2014 Volkswagen Beetle - Anyone Owned One before?

Lj-rock on 04/09/2020 - 04:32

Hi guys,

I recently found what I think is a good deal on a 2014 Volkswagen Beetle.

I really like the look of the new ones. The one I am looking at is the 1.4L TSI Petrol version.

I'm wondering if there is anyone here that has owned one of the 2013+ VW Beetles and what your thoughts are?

Namely any issues you experienced and the cost of ownership - servicing, parts, real world fuel economy etc.

Also the one I found has quite high KMs. 140,000km. Is this too high? Given I am driving nowhere these days…

(And yes I know, there are cheaper more practical alternatives out there… I just really want a Beetle).

Thanks!

Automotive Car Volkswagen

Comments

  • brendanm on 04/09/2020 - 06:15
    +5

    It is a golf with a "retro" skin. You get the crappy 118tsi engine, known to be a grenade, and the crappy 7 speed dry clutch DSG, know for mechatronic issues and clutch shudder.

    • whooah1979 on 04/09/2020 - 07:19
      +3

      But it's euro. Some people say that we only live once and should drive something that is more fun than the boring old corolla.

      • brendanm on 04/09/2020 - 07:36
        +1

        Who says that? Were they talking about a nice euro car, or a rebodied base model auto golf?

        • whooah1979 on 04/09/2020 - 08:23

          Some of them are in here.

          • brendanm on 04/09/2020 - 09:32

            @whooah1979: I assume you are accusing me of saying that? I have never said that.

      • websterp on 04/09/2020 - 09:09

        But it's euro

        More like Mexican.

    • bdl on 04/09/2020 - 08:26

      and a plastic flower

      • j-rock on 04/09/2020 - 11:50

        Unfortunately the newer beetles did away with this "feature"

    • j-rock on 04/09/2020 - 11:49

      I did read about issues with the auto transmission. The one I'm looking at is the manual.

      I'm honestly a bit confused because I thought the golf was a solid car 🤔

      • brendanm on 04/09/2020 - 12:00
        +1

        The 118 tsi engine is still not advisable at all. Some variants of golf are good. Others are not.

  • [Deactivated] on 04/09/2020 - 10:48

    Whacky goofy crap is always expensive

  • [Deactivated] on 04/09/2020 - 11:06
    +1

    If you want one, just get one man. Get one with the lowest km you can afford and with a service history, and prepare to pay for things if they break (it's a Golf underneath not a Maserati.. more likely to break than a Corolla but it's not made of glass).

    • j-rock on 04/09/2020 - 12:04

      In this case do you think 140,000km is too high? I typically wouldn't go for something this high… But it's the first manual I've seen and it is an unbelievable price (in my eyes). $13000

      • [Deactivated] on 04/09/2020 - 13:12
        +1

        I would aim lower, mid 2010s you'd be ideally looking for a model with sub100k kms if possible. 140k isn't suuuuper high but you have the luxury of time. You're not in a hurry, you can afford to wait. Set an alert for some particular search parameters on carsales.com.au and see what happens. If you don't find a low kms one in x months, go out and buy a 140-150k kms one.

      • brendanm on 04/09/2020 - 13:24
        +1

        I'm a mechanic, and I own VW's, but I wouldn't buy any of them with a 118tsi. Make of that what you will.

  • brad1-8tsi on 04/09/2020 - 11:15
    +2

    It's a PQ35 platform / chassis which means it's the same as Mk5 Golf or Mk2 Octavia chassis. So it dates from ~2006. It's a good platform but is old.

    The 1.4 has issues with:
    excessive oil consumption
    poor design of the oil rings leading to ring binding in the piston grooves causing more oil consumption
    running lean on startup causing damage to the pistons - particularly #4. Occasionally this will also damage the bore. NB: this is a $6000-$10000 repair.
    Occasionally stretched timing chain causing a rattle on start up. If left, it will break and the pistons will hit the valves causing ~$4000 damage.
    Can't remember the other issues…
    You MUST run 98ron in these engines.
    It is strongly recommended that you halve the service intervals, especially if you do short trips or drive in stop/start traffic.

    The DQ200 7 speed dry clutch gearbox is also a shitter.
    Mechatronics issues - $1800 last time I looked.
    Clutches - if you drive in stop start traffic then expect to wear out clutches every 60k-100k.

    My advice is just don't go there unless it is ridiculously cheap and you are handy on the spanners and love spending your weekends fixing cars.
    DO NOT believe the salesman when he says "VW have fixed all these issues". Every week in VWwatercooled there is a new tale of woe and VW are no longer fixing them under goodwill 'warranty"

    edit: I love my VW product. I've had a 1972 bug, a 1997 Mk3.5 Golf Cabrio and now a 2007 Skoda Octavia. You've got to pick the right drive train.

    • j-rock on 04/09/2020 - 12:03

      Thanks for this. This is exactly the kind of response I was hoping for.

      The excessive oil consumption is something I never read about in a beetle. I am also looking at an Audi and read about similar issues there's too.

      The beetle I'm looking at has the (what I think is rare) manual transmission. but I can't find any info about it. I will start Google about manual golf's on this platform.

      Do you think 140,000km is too high?

      Thanks for your response. Appreciated

      • brad1-8tsi on 04/09/2020 - 12:13
        +1

        What do you mean "rare transmission".

        Audi, VW, Skoda all use the same or similar engines, transmissions, chassis, etc. They are all an equal world of pain if you choose the wrong driveline as the real world reliability sometimes doesn't match the thousands of hours of testing in development.

        In other countries these problems are fixed for free. In Australia, we are bent over and reamed with a cactus.

        DO NOT buy that engine. All the car yards know what they are like and when you go to trade-in they will give you a bag of beans (or even refuse the trade-in).

        The diesels are reasonable but can suffer if not given a decent highway run regularly or are driven on many short trips.

        The 1.8TSI with the BZB engine code is good but after that they have oil use and timing chain tensioner issues.
        The 2.0tsi is much better but still has timing chain issues up to 2017 (around there).

        I forgot to mention the inlet carbon issues but this is a common issue among many direct injection engines.

        • j-rock on 04/09/2020 - 12:26

          Noted.

          Rare because I've only seen one manual beetle turn up in my searches over the past few months.

          Thanks again.

          • brad1-8tsi on 04/09/2020 - 12:33
            +1

            @j-rock: The manual gearboxes are fine. Very smooth shifting, the clutch is light and the anti-stall tech works. I drive a 6 speed around the city all the time

  • [Deactivated] on 04/09/2020 - 12:36

    A 140,000km cheap VW. What could possibly go wrong?

  • j-rock on 04/09/2020 - 16:30

    Update: the car was sold today 😅I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

    But thanks for your replies. I really do appreciate it. You have given me much food for thought.

    • brendanm on 04/09/2020 - 20:18
      +1

      The gods were smiling down on you today friend.

    • jayboi on 04/09/2020 - 22:40

      there are plenty of manual beetles on car sales, even 2014, 2013 etc.

      • j-rock on 04/09/2020 - 23:17

        Currently I can only find 2?

        https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/?q=(And.(C.Make.Volkswagen..Model.Beetle.).GenericGearType.Manual._.Year.range(2013..).)

        • jayboi on 04/09/2020 - 23:46
          -2

          Yep 2, you stated there was only this one and it was so rare, its a Volkswagen beetle not a Bugatti Chiron

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