (I’m assuming), it’s a first-year car (which you should always stay away from).
My suggestion would be to get on TDIClub.com and flip it to someone who knows what they are getting into, or keep it and be prepared to sink about $3K into getting it into proper shape (timing belt is a MUST) and enjoy the 50mpg mileage you’ll get. 165K miles isn’t really much with these cars.
I think the choice is obvious: sell it.
And I say that as the pleased original owner of a 2001 Golf tdi with 136K miles. I have had very few problems (less than our now-gone 2005 Honda CRV, but that’s another story), but I am seriously thinking of selling while it’s still running well and looking good. The only MIL’s I have had are for the glow plugs. I get them all the time. In fact, I just reset one last weekend. It should be good for another couple of thousand miles before it throws another code. All the other dreaded problems have not shown up in mine, but time is not on my side. Or yours.
Oh, by the way, 50 mpg is going to be hard to say goodbye to.
I know, my daily driver is still a 2001 Honda Insight.
Dump it. Oh, that’s what I always say, as I’m not a businessman, so what do I know?
I have never liked the New Beetle simply for the design alone. It looks like a ball and the New-New Beetle actually looks like what a Beetle should look like.
+1
if the windshield is better placed in the new new beetle, it could be an interesting car. in the old new beetle that vast expanse of plastic between steering wheel and glass always bothered me like few things do.
They recently had a couple N-N-Beetles at the local Maul, with the 2.5 no less, but I couldn’t look at it for very long because one of the sales/demonstration vultures was eyeing me and started walking over to talk to me about it. I think it looks fairly well proportioned, kinda Panamera-esque (and I don’t particularly mind the Panamera – couldn’t afford one, but that’s a different story).
The VW dealership in town was just recently heavily renovated and I’m assuming they want to get some traffic in there.
…….old VW diesels are always in demand. A couple of years ago I found out where all the early generation motors go to die. In a dark corner of a backstreet repair shop I used from time to time, I noticed a couple of diesels permanently mounted to portable cradles and ready for shipping. The owner informed me that one of his West Indian techs had a lucrative sideline manufacturing crude stationary engines for use in outlaw gold mining ventures on one of the islands or nearby South American countries (can’t remember which one, and maybe he wouldn’t want me naming it anyway) Apparently they are the motor of choice to power generators and pumps for the gravel-washing involved ……light enough for clandestine transport to remote locations, but powerful enough for the heavy duty required. It has since occurred to me that they could also be used as pumps for the irrigation of illegal crops just as valuable as gold……in case the mining didn’t “pan” out.
According to my father, there was a time that old Buick straight 8 engines lived out their old age as power for sawmills. They would mount it and put the radiator hoses into a barrel – no radiator.
…..”sawmill Buicks”…..so that’s where all the “Fireball 8’s” went…..classy sawmill, no Fords or Chevys for them.
That’s not the only place they went. A bus operator hereabouts used to buy old Flxible buses and ran Buick straight 8’s in them. Story was that you couldn’t find one of those anywhere around here – he bought them all.
1. Donate to someone looking to make a crash video on youtube.
2. Part it out on ebay, you probably don’t have time for that.
3. 24 hour of Lemon racer, talk to Murilee.
Donate it to some charity and take the tax deduction. This way, you are rid of the car without something else breaking, and you do so in the one and only way where you end up with a clear conscience.
….jp…..”donate it”….here’s a win, win, win for everybody…….you buy the car and you donate it……..you get the tax credit, Steve gets his money back, and I get 10% for brokering the deal (hey, it’s Christmas, I’ll give it to charity, too), Nice Plymouth, by the way…..is it a Fury?
This begs the question of why a savvy dealer like Steve bought this ticking time bomb in the first place?
$2,995 is cheap? For a 14 year-old VW? I wouldn’t give you $1,000. Dunno how you BHPH guys live with yourselves.
Nobody puts a gun to anyone’s head and makes them buy a VW. People buy VWs because they need to learn, and they’ll be lucky if they learn their lesson for only $3K. New VWs can cost over a million dollars at the moment, but I don’t see you asking how Piech can live with himself.
My VW lesson cost $14k in depreciation over 3 years, ’02-05, plus the expense of taking it to the dealer a dozen times.
My VW lesson was fortunately learned with a great amount of parental funding. I loved the car, but I didn’t have to pay for the A/C repair thanks to the dealer. I didn’t have to pay for the broken engine mounts, early perishing struts and axles, electrical issues, blown heater core, or collapsed lifters over the course of 35K miles either, actually. Maybe that’s why I looked for another one when my girlfriend totaled it. What I found was that I had an improbably solid Jetta, and the low mileage used ones I found all were frangible rattle traps in comparison. I wound up with a couple Audis as my next two cars, and I didn’t realize there were cars that didn’t involve mandatory specialist knowledge for may years to come.
