2002 Volkswagen Beetle problems
Owners have filed 231 complaints with NHTSA about the 2002 Volkswagen Beetle. Air bags is the most reported problem area, at 19% of complaints. Next are electrical system (17%) and engine (10%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 231 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 19% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 18 and 5
- Injuries and deaths
- 14 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 60,000 miles 166 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 | 15 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 35 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 32 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 33 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 18 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 15 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 10 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 4 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 2 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 1 |
| 200k+ miles | 1 |
What the data shows
Of the 166 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 60,000 miles. For air bags specifically, the median reported mileage is about 65,000 miles (33 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 18 complaints mention a crash; 5 complaints mention a fire; 14 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2002 ranks 8th most-complained-about out of 18 model years of the Volkswagen Beetle with enough data (107 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2002 volkswagen beetle. The contact smelled a burning odor throughout the vehicle. The odor caused him to have a headache. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer for a diagnostic test. The failure mileage was 73,000 miles.
On friday, august 15, 2014 at 12:19 pm, I rear ended a toyota highlander at a speed of about 30 MPH. My passenger was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident and on impact my passenger was ejected out of the seat and smashed her head off the windshield and then onto the dashboard. Also she hit her legs off the glove box hard enough that she could not walk after the accident. The windshield is smashed and the glove box door is broken.
Was driving 10 MPH when another vehicle ran red light, the other vehicle hit the consumers vehicle on the drivers side, the drivers side air bag did not deploy resulting in inkury to the driver. Nlm
I purchased this "like new"VW super beetle on dec 31 04. It had only 17000 miles on it. Since that time I have had the transmission modulator on it changed, and in the shop 6 time for a transmission problem. When the car has been sitting for an hour or so it will hesitate then slam into 2nd gear. It causes me and passengers to lunge foward then back. I am told this is a charaturistic of VW and should just ignore it or get use to it.
VW dealer advises that airbag light indicates airbags are disabled and caused by a malfunction in the seatbelt latch assembly costing $386 to repair. VW dealer says this happens a lot. VW dealer said that airbags would not have deployed. VW dealer said that wiring inside the latch "just breaks" eventually. Failure of safety equipment should be an automatic recall and manufacturers should be required to repair defects at their costs and not cost to the consumer.