Cybertoad's Blog

Wow, I just checked my archives and it’s been about a year since I last wrote about issues with my Beetle. Well, as it reaches 40,000 miles it’s been relatively free of issues but I have to do some minor stuff on it…

– This is not the car’s fault of course but I did get a big old bolt stuck in the front driver’s-side tire. I thought the tire would have to be replaced but the awesome folks at Discount Tire were able to patch it up for free. I highly recommend these guys, at least the guys at the location near me have *always* treated me right. Extremely professional, great service. So far I have been able to keep all four of the original tires on it (it’s a 2000). Not bad, right?

– My biggest expense this past year has been replacing the rear brake pads and having the rear brake rotors re-surfaced. Despite only having 40,000 miles on it, I had started to grind the rotors when I braked. The damage was almost bad enough to have to replace the rotors but my mechanic was able to save them since they had never been resurfaced in the past (he says you can typically resurface a rotor twice). So take note guys, take your car in at the first sign – you’ll hear a distinctive grinding sound when you brake!! I waited a couple of weeks and almost made my mechanic’s bill double! As an FYI, it cost me $280 and after checking at another brake shop, this was an average price. Sheesh!

– The cheapest repair this year was having to replace the low-beam headlamp on the driver’s side. The bulb was about $5 and with a lot of tugging and pushing, Kenny and I managed to replace it. Not diffiuclt in theory but it took a lot of effort and in the end the gentle use of a rubber mallet to get the headlamp unit back in. I still can’t believe my mechanic wanted to charge me about $60 for this! Then again, he wanted to use a VW bulb which would have cost $16 versus the the $5 one I found at the local parts store…

And that is about it on the car front. I am more than halfway through with my car payments so despite my desire for a Honda instead of VW, I will stick with the Beetle until it gets paid off. I simply can’t beat the financing deal I have on it nor can I get such low payments unless I lease (which I won’t do).