The Beetle is the only small car to receive an overall good rating from the IIHS. It received a good rating on every individual test except one where it recieved an acceptable. The second place car (Honda Civic) received 3 good, 5 acceptable and one marginal on the individual tests, for an overall rating of acceptable. That makes the difference between 1st and 2nd pretty significant in my book. The Civic also suffered 10 times the monetary damage as the Beetle in the low speed collisions. The closest finisher to the Beetle in the low speed collisions was the Saturn, which sustained 5 times the damage.
We're all fortunate to have a choice in the type of car we drive. And if our mode of transportation happens to also bring a smile to those around us, that's an added benefit. I think that's why some people even go so far as to decorate the exteriors of their cars with non-auto-related items, from toys to televisions. Believe me, living in San Francisco, I've seen it all! :O)
Yesterday, I returned to my parked car to discover a group of tourists taking turns posing for pictures in front of my beetle. And even though there are tons of bugs running around this city, I still catch people silently admiring the beetle's styling.
I haven't had any problems with my car, but I'm still having fun!
That's hilarious about the tourists posing for pictures in front of your car!! Could you tell if they were they from out of the country? What color is your Beetle? How long have you had it?
I'm glad you haven't had any trouble with it. I'm hoping that maybe the things I've been reading about here are just the "first year bugs" and will get worked out the longer the car is in production. I don't know much about that sort of thing, but it makes sense that a brand new design like this would have some rough spots to smooth over.
I saw an ad in the paper this weekend that a prune company is giving away a plum colored New Beetle in some contest. The picture of it looked kind of pink/purple. Now that's going to catch some eyes!!
After reading over 300 posts to this discussion on the NB I have one question.
Why is it that ISELLHONDAS and PAM2, two people who dislike this car are the most frequent posters to this discussion?
Hmmmm could it be that they are here to try to scare a few people away from this car because it scares them that the NB is attracting so much excitement.
It sounds to me like ISELLHONDAS was selling a few less Hondas since the debut of the NB and is attempting to play on people's fears so they buy his cars instead. Why else would a seller of a competing car spend so much time in a discussion of a competitors product unless he was scared of the competitor and its product. But hey he is a salesman and why wouldn't he do it. I don't blame him for putting down a car to make his product look better.
But PAM2 I am convinced is being paid to post negative comments here. She says she was interested in the Beetle but was unimpressed with the Beetle when she drove it, hated the waiting list, and was scared away by the problems she was hearing about with the Beetle and then bought a new Honda. OK fine I can believe that no problem. But why would that same person continue to read and post to this discussion after they purchased another car?
Don't you think after buying her new Honda she would be reading and posting to a Honda topic? The only other reason I can think of she might be still posting here is that somewhere in the back of her mind she feels she made a terrible mistake in not buying the Beetle and is continually trying to convince herself she didn't make a mistake by continuing to post negative things here.
My bet is she is being paid or is receiving some other benefit by attempting to push people away from the new Beetle.
I am sorry to rant, it is just after reading over three hundred posts and seeing the same two people say the same things over and over again got me frustrated. I am all for pointing out the downside of a product so the consumer knows exactly what they are getting into when they purchase something but what they were doing seemed different than that to me and it became annoying.
The '99 MSRP's are out; GL $15 900 GLS $16 850 TDI GLS $17 900
NO pricing for the GLS 1.8T or GLX 1.8T My source is VOA. They released the prices yesterday. There are quite a few nice changes to the '99 . Of interset to the Edmund's long term test NB crew will be the bigger cup holders!
There is a real nice NB site. Check out www.air.on.ca Tons of info. And friendly discussion. Pictures of the '99 too!!!
Pam, I've had my black bug for two months, but that was the first time I actually caught Asian tourists taking pictures with it.
Every morning I drive by an elementary school and the kids shout, "Punch Bug!" to one another. Kids have no problem smiling at something they think is neat.
Well, so far I've made about $22,000 from being paid to make negative posts about New Beetles. I split this money with Isellhondas to make up for his loss of Honda sales.
