1999 Volkswagen New Beetle problems
Owners have filed 40 complaints with NHTSA about the 1999 Volkswagen New Beetle. Electrical system is the most reported problem area, at 18% of complaints. Next are engine (15%) and fuel system (12%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 40 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Electrical system 18% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 2 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 2 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 47,000 miles 10 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 | 0 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 4 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 4 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 1 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 1 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 0 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 0 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 10 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 47,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 2 complaints mention a crash; 2 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1999 ranks 3rd most-complained-about out of 6 model years of the Volkswagen New Beetle with enough data (35 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 1 safety recall campaign.
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.
While driving on an icy road at 20 MPH my car skidded of the road and hit a tree head on. The car will be most likely totaled, and I received injuries to my leg, back, shoulder and neck. Although my car is equipped with both front and side air bags, not one of them deployed. I mentioned the car received massive damage, yet the air bag system did nothing to lessen my injuries because they didn't work as I hoped.
I was driving down the expressway at about 55 MPH, when my steering wheel locked up, and my car went up on the center divider. I could not steer my car off the divider, and the brakes weren't working as well either. I imagine what happened was that the engine stopped and my car powered off without warning (the car has a history of failed warning lights or warning lights going on for no reason, having the instrument panel replaced once, but not solving the problem).
The vehicle was smoking because of oil leaking onto the engine from a faulty hose. Dealer has had vehicle for 3 weeks.
At less than 27k miles, I had to replace the brake pads and rotors. The dealer said the rotors for the new beetle are notoriously thin, and have to be replaced almost as often as the brake pads. This repair cost me $950. My roommate, another VW new beetle owner had the same problem at 31k, many other complaints were registered on beetlebuzz.com, when it was in operation.
The roof cover is falling down. The glue that is use to keep the cloth attached to the roof is very poor and after 3 years it will start to fall down. I have 2 identical VW beetle's and they both suffer from this problem.