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What baffles me is, why are timing belts the norm now in place of the timing chains? With the chain, they almost last the life of the car given proper engine maintenance. With the belts, you have to change them every so often or else you risk losing an engine when they break.
That's easy, profit.
It costs less (plus is lighter and quieter) for the MFG to use a belt than a chain. They don't care if the end user is spending $1000 every 60~100k miles to replace the belts, it's not their issue.
The last engine I had that used a Chain, needed it replaced at 100k miles anyway. Maybe it was because it was a Ford, maybe it was just a bad unit, who knows, but that was a Shiftload more to replace than a belt, took about 3 times as long too.
Also Better MPG. Most belts will go around 100k miles. Hyundai/Kia is the only brand I know of that needs a new belt at 60k and some old cars when belts first became popular. It's usually around $300-$400 to replace. It's all the extras that push the cost closer to the $1000 mark. Mainly the water pump especially since it's usually charged as a separate job even thought it's 90% the same work.
The 4 cylinder is pretty reliable. In combination with a manual tranny they are very reliable.
With the 1.8t change the oil every 4000 miles with fully synthetic because it's a turbo car and has some issues with sludge if cheap oil or filter is used.
I was given one as a rental 2-3 years ago and wasn't very impressed. I believe at that point it was still being built on the same platform as the 90's Beetle (MKIV Golf). It had tons of chassis flex and was very slow with the 2.0L 4cyliner. I wouldn't bother buying the Beetle at this point unless its the all new 2012+ model year version. It's built on the much newer Golf platform which is light years ahead of the 90's version.
New beetle isn't bad, same for the previous beetle...can't speak for the 1st gen beetle as I never drove one, or a MkIV car...the MkV chassis and the MkVI chassis are essentially the same and underpin the 06+ beetles. The body on the newest car is pretty awesome, but if it had the 2.0 I'd skip it. The 2.5L engine, 2.0T engine would be my choice. Both would be more than suffecient for daily driving...and both should be rather reliable, but i'd put the 2.5L engine slightly ahead in reliability because of the lack of complexity (No high pressure fuel pump, turbocharger, etc).
New beetle isn't bad, same for the previous beetle...can't speak for the 1st gen beetle as I never drove one, or a MkIV car...the MkV chassis and the MkVI chassis are essentially the same and underpin the 06+ beetles.
A quick google search confirms the 1998-2010 Beetle were all built on the MKIV Golf platform. In other words, except for some newer engine choices, it was essentially unchanged in its 12 year production run. Also, only the 1.8T was offered and not the newer 2.0T.
A quick google search confirms the 1998-2010 Beetle were all built on the MKIV Golf platform. In other words, except for some newer engine choices, it was essentially unchanged in its 12 year production run. Also, only the 1.8T was offered and not the newer 2.0T.
Didn't know about them all being based on the MkIV chassis, good to know. I knew they had the engine swap with the 5 cylinder introduction, and that included a minor bodywork change so I assumed the chassis was updated as well...As to the 2.0T comment, that was referencing the 12' model year. I was also unaware that the new beetle does NOT come equipped with the 2.0 base engine that's standard on the Jetta base...probably a good thing!
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