Betcha y’all didn’t know 211

[953 nut 67,524]

July 30, 2003, the last of 21,529,464 Volkswagen Beetles built since World War II rolls off the production line at Volkswagen’s plant in Puebla, Mexico. One of a 3,000-unit final edition, the baby-blue vehicle was sent to a museum in Wolfsburg, Germany, where Volkswagen is headquartered.

[Blaine 248]

On another note, in july of 2019 production of the newest version of the Beetle had ceased. A far more celebratory event. Good riddance. 

[953 nut 67,524]

Never liked the front engine bug, just didn't seem right. Now they are producing the VW Microbus as an all electric unit, not too impressed, just another van.

 

[ri702bill 12,535]

The word on the street is that VW decided against importing the new E-lectric van to the US. No great loss....

[ri702bill 12,535]

1 hour ago, 953 nut said:

July 30, 2003, the last of 21,529,464 Volkswagen Beetles built since World War II rolls off the production line at Volkswagen’s plant in Puebla, Mexico. One of a 3,000-unit final edition, the baby-blue vehicle was sent to a museum in Wolfsburg, Germany, where Volkswagen is headquartered.

 

Yup, seems the waterless wonder could not pass US Emissions, so enter the "New Beetle"....

[Achto 32,126]

1 hour ago, ri702bill said:

The word on the street is that VW decided against importing the new E-lectric van to the US. No great loss.

 

The word has the wrong info. The vans are here.

https://www.dtvwchicago.com/viewdetails/new/wvgawvebxsh013350/2025-volkswagen-id-d--buzz-minivan-q-van

 

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/listing/427361495

 

They did how ever pause the 2026 yr models

Edited Thursday at 02:30 PM by Achto

[8ntruck 9,075]

  I've seen a half dozen of them in our recent travels around the Midwest.

[ri702bill 12,535]

The laterst chatter is the VW is hurtin' for certain financially. The 2027 lineup will offer only half of what they do now. And the electric bus did not survive the cut.

They, like other Manufacturers are getting closer to circling the drain due to loss of marketshare due to cheap (all around) Chinese imports, primarily in Europe...

Edited Thursday at 02:33 PM by ri702bill

[Bill D 2,999]

VW never really came back after the diesel emissions scandal. 

[ri702bill 12,535]

What scandal??? That was just a creative marketing work-around!! My son had one of those dirty-diesel Jettas for a weekend loaner... no rattle diesel sound & oodles of low end torque.

[Bill D 2,999]

4 hours ago, ri702bill said:

What scandal??? That was just a creative marketing work-around!! My son had one of those dirty-diesel Jettas for a weekend loaner... no rattle diesel sound & oodles of low end torque.

Everyone I know who had one loved it, and hated to turn it in, even though they got a full refund. 

Edited Thursday at 07:13 PM by Bill D

[Handy Don 16,986]

On 7/30/2026 at 12:25 PM, Bill D said:

Everyone I know who had one loved it, and hated to turn it in, even though they got a full refund. 

Some were kept by owner choice and got a re-programmed emissions control system. Less torque & overall power, but far less pollution. Just yesterday saw a TDI wagon cruising along in CT. 

[953 nut 67,524]

On 7/30/2026 at 12:25 PM, Bill D said:

Everyone I know who had one loved it, and hated to turn it in, even though they got a full refund. 

Seem to remember you could keep it but would have to give up the warrantee on the car to do so. 

[wh500special 2,446]

I had one. 
 

Mine was a 2013 Passat TDI. In the 85000 miles I had the car I averaged an honest 44 mpg.  Because I am a weirdo, I keep a spreadsheet on my cars to track costs and maintenance, so this isn’t an approximation.
 

