2003 Volkswagen New Beetle problems
Owners have filed 30 complaints with NHTSA about the 2003 Volkswagen New Beetle. Transmission is the most reported problem area, at 20% of complaints. Next are electrical system (13%) and engine (10%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 30 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Transmission 20% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 3 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 3 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 15,000 miles 20 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 | 17 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 3 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 0 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 0 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 0 |
| 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 20 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 15,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 3 complaints mention a crash; 3 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2003 ranks 5th most-complained-about out of 6 model years of the Volkswagen New Beetle with enough data (29 complaints in that window).
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 front left side wall tire blew out it caused the tire to become flat. It caused the wheel to go left and glance off the concrete divider this caused damage to wheel and wheel alignment. Dealer notified..
While driving at 20 MPH consumer's vehicle crashed into the rear end of another vehicle. Consumer was wearing a seat belt that did not lock up. Also, passenger's side airbag deployed, but driver's side air bag did not. Consumer sustained minor bruises to the chest and head.
While driving at night the epc light came on. I wanted to pull over since the car is fairly new and had never seen that light on while driving. I pulled the car off the road to check the manual and see what the light meant. The car was in park. I could not get the car to shift out of park. After calling road side assistance...I had the car towed to the dealership. Thing is, road side assistance had heard about this before. They had me do a "procedure" to get the car to shift out of park and be able to drive home.
The car slams into gear when starting from a cold start. It was in the shop over a month, and it was given back to me with "we can find nothing mechanically wrong with it, it may buck a bit, but there are no safety hazards." live with it basically. VW themselves have been of no help whatsoever in resolving this issue.