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2007 Volkswagen NEW Beetle

This year drew an ordinary 56 complaints for a Volkswagen NEW Beetle — the model's median is 60. What they were about is the unusual part: 19.6% of them mention seat, against 6.4% across the model's other years.

NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.

What the complaints were about

• seat — 19.6% of this year's complaints, against 6.4% across the model's other years (3.1×).

Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.

What owners wrote

"TAKATA RECALL" (?) SRS WARNING LIGHT STAYS ON AFTER STARTING VEHICLE. 65000 MILES ON VEHICLE. CODE (00591) INDICATES FAULT IN DRIVER'S SIDE SEAT/SAFETY BELT.

THE BACK GLASS WINDOW ON THE SOFT TOP CONVERTIBLE IS COMING LOOSE. IF I DRIVE THE GLASS WINDOW WILL DROP AND SHATTER. IF PARKED OUTSIDE, AND IT RAINS, THE ENTIRE BACK SEAT AND TRUNK WILL GET WET.

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

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How this was worked out

Every year of the Volkswagen NEW Beetle was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.

This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.

Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.

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