Five problems related to transmission failure have been reported for the 2003 Volkswagen New Beetle Convertible. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
The contact owns a 2003 Volkswagen New Beetle Convertible. When decelerating to approximately 5 mph, the vehicle would jerk before switching gears. The vehicle was taken to a local mechanic and after inspection the contact was advised that the transmission failed. The replacement of the transmission would be at the owners expense at a cost of $6,000. In addition, the contact stated that the rear passenger window would open and close independently. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 123,000.
Faulty automatic transmission activity. Low mileage transmission failures causing hazardous driving. Downshifting causes jolting gear changes, accelerating causes slip into neutral nearly causing rear-end collisions. Computer codes fail to correctly diagnose failure, causing dangerous driving hazard.
My 2003 was serviced at the dealership and certified mechanics. I only have 75,000 miles on my 2003 New Beetle Convertible and the transmission has failed. I have since found many of the same year car with the identical complaint of the transmission failing.
Like almost all 2005 vw new beetles with automatic transmissions, mine (after warming up) shifts very hard both up and down the gears and revs up between gears. Occasionally it hangs up in third gear until it sits and cools down for several hours. I have had it fail on multiple lane highways causing me to become trapped between lanes. This transmission is failing in most if not all vw beetles and is very dangerous. Just do an internet search for "new beetle transmission failure" and you'll see how pervasive it is. My beetle began giving problems at 45,000 miles.
Transmission failed to shift into manual from automatic while stopped. It was intermittent and at about 58,000 failure is permanent and no longer is usable.