I would love to have 2 Beetles , BUT.......

[Pushing Fifty]

Hmmm.....I had mud flaps put on my NB shortly after I bought it because I thought they looked nice. Now I wonder if this will actually accelerate corrosion.....

I know of many, many old air-cooled Beetles with lots of rust. And this always blows me away at certain VW shows when some beat-up Beetle that probably hasn't looked good since the Vietnam war will get a trophy while my rust-free 2000 NB doesn't get so much as a second glance.......

[kcfoxie]

Its an age thing. When your car is 35, rust or no rust, and running under it's own power.. it'll win a trophy too.

[Opelmania]

My 98 has a little rust in the driver's door sill area up in the front by the hinge. I think while it sat, almost a year, it was leaning towards that spot. Other than that, no rust for me.

[Blugg]

Never had any rust on both my Bugs

But seen countless threads on folk who have had rust who have the Mud Flaps fitted.

And quite a few threads on the gutter rust, seen a few how to: threads on how to resolve the gutter rust too Always seems to concentrate itself near the boot end.

But to this day i've never seen rust on the fenders or wings, unlike some old guy in the garage, who once said " You want to watch out with those wings, they're prone to rust. " When i said What ?!? They're plastic, his face blew up like a raddish and his junior mechanics couldn't hold in the laughter

[bug_dude]

We saw Bugs with rust on the metal strips on the roof, rust on the metal pillars along the sides of the windshield, and rust on the rocker panels. One car actually had a huge spot of rust right in the middle of the passenger side rocker panel. The weird thing is that there was no denting or other damage on the rocker panel-just that big spot of rust.

[MyOtherRidesAVette]

Sorry, blaming the salt doesn't get it. Keep it washed, waxed, and taken care of, the worst you'll have is some under-carriage surface rust. Been there, done that! Pressure car washes - best thing to come along for winter washing - salt removal, wheel wells, under-carriage, etc.

Damn strong corrosion warranty, 12 yrs, unlimited miles.

.

[SMG]

Both my 2000 2.0 and 2001 TDI had a rust bubble form at the back of the drivers-side roof trim strip. Fixed the problem on both but it probably had something to do with heavy salt usage and the daily freeze-thaw in the winter. The roof is basically covered with slush every morning for months.

[Smileybug]

I had the same spot of rust on my driver side roof trim strip. It was a MD car so some salt but not a ton to deal with. It was bubbling up and when I got the car when it was 6 years old.

[Dipstick]

Originally Posted by Palafox

Mmmky, I dont wanna open up the hornet's nest... so here I go

Used NBs are in bad shape because they are mostly own by girls and ladies, and in general they don't take care of cars. Disclaimer, this observation DOES NOT applied to NB org members because we are the exception The fact that we're here puts us in the 'car caring' community so this precludes us from the general car owning public.

When it comes to cars, generally women and especially young girls don't care. I can't tell you how many girl's cars I've been in where the interior is trashed, too many, whatever u do don't look in the back seat . Then there are the dents and dings all over the outside.

The lady that owned my NB took great care of it. Every little problem she had fixed. Did all the services (timing belt too!) before I got. I did have to have the cooling fan controller and thermoswitch replaced (fans stayed on all the time) and the interior fan switch replaced after I got it. Even the interior isn't in bad shape for an 11 year old car. The paint has some fade on the top, but the NM sun is brutal on paint jobs.

I feel lucky to have gotten such a cool car in great shape for a reasonable price.

[LoLoBug]

Good thing you put that disclaimer in there dipstick lol! Im obsessed with caring for my car.....but yes I am now an org member


Sent from my Autoguide iPhone app

[MyOtherRidesAVette]

Originally Posted by LoLoBug

Good thing you put that disclaimer in there dipstick lol! Im obsessed with caring for my car.....but yes I am now an org member

Just for the record, it wasn't Dipstick who made the statement, it was Palafox! (lol)

Certainly those who own an NB as a novelty car take better care, and those who work hard for what they have take better care, or at least do what they can with what they have. Around here, EVERYBODY seems to take care of, and has a great amount of pride, in their Bug. I continue to be amazed at the number of females (and this is said in absolutely no chauvinistic or sexist way) who do, or attempt to perform, work on their own cars.

What I do see, in the outside world (outside the Org) is care for a car seems to be more related to either how a person came by having it or where they put their priorities in how they spend money on their car. And for the most part, this seems to have a certain relevance to age.

M.

[Deserion]

Most NBs I see tend to be neglected to some degree. But here's my view on this, as I've been around three of them in the past 12 years (7/99 to 1/05 builds).

The design of the NB, in regards to material quality, plain sucks. The door panels break, for example. On the '03 TDI that my parents bought new, the door grab pulls were coming off of the panel, and the car was very well kept. The headliner was starting to come down. It's a huge letdown that the interior just falls apart so rapidly. It seems that material quality stepped-up later on in the NB's production run, however, and the new Beetle seems even better.

I love NBs, they're a ton of fun. Just not the best bargain (for earlier models) on the used-market due to the number of problems the Mk4 chassis and general appliance neglect.

[Pushing Fifty]

I finally saw what had to be the worst-looking NB I've ever laid eyes upon. It was Blue, about 98 or 99 vintage. It was parked in a Menard's lot when I was shopping. The paint was peeling and gray primer was showing through in large areas of the hood and trunklid. The driver's running board was severely rusted as were parts of the hood that hadn't completely peeled. The shift boot inside (it was a stick) was also ripped to shreds. I'm a guy, and wanted to cry!

As for looking for another Beetle, I may have to revert to my original plan of saving until I can either pay cash for one or end up financing very little, like under $5000. Since this will likely take until 2013 or 2014, I might get a 12+ after all.

[Blugg]

[huck731]

Originally Posted by Pushing Fifty

One thing I haven't seen on a New Beetle is body rust. I'm sure they're out there, especially since 1998 was 14 years ago, but amazingly, I have yet to see one like that. And I live in the road salt belt (Wisconsin).

no rust on mine besides standard surface rust on suspesnios component bolts.

mine was beat darn near to death the two previous owners and I am still fixing things from them after almost three years of ownership. Plus now the paint is fading on the roof from sitting almost all summer because I was doing repairs on it.