Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Volkswagen Beetle

What it says about you

Opinion

Bought for the shape, and everyone including you knows it. There may have been a flower holder.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

10 model years on record, 482 complaints filed. No year stood out against this model's own history — which means it has not drawn unusual complaints, not that it is a good car.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • close 2012, 2013 peak 23.1% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2019 4 recalls 14 complaints
  2. 2018 4 recalls 16 complaints
  3. 2017 4 recalls 15 complaints
  4. 2016 4 recalls 58 complaints
  5. 2015 6 recalls 99 complaints
  6. 2014 6 recalls 54 complaints
  7. 2013 7 recalls 98 complaints
  8. 2012 7 recalls 65 complaints
  9. 2010 3 recalls 30 complaints
  10. 2009 2 recalls 33 complaints

What does a Volkswagen Beetle say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.