New Beetle

Most people, when they go on holiday, buy a souvenir; a T shirt, etc. to remind them of their visit. Not us!

In March we went on a skiing holiday to Lake Tahoe . A friend had suggested we should try California as it offered guaranteed snow and wasn’t "as expensive as you’d think" – Oh, how wrong he turned out to be!

We’d had several good sunny days, but that morning it had been raining and was still overcast so we decided to take a day off and go into Reno (about 50 miles away) to do a bit of shopping and buy the customary souvenir T shirt. As we drove into town we noticed a VW dealership on our left. "Strange" I thought, "there are a lot of people standing around that car". Then it dawned on me – that car was the New Beetle and this was the day most dealerships had received their first delivery.

We just had to go and see it! Much screeching of tyres later I’d done a U turn in the road and arrived at the dealers. There it was; bright red with a beige interior – absolutely gorgeous!

We’ve owned several VWs over the last 15 or so years; a ‘69 semi-auto Beetle, a ‘55 oval (bought in 1986 and currently being restored), a ‘79 Scirocco Storm, an ‘80 Mk1 Golf GLi Cabriolet and our current car; a ‘90 Golf GTi 8V. They’ve all been brilliant and the New Beetle seems to combine the best of all of them. And it looked much more impressive in real life than any picture could show. We just had to have one – easier said than done !

The dealer told us he’d love to sell us one, but he’d only been allocated 37 for the whole of 1998 and had 40 people already waiting. "OK" we thought (well that’s not exactly what we thought, but there maybe children reading this), "we’ll be spending a few days in San Francisco at the end of the holiday, we can get one there".

A few days later, in the San Francisco area, we started to contact dealers to see if they had a New Beetle which we could buy. Two dealers had them in stock, but as soon as we mentioned the word "export" they told us they had been warned by VW Cars North America that if they sell for export they risk losing their dealership. A few phone calls later, and having heard the same story from about half a dozen different dealers, we were getting depressed. Apparently a German business man had been trying to buy 20 Beetles for export each month until October (when the car is due to go on sale in Europe). VW had got wind of this and had closed the loophole – much to the annoyance of us Brits wanting to buy cars for personal import!

A mate who lives in San Fran suggested I could buy the car as a local if I were to get insurance and a California driving licence – all I need do is show them my UK license, pay $12 and a temporary US license would be issued!

The insurance was easy – a friend of a friend who works for a broker arranged cover for a very good price (i.e.. $0.00), but the license was a bit more difficult; I had to complete a written exam on US driving regulations – the pass mark was 85%. Yikes!!! "Oh yeah" my mate said later, "I forgot to tell you about that." - Thanks pal. After watching several disappointed looking locals fail, I thought I’d have no chance. I gave it a go anyway and, amazingly, scored exactly 85%. Phew !

Now to buy the car – a two litre petrol engine manual gearbox model in bright red with a black interior, air con, cruise control, electric windows, electric/heated mirrors, remote alarm/central locking, height adjustable seats, fully adjustable steering wheel, alloys and, of course, a bud vase. We wanted a bright colour such as red or yellow and the black interior suits the car better than the beige offering. This sorted, the New Bug was driven to local a shipping agent to be exported.

7 weeks later on May 15 our shiny New Beetle (VIN No 3VWBB61C9WM001858) arrived in Guernsey. A visit to Customs was required and, after having paid our 10% import duty, she was out on the road and the following Monday was registered locally.

What a head-turner! People were falling over each other to get a glimpse. Even most die-hard air-cooled fans seem to love it.

We’ve covered over 1000 miles in the two weeks since delivery without incident (including 500 miles on a long weekend in Brittany).

Problems so far:-

A recall to replace the battery tray. New tray currently on order – the offending wiring has been wrapped in nylon spiral binding to protect it temporarily. Fortunately my local VW dealers, St Martin’s Garage, have been really good – even though they are now being inundated with requests for New Beetles – and have agreed to do this and any servicing work on the car.

US spec Daytime Running Lights. These are linked to the handbrake light switch so go on and off as you apply and release the handbrake – a real pain. I’ve taken the handbrake switch off its mount until a permanent solution can be found. This stops the DRLs coming on, but the hand brake warning light is now permanently lit. If anyone can help with this I’d love to here from them.