Speaking of VW's (engine, emission, cost, turbo)

[rlrl]

am I accurate, the the VW Beetle was re-introduced on the market in 1997 after last in 1979?

I like them they seem more attractive than they used to be and i'm sure they have better safety features. How are they reliability wise? I think back in the 70's they were just about the most trouble free cars on the market

[yo vanilla]

The original Beetle actually stayed in production until maybe 5 years ago - they just weren't sold in many countries since the 70's (Mexico was a huge market for it). The New Beetle came around a decade ago and was not as dead-reliable as the original. It's a completely different car based on the 4th gen Golf. Great safety features, though.

[StealthRabbit]

Unfortunately it is a totally different car, and not the 'econo / reliability / simplicity'
of air cooled / non-emission / minimal safety of the original beetle

If only the 'new beetle' had crank windows instead of electric, and had been made with an 'ole-reliable' engine (like the 1.8, which it does have as a Turbo...not exactly reliable, but not bad...)

You can still find nice original Beetles pretty cheap, and the parts are still inexpensive and ez to get.

but safety and HEAT... not really

[Filet Mignon]

Originally Posted by rlrl

am I accurate, the the VW Beetle was re-introduced on the market in 1997 after last in 1979?

I like them they seem more attractive than they used to be and i'm sure they have better safety features. How are they reliability wise? I think back in the 70's they were just about the most trouble free cars on the market

I believe it was 1998 when the New Beetle was released. I bought my wife a 2001 New Beetle for our 20th Anniversary.

Other than the basic shape, the New Beetle shares NOTHING with the old AC Bug.

The New Beetle is on the same chassis as the Golf. The standard engine is the good old 2.0 liter engine. It is the same basic incline-4 engine that VW has been putting in their liquid cooled cars since 1976 (the 1.6, 1.8, 1.9, etc all are the same basic engine).

People will give you mixed reviews on these cars. Some people hated them, and claim to have had all manner of problems with them. We, however, had very good luck with ours. The only problem we ever had with it was a hairline crack in the coil. The part cost about $100, and I installed it myself. It is mounted to the firewall, so it was very easy.

Depending on what you want to use it for, I'd definitely recommend the New Beetle.