Looking at buying a 2004 beetle convertible. Should I?

[miffmole]

Originally Posted by abbaleno

I have been looking for a manual convertible (of any type, not just VW) for a while and finally found the perfect one. It is a 2004 powder blue manual convertible VW bug. It has 55,000 miles on it and seems to be in good shape. My dad was looking to pay $6-7,000 on a new car for me and this one is more expensive, but he is willing to make an exception. We are wanting whatever car I get to last 7-8 more years until I am out of college and to be very low maintenance. I've read that transmission problems are common and it would be expensive to fix. What kind of issues could I expect and do you think this car would last the 7-8 years that I'm wanting it to without having too many problems?
THANKS!

Well, any decision yet?

[sb_beetle]

Originally Posted by miffmole

Well, after doing as reset as you suggested, it went all the way down twice in a row...something it hasn't done lately! Is it fixed? I guess I'll find out in the next day or two.
A storm's on the way, so I didn't press my luck after that, LOL.
Thanks for your help and suggestions.

Hope the storm is mild. Make sure you get some dilectric? grease to protect the switch. You can probably use a q-tip. Glad it worked!!

[miffmole]

Originally Posted by sb_beetle

Make sure you get some dilectric? grease to protect the switch. You can probably use a q-tip. Glad it worked!!

Oh well, the top is back to it's old tricks...goes 95% of the way back, and then freezes for a while.
Maybe I need to jiggle that little switch on top of the windshield some more.

[sb_beetle]

Originally Posted by miffmole

Oh well, the top is back to it's old tricks...goes 95% of the way back, and then freezes for a while.
Maybe I need to jiggle that little switch on top of the windshield some more.

Grab some electronics/maf cleaner and see if you can't remove some of the grime. My guess is that the contacts for the switch are just getting coroded. Then get some of the dielectric grease (I saw some at my parts store this past week) to protect the switch. Hope it plays nice

[jstargell34]

I have had nothing but sensor failures and interior pieces braking too easily. The interior plastics are cheap and the window regulators will break on most older models, I ve had my 99 beetle for 5 months and If you seen all of my posts you would know that I have had several problems with it, I have friends with beetles and they have the same problems as I and the VW dealers will not cut you any slack when you need maintainence preformed. My daughter loves the car but they are money pits when they get a few years on them. We still have ours and still fixing small problems.

[Evanrude]

Originally Posted by jstargell34

I have had nothing but sensor failures and interior pieces braking too easily. The interior plastics are cheap and the window regulators will break on most older models, I ve had my 99 beetle for 5 months and If you seen all of my posts you would know that I have had several problems with it, I have friends with beetles and they have the same problems as I and the VW dealers will not cut you any slack when you need maintainence preformed. My daughter loves the car but they are money pits when they get a few years on them. We still have ours and still fixing small problems.

Well, don't try to scare away the new people looking for info. Not all of them are money pits

I've had Sting for 3 years and it's been the best car I've ever had. Some issues do arise with some of them, some of them have recalls and will be fixed. Or , better, if you love the car, replace defective bits with NON-VW stock parts. Get aftermarket bits made by other companies and those problems won't re-occur.

[jstargell34]

Only VW part I have bought for the car was a copy of the ignition key, My car runs great now that I ve spent 1,300 in parts and fixed everything myself and that was the cheapest way. Only problem I am having now is I have a cat code and O2 code and I thing the previous owner has gutted the cat converter. I also need a grille assembly with fog lights and the undercarriage splash shield, they were missing when I bought the car

[miffmole]

Originally Posted by sb_beetle

Grab some electronics/maf cleaner and see if you can't remove some of the grime. My guess is that the contacts for the switch are just getting coroded. Then get some of the dielectric grease (I saw some at my parts store this past week) to protect the switch. Hope it plays nice

My dealership finally fixed it, even though it was 2 years out of warranty, for free! The service manager told me it would have been about $700. I don't know what was done, but I looked through the glass at one point and saw the mechanic walking around with a large part, presumably for the convertible top mechanism.

I had been in 4 times while the top was under warranty, so when they finally found the problem, they fixed it for free. I am extremely pleased about this.

[bugsy98nb]

My 04 that i had other then the water pump fail @ 23K miles it was wonderful and trouble free, still is with her new owners, I had the manual top and the 6 sp auto