2001 Volkswagen Beetle problems
Owners have filed 291 complaints with NHTSA about the 2001 Volkswagen Beetle. Engine is the most reported problem area, at 19% of complaints. Next are electrical system (15%) and air bags (14%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 291 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Engine 19% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 13 and 17
- Injuries and deaths
- 10 and 1
- Typical mileage
- 66,000 miles 182 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 13 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 26 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 31 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 59 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 15 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 11 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 8 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 8 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 6 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 2 |
| 200k+ miles | 3 |
What the data shows
Of the 182 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 66,000 miles. For engine specifically, the median reported mileage is about 75,000 miles (30 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 13 complaints mention a crash; 17 complaints mention a fire; 10 injuries reported; 1 death reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2001 ranks 6th most-complained-about out of 18 model years of the Volkswagen Beetle with enough data (151 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 2 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
I bought a VW new beetle in feb 2001. After a year and half, the car began to start roughly and shaky, and with the check engine light flashing at the same time. This phenomenon happened more requently and was getting worse later. The car lost most of it power while driving. So I drove to vw/audi bernadi dealer in natick, ma in september 2002 to have it fixed. It was found out it was caused by an ignition coil failure and it is a known defect. They replaced the bad coil but left the other three untouched.
Was driving 40MPH and another vehicle turned in front of volkswagen. Other vehicle was "t" boned. Upon impact, neither air bags deployed. Driver suffered minor injuries & had emergency treatment.
While driving on a bridge at 50 MPH was involved in a collision and air bags did not deploy. Driver sustained injuries. Please provide any futher information.
The drivers seat belt is fraying, the car has 38000 miles. I have never seen frayed seat belts on any car no matter the age or miles. Is this a safety issue? The dealer was no help.
I purchased a 2001 VW beetle new and I have had to take it to the shop 4 times due to seat belt warning light. This seems to be an on-going problem even after VW made a recall and supposedly "fix" the seat belt problem. This very first time this happened the car had less 1500 miles on it.