Volkswagen Beetle

Which Volkswagen Beetle years should you avoid?

Going by 2,588 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Volkswagen Beetle years to avoid are 2000, 1999, 2004, 2003 and 2005.

• 2000263 complaints, 2.4× a typical Beetle year, most often about the airbags; and 2.3× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (21 fires, 8 crashes, 1 death).
• 19993.2× the usual share of fires, crashes and deaths for a car of its age (20 fires, 17 crashes).
• 2004349 complaints, 3.2× a typical Beetle year, most often about the transmission.
• 2003314 complaints, 2.9× a typical Beetle year, most often about the transmission.
• 2005261 complaints, 2.4× a typical Beetle year, most often about the transmission.

1 more year cleared the same bar; it is marked in the table below.

Better bets: among years old enough for a low count to mean something, the 2016, 2012 and 2015 drew the fewest complaints without an unusual share of serious ones.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →