I was so sad they stopped making the Beetle, I bought one

"TDIGuy" (owenrosier)
03/22/2020 at 11:29 • Filed to: None

This is a bit of a late post, but I have not checked in for a while. I actually did this back in December, so here is the story. Lets go back a few months, I had been looking for a fun car, but it had to fit a few conditions. First of all, has to be fun to drive (duh). Second of all, has to be reliable and comfortable enough to deal with my commute a few days a week. Third, budget. Had to be about 10,000 because the plan is to keep both the Grand Marquis as the daily and the Touareg as Mrs. TDIs daily. Fourth, it needs to be something that Mrs. TDI can drive, which means automatic.

Now that last thing limited me a lot, because as far as I am concerned, most cheap fun cars are also manual. The only fun auto boxes as far as I am concerned are dual clutch ones. Now this is good for me since I am a VW fan boy, and VW makes an excellent DSG box. This basically had me looking at GTI’s and GLI’s. GLI was coming in a little better on the budget side since the GLI is just a little less desirable than a GTI . I looked for a while and never found quite what I was looking for as far as condition and miles , this is when I discovered the 2012 - 2014 Beetle Turbo. Turns out for a few years VW made a Beetle with the 2.0 TSI motor that is shared with the Jetta GLI from the same era. And that is also the only way to get a DSG in a Beetle without a diesel engine. So 200hp and a dual clutch in a 2 door hatch sounds like a huge win to me. And even better, since it is a Beetle , it is far cheaper than the GTI (if you can find one).

The hard part then began, finding one. They really did not sell many in this trim. And on top of that, it had to be a 2013 and up because the 2012 motors were plagued with timing chain guide issues. I looked for a while until I finally pulled my mother in-law into the mix. Now she works for Carmax. I thought maybe I would just pull one from another store. But I actually got very lucky because her store got one, and I was able to get her employee discount on it. Basically I was able to pay what C armax had into it.

So finally in December I got a 2013 Beetle Turbo with a DSG and 58k miles for about 60% of the price of a comparable GTI.

So anyways, I have had this thing for a few months an I love it. It is so much fun to drive. Absolutely rips on back roads, and it is way more fun having a car that you never see, at least in this trim. Also as far as anyone who is concerned about Carmax quality as I am. Don’t worry, I had it looked over by my VW guy and got the DSG service done right after purchase. Also I plan on giving a full fleet update at some point soon.

DISCUSSION (10)

Goggles Pizzano > TDIGuy
03/22/2020 at 12:13

Congrats! You may want to reset the time of this post. When it first appeared it was a little buried down the page .

Longtime Lurker > TDIGuy
03/22/2020 at 12:17

Cool. Now just need to throw some red and blue stripes on it.

Just Jeepin' > Goggles Pizzano
03/22/2020 at 12:18

I wondered how I missed this post. Good catch.

I do, however, think if memory serves that resetting the time on a post between noon and 1pm is perilous, that Kinja will force it to am instead of pm.

sony1492 > Just Jeepin'
03/22/2020 at 12:26

V ery much this

404 - User No Longer Available > Goggles Pizzano
03/22/2020 at 12:27

One of the things I noticed with Kinja. How is it not a default that it does a reset when a post is first published, and you have to manually do it? How does using the timestamp on post creation when it’s blank make any sense?

I guess the system is designed such that you can do ninja edits back in the Gawker days.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > TDIGuy
03/22/2020 at 12:47

Very nice!

I contemplated getting one of these before I bought my e90. It was a 2013 as well, as it was red. I was also at a small euro only dealership that I has a very good reputation, and if had been on their lot for like 5 months so it was priced to sell. The first time I went to test drive it the I couldn’t because the owner of the dealership, had just had a baby the night before so he was just leaving as I got there. He was also the only employee at the time.

I went back a week later and it was gone. I was pretty disappointed.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > TDIGuy
03/22/2020 at 13:57

I rented one of these for work. Other than the c7 Corvette I rented, it’s the one vehicle that I nearly got busted by the police almost immediately for some reckless speeding. I took off from the first light that I could at full throttle because that’s what you do with a rental car. Well I assumed it’s just a beetle. When I did the same thing the week before with a Nissan Versa it just whined like a lawn mower for 35 seconds before hitting 60 (speed limit 45 probably). So plenty of time to slow down and not get caught in a speed trap down the road. Except in the beetle after 10 seconds or so of full throttle I was way over 80 bombing down the road. Thankfully before the next crest I realized and slowed down. Low and behold on the other side of the crest down the hill was Texas’ finest lying in wait outside the airport for jackasses like me. Since I had slowed down to a nice calm 50, I was under the radar and through without issue. But yeah that was a fun car, would gladly own the girly GTI.

When I did the same in a Corvette I was triple digits in third gear on an onramp. But I expected that because rumbling v8 in a sports car. The beetle was more the unexpected quickness.

Captain of the Enterprise > TDIGuy
03/22/2020 at 15:44

Very nice and well done!! That’s a cool combination that I didn’t know about!

TDIGuy > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
03/22/2020 at 17:24

Yeah I was skeptical when I was getting ready to test drive it. Once I drove it I was sold.

TDIGuy > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
03/22/2020 at 17:25

Yeah I had a hard time finding a good one. Only option I wish this had was the red seat inserts.