On a long interstate trip, the car would get better than 50 mpg.  It had an 18 gallon tank so had a range of 900 miles.   I drove it from St Louis to Charlotte, NC on one tank.  On another trip it went from STL to northern MN before filling.  The car was a bladder buster.  
 

it was a largish car but only 140 hp which explains the great fuel economy.  But it never felt underpowered.  It had a lot of low RPM grunt so got off the line quick which made it feel a lot faster than it really was, but the acceleration really dropped off once the car hit 25 mph.   Again, only 140 hp…
 

VW got caught with wildly excessive tailpipe emissions by some researchers at the University of West Virginia who were comparing diesel autos for mpg and emissions.  The VW results were so off the charts bad that they assumed their gross data had to be in error so they re-tested and got the same result.  
 

Assuming it was a fluke they got another TDI and tested it.  Same results. uh oh.  
 

They reported to VW who ignored them and blamed their test methods.  Others took note and started checking too and all found that VW diesels were clean when tested at the stationary test stations, but incredibly dirty when tested while on the road. Eventually the California Air Resources Board pressed VW on it and were also ignored.  Federal EPA too.  
 

VW continued to break the emission laws for multiple years despite regulatory scrutiny.  Eventually they finally agreed that something was amiss after the EPA notified them they couldn’t sell ANY cars - gas or diesel - in the US if they didn’t cooperate.  Talk about motivation. 
 

The issue was that VW programmed the car to only operate the exhaust catalyst system when the car was on a treadmill being tested.  Steering wheel inputs were used to deduce the car was actually being driven on the road and the emissions system was then shut down.  In hindsight, that’s why that little tank of urea in the trunk rarely needed a refill.  
 

the net result was VW had to deal with the 385000 (in the US alone) law breaking gross polluters on the road.  They applied two software flashes and gave owners some money as bandaids but still were thumbing nose at EPA.  Eventually after their initial fixes were little more than window dressing they were forced to offer buybacks or cash payments and real fixes to owners who wanted to keep the car.  
 

I don’t remember the warranty terms, but I’m pretty sure the emissions system warranty were actually lengthened for

those who kept them. At the time though, VW didn’t have a fix, didn’t know if they would have a fix, and nobody was telling what the trade offs would be. My assumption - given what I know about the complexity of a catalytic cleanup system - was that VW probably knew the chemistry set in the tailpipe was a reliability disaster so they elected to shut it down whenever the car was driving.  I didn’t want to deal with that.  
 

I sold mine back to them.  I seem to remember them not giving back the full purchase price but I think it was pretty close overall when factoring in the payment for the car, the two small payments that came with the intermediate (failed) software flashes, and the payment from Robert Bosch (software company who programmed the cheat in the ECU).  In four years and 85000 miles the car cost me just the cost of fuel, insurance, a set of tires, and maintenance.  Turned out to be a great deal overall financially, but infuriating when thinking about 85000 miles worth of emissions times 385000 other cars on the road.  
 

and there were fines.  I think it totaled around $3 billion. 
 

Much of the fines were distributed through all 50 states and designated for emissions reductions.  School systems upgrades busses, states used it for remediation, etc.  VW also had to fund the Electrify America EV charging network.  
 

Exacerbating things, the software used to

cheat also was applied in other manufacturers’ products across all of Europe and North America. Daimler Benz and Chrysler to name two.  They complied much more readily when discovered and at least have plausible deniability. 
 

I’ll never purchase another product from VW. 
 

I didn’t buy that car to make a statement or be an environmentalist, but I did buy it expecting that it meet specifications or at least made a good faith effort to meet them.  It didn’t because they made the decision to be criminals, likely in the name of durability or drivability.  None of what they did was subject to interpretation or judgement, it was clearly wrong. 
 

I was sad to see my car go.  
 

I’m doubly mad that in one deliberate action VW doomed the future for light diesel vehicles in the western world.  Diesel emissions are dirty, no doubt, but treatable.  The take rate for diesel autos in the US was already low and VW killed the golden goose. 
 

On the upside, with diesel currently running $5/gallon and RUG at $4, the break even gas mpg compared to my 44mpg TDi is 36 mpg.  That’s somewhat  attainable in a similar sedan, so the advantage of diesel has pretty much evaporated.  

anyway, here endeth the sermon.
 

Steve