[n8engr]

I bought my daughter a 2000 Turbo Beetle and it has had a lot of problems with plastic parts; switches breaking, interior finishes coming off or bubbling. I think the Mexican plastic must be 25% dirt! I found two issues that were strictly due to broken/brittle plastic:

Truck latch would not release trunk all the way unless handle was pulled simultaneous to hitting remote or inside release.
-problem ended up being a plastic anchor that holds a plastic plate that pushes up on the latch with spring pressure
--solution was to screw the plate to a metal support below it and abandon the plastic anchor mount that fit around the plate.

Glove box latch (handle) broke off.
-problem was that one of the two plastic sockets that the hinge pins holding the handle on broke off. Other one was about to break off.
--solution was to cut both these flimsy plastic pieces off and fabricate oak pcs that were aprox 10 times as thick. I super-glued these to the back of the latch handle and also reinforced with one screw each thru handle (looks better than it sounds). drilled holes in new pin sockets. Unfortunately, outer and inner glove box door panels have to be separated in order to slide pins back into the repaired handle, but due to the way they were glued, they break apart and reattach (glue) fairly easily.
---end result is a repair costing about $200 less than replacing the glove box door, no re-keying required and this latch won't break off again, ever, because the crappy, flimsy little plastic parts aren't there anymore!