After almost 11 years...

[ronin4740]

...of faithful and reliable service it's become more than apparent that my girl is ready for a well deserved rest...

She and I first met in Dublin California - she was a sweet, innocent GLX waiting on the dealer's lot for someone to take notice of her. And so one lazy Bay Area evening my wife and I did exactly that. We were so entranced by her power, comfort and quality of design that we brought her home...

She became my daily driver, ferrying me to and from my office in Castro Valley. She loved the looks that other Beetle drivers gave her and I as we'd pass them on the highways and city streets. She taunted a BMW 3 series on Crow Canyon road one evening by pulling away from him consistently during very spirited driving and earned the respect of a Porche 928 driver blasting down 580 towards Livermore...

When it came time to move back to the midwest she was loaded up with luggage and two cats and never complained about their caterwalling all the way to St. Louis...

...She put up with the snow she found here... Didn't like it a whole bunch but she managed to get from point A to point B without struggling too much...

As she continued to age she developed a few quirks... A noisy clutch shortly after the warrantee expired, a faulty throttle body and a couple of bad wheel bearings in her later years...

All in all she never needed any more than just normal maintenance and while it was occasionally more than i'd wanted to pay when it was complete she always felt like new again, renewing my attachment to her all over again...

Still, 11 years is a long time for a new car, even one as well put together as my little girl was. So, while the engine still purred, refused to burn oil, clutch still working acceptably at 168K miles and all the electronics functioning as they should when the Mom and Pop repair shop gives you an estimate for work that exceeded her blue book value one has to face reality and decide that it's time...

With a heavy heart and a tear or two in parting I traded her in for a 2011 Tiguan SE 4mo on Friday... You see along the way while i owned her i lost my wife to cancer... The little blue beetle has sooooo many good memories of places we went and things we did that i have always dreaded this moment... Still, i could only hang on so long... And this weekend it was time to realize that i'd reached that point...

So, goodbye little blue beetle named Olga, I *will* miss you...

[eliteboi]

Awww i'm sorry to hear for both of your losses

Let us know how you like your Tiguan. What did the Beetle need that made it not worth fixing?

[MyOtherRidesAVette]

Truly sorry for your loss and now having to part with this extension of your memories. After nearly 30 years, even though a "love/hate" relationship I can not even imagine.

Morav

[dnyed]

I am not one to talk, but I keep coming back to the New Beetle..... Love that you are staying in the Volkswagen family!

[bug_dude]

That was a sad story. Hopefully the Tiguan will be as good of a car as the beetle was for you, and hopefully the little blue Beetle will go to a good home!

[SMG]

That sucks but fixing an old car is always more economical than buying a new one. Your NB definitely wasn't so old that it wasn't worth fixing. That new Tiguan looked really shiny and new on the dealers lot and you jumped at it.

Anyway, enjoy the new VW.

[Hoon_it]

Sad but good story. Glad that you can move on. It's always hard parting with things that hold more value in emotions.

[juliey22]

Super sad story. So sorry to hear about your wife. I can't even imagine it. I'm on my second beetle and third VW. I had a Rabbit in between. I really thought another VW would make me happy but I just HAD to get back to the beetle!! I bet down the road you'll want another !! They really are so much more than just a car! Good luck with your new VW! I hope it puts a smile on your face as I'm sure the bug did quite often!

[Missladylinda]

I think when Boo gets to 'Old' i will turn him into a big planter lol

[ronin4740]

Thought I'd reply to the question of what the Beetle needed...

Current maintenance issues at time of trade in:

Drivers side front wheel bearing
Clutch
driver side leather seat recovered (worn through near door from getting in and out of it thousands of times)
passenger side fog lamp
Vehicle immobilizer circuit (Mine had intermittent and more and more frequent failures to see the key...)
center arm rest (top separated from base)
third break light with standoff mounting bracket
aux water pump
lower radiator hose
upper radiator thermostat
Tires
alignment
battery cover and housing to include fuse block
emergency brake handle cover with silver button.

This probably adds up to about 3K in maintenance and at least 1.2K of required maintenance even if I used a good import shop to do the work...

Maintenance done in the past year:

Brake calipers all the way around and rotors in the front as well as the passenger side wheel bearing at the cost of about $700.00
Fan Control module - $100.00 installed
Lower radiator thermostat - ~$50.00 installed
A/C Compressor - $600.00 installed
Drivers side door wiring harness - mine had wires which separated causing the window, door locks and alarm not to work. This was around $800.00 in parts and labor...
..and finally, I did the timing belt and water pump at the beginning of last year cause it was done at about 70K when I lost the first water pump... That cost me about $900 at the import shop...

So, when I started to think about what it was going to cost to repair what needed to be fixed for it to be safe and reliable transportation it just seemed to me that it was time to move on... If I had listened to my feelings I'd have held on to it forever and that part of me really fought the decision... Ultimately the practical side of me won the battle with thoughts of how much more the Beetle was going to cost to keep running over the course of this coming year... I depend on my vehicle for work and my employer is only going to accomodate my car being in the shop a certain number of times before they decide that I'm not reliable enough to meet their needs...

But I think my wife would have understood and probably would have been nudging me to purchase another vehicle a couple of years ago when I spent $1200.00 to replace a failed throttle body... She was more practical than I

Anyway, thanks for reading and commenting. The memory my old Beetle will live on now because you took the time to do so