Comments
As they say in the car business;
There's a "butt" for every seat...Or...is it the other way around?
We're all fortunate to have a choice in the type of car we drive. And if our mode of transportation happens to also bring a smile to those around us, that's an added benefit. I think that's why some people even go so far as to decorate the exteriors of their cars with non-auto-related items, from toys to televisions. Believe me, living in San Francisco, I've seen it all! :O)
Yesterday, I returned to my parked car to discover a group of tourists taking turns posing for pictures in front of my beetle. And even though there are tons of bugs running around this city, I still catch people silently admiring the beetle's styling.
I haven't had any problems with my car, but I'm still having fun!
That's hilarious about the tourists posing for pictures in front of your car!! Could you tell if they were they from out of the country? What color is your Beetle? How long have you had it?
I'm glad you haven't had any trouble with it. I'm hoping that maybe the things I've been reading about here are just the "first year bugs" and will get worked out the longer the car is in production. I don't know much about that sort of thing, but it makes sense that a brand new design like this would have some rough spots to smooth over.
I saw an ad in the paper this weekend that a prune company is giving away a plum colored New Beetle in some contest. The picture of it looked kind of pink/purple. Now that's going to catch some eyes!!
Pam
carlady/host
Why is it that ISELLHONDAS and PAM2, two people who dislike this car are the most frequent posters to this discussion?
Hmmmm could it be that they are here to try to scare a few people away from this car because it scares them that the NB is attracting so much excitement.
It sounds to me like ISELLHONDAS was selling a few less Hondas since the debut of the NB and is attempting to play on people's fears so they buy his cars instead. Why else would a seller of a competing car spend so much time in a discussion of a competitors product unless he was scared of the competitor and its product. But hey he is a salesman and why wouldn't he do it. I don't blame him for putting down a car to make his product look better.
But PAM2 I am convinced is being paid to post negative comments here. She says she was interested in the Beetle but was unimpressed with the Beetle when she drove it, hated the waiting list, and was scared away by the problems she was hearing about with the Beetle and then bought a new Honda. OK fine I can believe that no problem. But why would that same person continue to read and post to this discussion after they purchased another car?
Don't you think after buying her new Honda she would be reading and posting to a Honda topic? The only other reason I can think of she might be still posting here is that somewhere in the back of her mind she feels she made a terrible mistake in not buying the Beetle and is continually trying to convince herself she didn't make a mistake by continuing to post negative things here.
My bet is she is being paid or is receiving some other benefit by attempting to push people away from the new Beetle.
I am sorry to rant, it is just after reading over three hundred posts and seeing the same two people say the same things over and over again got me frustrated. I am all for pointing out the downside of a product so the consumer knows exactly what they are getting into when they purchase something but what they were doing seemed different than that to me and it became annoying.
Ok I am done now sorry for the inconvenience.
carlady/host
Well said.
The '99 MSRP's are out; GL $15 900
GLS $16 850
TDI GLS $17 900
NO pricing for the GLS 1.8T or GLX 1.8T
My source is VOA. They released the prices yesterday. There are quite a few nice changes to the '99 . Of interset to the Edmund's long term test NB crew will be the bigger cup holders!
There is a real nice NB site. Check out www.air.on.ca Tons of info. And friendly discussion. Pictures of the '99 too!!!
I've had my black bug for two months, but that was the first time I actually caught Asian tourists taking pictures with it.
Every morning I drive by an elementary school and the kids shout, "Punch Bug!" to one another. Kids have no problem smiling at something they think is neat.
Adults, however, pretend not to smile. :O)
Maybe I'm not up with the times... but what does "punch bug" mean?
I had posted a concurring opinion earlier.
Read 257
I agree with you. There's something fishy about Isellhondas and Pam2's repeated negative postings on this discussion board.
K273
I split this money with Isellhondas to make up for his loss of Honda sales.
Since we are at 380 notes, which would be a bit daunting to anyone joining us now, I'm going to freeze this discussion and begin anew.
carlady/host