VW Beetle for teh lose...

Ok so it's time for a little rant.

My old corporate vehicle was a 2004 Volkswagen NewBeetle. I must say that I have never driven a car that had as many problems as that car did. Yes, I know it was a corporate vehicle that was driven quite a bit. The issues that came up, however, couldn't be attributed to mileage on the vehicle. At least they shouldn't be attributed to that...if they were then it was a bigger piece of junk than I thought.

In the three years we drove that vehicle (60k on the odometer) we experienced the following problems: twice the engine valvesprings broke, resulting in a dead car, at least 10 inexplicable 'check engine' lights that disappeared after they were reset, two failed transmission speed sensors, 1 seatbelt latch sensor replacement, 2 passenger seat airbag sensor replacements, at least 3 trips to unsuccessfully diagnose an airbag light coming on randomly, dashboard gauges stop working randomly, and finally a fuel system flush. The fuel system I could say might have been bad gas. The transmission also had the whine of death, but we got rid of the car before it died.

As you can see, the majority of those issues seem to be electrically related. I have been told by lots of people that VWs seem to have the occasional electrical ghost. And of course, electrical ghosts are amongst the difficult problems to diagnose on a vehicle. One of the most difficult, as a matter of fact.

So...out with that car two weeks ago. Now we have a brand-new 2008 New Beetle.

The fun has already begun at 1,098 miles. Today I was driving south on 91 with the headlights, radio, rear defroster, and heater going. It was raining, so I flipped the wipers on to intermittent. Each time the relay would 'click' to turn the wipers on the dashboard would blink off for a split second, the gauges would start to return to zero, and then it would come on again.

At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me because by the time I looked down everything was fine. So I pulled off onto a rest area and watched. A couple wipes of the wipers with no result. Then, sure enough, click---blink---back on.

What
The
Hell

Bad voltage? Condensation in something? I don't know. But I'm not going to cancel a corporate contact appointment tomorrow to take the car in and let them diagnose it. I'll let things 'dry out' tonight, pop the fusebox and also fiddle with the relays to make sure everything is tight.

I must say, however, that based upon the experiences of the last 3+ years driving a VW...I will never ever buy one or recommend them to a friend. Ever.