Automatic Transmission problems of the 2002 Volkswagen New Beetle

After driving the car for about 20 minutes, I stopped at a redlight. When the light turned green, my car acted like it did not have a lot of power and would not shift into 2nd and 3rd gears without over revving. Whenever I slowed back down, the car abruptly and severely downshifts. The shift is hard enough that it slings me forward. I fear that I will soon be rearended because of this. I do not feel safe to drive my car. This occurrence happens sporadically and I can't get it fixed until a mechanic witnesses it happening.

2002 Volkswagen beetle automatic transmission. There is a long hesitation then a violent jerk going into gears. I had stopped at the stop sign at the end of my road, I then proceeded to cross 4 lanes of highway traffic when the transmission decided to do a long hesitation. A multiple car accident was almost the result. I have since parked the car and do not drive it because I cannot afford to fix it and Volkswagen told me that the repairs would be $5700. 00. This hesitation and jerking happens everytime time now when driven. I believe this is a safety concern and should be looked into. Thank you!.

When you put the car in drive with your foot on the brake, when you let off the brake the car will roll backwards then jerk forward.

I purchased this "like new"vw super beetle on Dec 31 04. It had only 17000 miles on it. Since that time I have had the transmission modulator on it changed, and in the shop 6 time for a transmission problem. When the car has been sitting for an hour or so it will hesitate then slam into 2nd gear. It causes me and passengers to lunge foward then back. I am told this is a charaturistic of vw and should just ignore it or get use to it.

Transmission replaced three times, still not working properly, lunges into forward and reverse, and will drop into and out of high and low gear when driving. Sunroof leaked because the drainage tubing was not connected at factory causing water damage to leather seats and now mold is growing inside of vehicle, making it difficult to be inside and have had one sinus infection already.

After the vehicle was started, the consumer was unable to shift the gear from park to drive.

A component within the transmission causes the vehicle to either not come out of park or while being driven the vehicle drops down to 20 mph and speed cannot be regained. Nlm.

Transmission noted to be downshifted very hard when coming to a slow stop. When slowing to a stop and reaching the 15-20 mph area car will jerk hard. Took back to tony Honda for service and they told me that everything checks out to Volkswagen specs and they were not going to check into it any further. Volkwagen was contacted by me and told to take car for second opinion at cutter volkwagen here in honolulu. Steve from service drove the car and could not belive it was doing the downshifting. After several days in the shop they replaced parts of the transmission and it was still doing it. They were authorized to replace my transmission with another from a new car in stock but they also did the same thing. It turns out that there is a computer malfunction in the transmission and it needs to be reprogrammed. They are supposed to be getting this in from germany and so far I have been waiting 2 weeks. During this time I spilled hot coffe on my leg and have 2nd degree burns due to this shifting problem and while my wife was driving with my son he hit his head on the dashboard coming to a stop when this defect occurred. They told me this is non-life threatening but I beg to differ. They told me that I will be the first in hawaii to have this reprogramming done. I want out of this car, it is unsafe to drive and volkwagen doesn't care.

Car downshifts extremely hard when coming to a stop, causing driver and passengers to be lunged forward in their seat. . Dealer states that this is a characteristic of the car. Problem is intermittent and increases when vehicle is warmed up. On occasion downshift occurred so hard that I thought I was just rear -ended by another car. I bought the car for my wife and now she is afraid to drive it.