Transmission Gear Slipping problems of the 2005 Volkswagen New Beetle Convertible

2005 Volkswagen beetle transmission slipping - less than 85,000 miles. At approximately 60k miles I noticed a jerking when I would slow. The jerking would occur while the car was slowing between 3rd and 2nd gear. That seemed to iron itself out, but then a new problem surfaced - the car will slip into neutral between 2nd and 3rd gear sporadically. At 80k miles, I took my car to my mechanic - he told me it could be due to low transmission fluid. He checked my levels and said all seemed to be in order. Now (a month later) it occurs more recently (daily and more than once a day), my car will transition smoothly between gears until transmission warms up. After approximately 10 - 15 minutes worth of driving, accelerating between 2 and 3rd gear, the car revs like it has slipped into neutral and will jerk violently into 3rd gear. When I can tell the transmission is slipping, I remove my foot from the gas, allow the rpms to return to normal and then try accelerating again, normally this will allow the car to smoothly transition to 3rd gear. Today, however, the car remained in neutral and although I took my foot from the gas, the engine seemed to continue to rev as if my foot was still pressing on the gas. I pressed the break to stop the rpms from climbing higher and then the car jerked into 3rd - this was by far the scariest because I had a car right behind me. Impromptu breaking and lurching could have caused a serious accident had I been in tighter traffic. I was only going 25 miles per hour. I contacted Volkswagen and formally submitted a complaint. I've also gone on several vehicle forums and found I am not the only person with this year, make and model of vw beetle that is experiencing this issue. I took my car to my mechanic today to find out a diagnosis. Hoping someone else has heard of this and found a more viable solution other than soaking $6k into a 5-year old car.

I own a 2005 vw convertible beetle automatic, which I bought new in August of 2005. It only has 64,000 miles on it. I have been having issues with the car lurching forward or shifting very roughly between first, second, and third gears on upshift and downshift. It is extremely scary and gets progressively worse the warmer the car gets. I've almost been in accidents several times because of the lurching, and I've almost been rear-ended on the freeway because of gear slipping. I've spoken to my transmission mechanic, and he stated that they've seen these same issues in many other vw's. I've also searched online, and seen 100's of complaints about this same issue. I contacted my vw dealer, who stated that this is not a common problem. After doing a little bit of internet research, I can't believe that that's true. I'm having to replace my transmission to the tune of several thousand dollars, and the car is not even 5 years old. I feel unsafe and nervous driving the car as do many, many others and I feel there should be a recall.

I purchased a 2005 vw New Beetle Convertible in 10/2009 as a way to "save money" and traded in my SUV. It had 48000 miles and now has 56000. In the last couple of months, the transmission started to slip between 2nd and 3rd. I took it in to a local transmission shop to have my trans fluid changed, thinking that might solve the problem. Found out that the transmission was completely ruined and needed to be rebuilt, which cost $4600+ dollars. My husband started looking online and there are pages and pages of testimonials regarding the same issue. When I talked to the vw customer care dept, they didn't know of any problems or complaints and because I didn't go to a dealership for my repairs, or purchase their extended warranty, I am out of luck. I'm afraid it will happen again. At least I went to an independent transmission shop, because looking at all the complaints from people that had their transmissions replaced at the vw dealer, lots of them are needing them replaced again. This seems like it should be a recall issue. Although I didn't have an accident, I am thankful that my transmission didn't go out or act up when I was on the freeway or somewhere that could have caused an accident. Please make vw be responsible for this, come to find out, common defect. The problems started probably in 1/2010 and just had the trans rebuilt 4/2010.

Transmission slipping in a 2005 Volkswagen beetle with 71,000 miles, I have been told by several repair shops that the manufacturer knows there is a problem with them but will not do anything about it. Driver's side rear window regulator became defective at 59,000 miles and when I contacted the manufacturer was told in order for them to assist with problem it must be diagnosed by a dealer. Drove 60 miles and was charged $100 to diagnose the problem (which I already knew what the problem was) and then was told that because of the mileage they could not help me. Manufacturer knew the mileage prior to requesting me to take to dealer. Cost of replacing a window regulator $600, there is a kit that can be installed, but of course that information is not given to the customer.