Two problems related to gasoline engine have been reported for the 2003 Volkswagen New Beetle. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2003 Volkswagen New Beetle based on all problems reported for the 2003 New Beetle.
While driving at night the epc light came on. I wanted to pull over since the car is fairly new and had never seen that light on while driving. I pulled the car off the road to check the manual and see what the light meant. The car was in park. I could not get the car to shift out of park. After calling road side assistance. . . I had the car towed to the dealership. Thing is, road side assistance had heard about this before. They had me do a "procedure" to get the car to shift out of park and be able to drive home. Once home the car got stuck into neutral. I then had it towed.
The throttle failed to respond in my new 2003 Volkswagen beetle. It didnt respond when accelerator pedal was depressed. This is sporadic and unpredictable in nature. Vehicle remains at idle even when accelerator pedal is depressed all the way. Sometimes it responds by revving up the engine too high and causes the vehicle to accelerate rapidly. I had it repaired three times and as of this date the problem remains.