That is a $4-5K car all day long up here in Maine. 165K is LOW mileage for one of those here.
Maybe VWs just like a cold climate, but we just don’t seem to get the huge dilemmas with them here. They are very, very popular cars here.
They do. On a run with buddies in a Euro Car Club on a cool crisp February morning, once we got to the winding mountain roads at a higher altitude, the cars all ran better. One guy said, “They feel at home! That’s how it is in Germany.” It made sense. I miss my Mk.4 Jetta.
Wow, you seriously need to get yourself a new price book. Either that or your employer is making an absolute killing with their trade-in’s.
Insure it, park it in a dodgy neighborhood until it goes missing/gets destroyed – Profit!
Then again, I’m not sure anyone would want to steal a 13 year old VW Beetle.
That never seems to work. The ones you want to get rid of, you can park it in the hood with the windows open and a key in the ignition, and no one will touch the damned thing. A week later, the city will ticket it as an abandoned car and the fine will be your problem.
Sell the drivetrain to somebody looking to to a TDI swap into something cooler looking like a TT or Corrado and part the rest.
The low point in my 1998 New Beetle ownership experience was not the infuriating problems with the engine (2.0 gas motor), nor the automatic transmission (“maintenance free” my ass), nor the broken fuel release, nor the absurdly fragile interior vents, nor how replacing a broken fog lamp lens involved removing the wheels and every body panel forward of the windshield (ok, the hood stayed on).
Nope, it was the time the driver’s door broke its lower hinge bolts. First, because how does that happen?!, and second, because the repair, which on any other car would be “open door, remove bolts,” required removing the hood release (!) and taking apart much of the guts of the rather complicated car door.
Yep, on a 1998 New Beetle, the hinge bolt heads are inside the door. And they’re not easy to get at.
Right, since the door is curved or bowed out quite a bit the pivot point of the hinge has to be somewhat outboard of the curve and has to allow the door to open without coming into conflict with the front fender, which is why the upper one is integrated into the wing mirror!
So the setup really is dictated by the shape of the door, which is not flat and square, which is kind of the whole point of the car. It’s just easier to design and make work a light, square, flat door than a large heavy door that incorporates a parabolic curve.
A friend of mine who studied industrial design saw mine and was absolutely fascinated by the geometries of the door opening and closing. The way the hood is hinged is also fascinating. Rube Goldberg would be proud of this car, and that’s not even touching on changing a headlight.
At any rate, someone with a Jetta or Golf that needs the 2.slow or a tired 1.8 to be replaced and is adventurous would welcome the chance to get the engine.
Meanwhile, I recently did a 900 mile jaunt on I-40, including the 6% grades of the Pigeon River George, in my 2011 TDI and can report 42.5 MPG and 621 mi. on a tank with fuel to spare. The torque and the TDI engine’s propensity to start making a very pleasing deep growling sound under load at speed made mincemeat of the smokies. I thought to myself “Didn’t these hills used to be steeper?”
Nuke it from orbit, leave the ash in interstellar space.
Another problem peculiar to the TDI is carbon buildup inside the intake manifold. A friend’s TDI basically quit running when the air passages inside it shrunk to the diameter of a pencil.
Don’t know if this is a different intake manifold problem or not, than the one Steve mentioned.
Been known to happen if you goo too long at low RPM and high loads, the diesel engine doesn’t mind but the soot fouls the turbo. Supposedly the best thing to do is take it out on the autobahn and blast it out – or wind it out as best you can on your local interstate.
……years ago, the solution to carbon buildup was dripping water through the carb at idle…..not sure how you’d do that on a modern fuellie setup (note how the “fuellie” reference marks my age group)……besides, winding it out is much more fun……the 100 mph tune-up.
Dump it before the “short list” turns into a death list. It’s a diesel VW with a stickshift, SOMEONE will buy it whether it’s in a fake Beetle or a Rabbit/Golf.
I absolutely adore my ’00 New Beetle TDI. But then, mine came from the original owner with every receipt from new and I practically stole it for $3300. That was two years and 50,000 perfect miles ago. All the same, for $2,000 you’re at pretty much the lowest price of entry for a TDI anything. A friend of mine just bought one just like yours except two years newer for $3k and it needs probably another $1500 of going through.
Tell you what, I want it. I’ll personally throw you $2300 for yours. I’ve got plenty of friends up here in Wisconsin that want one like mine. Any chance of a timing belt service receipt? That’s essential information on these…if you don’t have it, I’d plan on doing that service immediately.
VW TDIs have a strong cult following. Put it up on a few VW specfic forums and it will sell fast.
“You know what practice makes..” 5 words one image from peak.
Insure it, drive to Camden NJ or Newark NJ, or someplace close to Mexico.
Park it, go hiking into the woods for 1 week, come back and report it stolen.
Make sure to have your keys on you, make sure the vehicle had keys in them (copy set), you have the originals.
Leave the windows down, it will probably disappear in 30 minutes, but you are “out of touch” so it won’t be reported missing for longer. And because it took so long to report missing, you are virtually guaranteed to not have it found by the police.
*note above comment was humor only, I don’t advocate insurance fraud.
My real question is this, how the hell did you end up with this basket case.. or soon to be basket case?
This article is a good all-purpose compendium of all the reflexive VW hate I find on this site. Makes me wonder why I come here every day. Or why I keep driving my ’02 TDI Beetle after replacing all those parts you mentioned… wait, I haven’t replaced anything Steve mentioned, because they haven’t broken.
I’ve owned it from 100K to 180K miles, following a somewhat neglectful original owner. The only big-ticket failure so far was the diesel injection pump, an $1,800 job that hit my previous TDI at about the same mileage. Now I regard that as a wear item, like brakes. Let’s see, a heater air blend flap needed a fix years ago. The rear fuel filler lock cable has failed, and a brake light switch. Glow plugs need replacement, but I’ve just added another car that I’ll rely on for cold mornings, so that’s postponed. Some fuel return hoses leaked recently, but it was a cheap fix. I would hardly call the car a “money pit,” especially considering the resale value. It’s very hard to find a TDI under $6,000 retail, anywhere at any mileage. based on that, the car has depreciated less than $1,000 per year. In my mind, TDI Beetle ownership has turned out very well, but what do I know– I’m just a long-term owner.
I suppose I have a more tolerant attitude towards car repairs. For some folks, spending a buck on repairs is a betrayal of trust, a moral outrage. They’re proudest of a car when they can say, “I drove that until the wheels fell off and never fixed a thing.” Fine– I just wonder why they frequent enthusiast forums? They could just read the Consumer Reports reliability ratings, enjoying those rows of little red circles indicating the safe choices.
Of course I could have bought a new Honda or Toyota every three years and avoided any uncertainty about repairs. That would have saved a lot of money at repair shops, but I’d have spent even more in depreciation, financing cost, sales tax and license fees, which here in Colorado are proportional to value. That money would go to banks and overseas manufacturers; instead, my repair labor payments went to local mechanics, small businessmen who kept the money in the community. And some of those repair visits were opportunities for switching up upgraded parts, like KYB shocks and a skid plate.
Approaching its 10th birthday and third hundred thousand miles, my Beetle is still fast enough for what it is, reliable and economical (40+mpg consistently) and fun to drive. I have no complaints about the car. But I will complain about the easy & unsubstantiated charges in this article. It’s misleading to pretend that every failure that happened to any VW will happen to every VW. I’d like to expect better from this site…
Reading Steve’s description is like living out a bizzaro backward version of my real world experience with two 2000 model year TDI’s. A few of the parts listed as problems don’t or shouldn’t apply. ALH TDI’s don’t have an EVAP emissions system in place. And we’re dinging it for needing to remove an engine mount for the timing belt change? Isn’t that every timing belt car newer then say 1995? Also, oil pans do crack when they’re slammed into the pavement, yes.
I vote keep but only if you can compare it against the overall operating costs of a 1998 Buick with 165K miles and the 3.8 engine and then maybe an impression can be made against this internet born anti-VW zeitgeist.
Every car has its followers who will go to their graves singing its praises. I and my wife have owned several wretched cars dropped on us by Hyundai, Vee-Dub, Ford, and Toyota.
My wife’s Golf (circa late 90s) had all of the things listed above go wrong. In fact, reading the list reminded me of the greasy waiting room of the local VW “specialist” located in the ‘hood because the dealership wouldn’t touch that hellish hatchback for less than 500 marks, er dollars.
It was so heinous, it reminded me of my father’s 81 Wolfsburg Jetta diesel with its crappy 50 hp oil burner that tried to kill our small family of three unsuccessfully on our treks across America and Canadia. I have never since been in a car where the throttle cable disconnected itself completely from the gas pedal SIMULTANEOUSLY while the brakes failed and the e-brake handle came off in dad’s hand while we were driving on a winding road along the Nova Scotia sea cliffs. Although I’d argue the e-brake might have been due to sheer panic on that icy morning…
Needless to say, the wife’s floG checked all the boxes of that dreadful Jetta and I sighed in relief when she drove it into a flooded street during a thunderstorm and killed it off for good.
We still had to pay 150 bucks to have it taken to a junkyard.
Who wants a 98 Beetle TDI stick shift running car with few issues. Don’t have time for the maintenance any more. $2500 gets it. Steve