'05 Beetle Convertible Turbo Aquarius Blue

[Banshee365]

Hey Vortex!. We're looking to expand the family soon and need a bigger car. We love the Beetle and have been through some downs under warranty and have really faired great after the warranty expired. I havn't put much of anything other than required maintenance items in it out of pocket. Even with some of the issues that we've faced with it, I feel greatful and MUCH more comfortable in some things that failed as they were replaced with VW updated parts that have proven durability over several years now. We're staying with VW with a new Passat TDI. I'm leaning towards trading the car in to the local dealer as they really want it and offered a bit over blue book RETAIL value. I know the Preowned manager there and he said he'll be able to sell it in a heartbeat. I sort of feel like it's too nice of a car for a dealer to sell so I'm going to throw it out on the internet for private sale first. So here goes...


2005 Aquarius Blue New Beetle Convertible 1.8L Turbo mated to 6-speed automatic transmission.17" Seattle alloy's wrapped in Kumho Ecsta LX Platinum 225/45-17's.

VERY desirable color and top combo, especially in Turbo form. Includes full owners manual binder, 2 key FOB's, valet key, mint boot cover, and wind screen.

• 77,000 one owner easy driven miles

• Alway's garaged

• Alway's kept clay bared and waxed

• Recent tires that show no noticeable wear from new

• Recent OEM convertible top installed by the dealer (it has been put down less than 10 times since installation.)

• Oil changes every 5,000 miles with Mobil 1 0W40 oil, OEM Mann filter, and new drain plug/washer every time.

• 40k service was done 30k ago (Plugs, air filter, fuel filter, pollen filter, etc...)

• Coil pack recall done (although I never had problems with the originals)

• New OEM VW passenger side inner CV boot installed to replace torn part. All other boots inspected for cracks.

• MUCH pad still left on silky smooth brakes

• Timing belt and water pump kit sitting on the counter. Will install for private sale or will sell kit if traded.

• No aftermarket modifications and no aftermarket parts ever installed on the car. Only genuine VW parts used.

• New OEM upper emissions hose just installed. ($80 piece of rubber, but it fits and functions better than any aftermarket part.)

• Rear window regulators replaced under warranty years ago with updated regular parts kit. (Keeps regulator issues from occuring anymore.)

• Transmission valve body and fluid replaced about 26k ago by the dealer under warranty. I was also told the new part had updates but can't confirm that 100%. Doesn't exhibit any shifting issues that is common with these auto transmissions in Beetles.

• Brand new OEM fuel pump relay installed 2 weeks ago.

With the very strong offer from my dealer the price for private sale is $11,500. Any less than that and I am much better off trading the car and taking the sales tax break for the new car.

I would rather it go to someone who I know will continue to take as much care of this car as I have the past 6 years. This car has all major maintenance items done and common issues sorted to make it a reliable and dependable vehicle as well as like new appearance and driveability. You can go spend $8,000-$9,000 on a similar car, but I have been watching used Beetle's go across the web and see a lot of expensive issues with most of them. With about 70% of the 'verts I see up for sale I find the canvas around the rear window seperating and most of the time a terrible glue repair is attempted for awful results. I've even seen a few with aftermarket tops and boy do they look awful! 95% of the door panel vinyl is totally seperated from the door card on the cars I see go for sale. Of course they all say, "Mint, clean, won't find a nicer Beetle anywhere." Yada yada yada... The top is a $3,000-$4,000 job minimum with an OEM part.

I didn't price the car to negotiate as I've stated the reason's for it being what it is. I'm as OCD as it get's and the car is in plenty good cosmetic and mechanical shape for us to keep for many years to come if it was a viable option.

PM me if there are any questions on the car. If you're interest is telling me the price is too high then I'm sorry you feel that way and me asking this price for this nice of a car is why I spent the past 6 years keeping it's condition a MAJOR priority in my life.

[Geesixty]

Location? Also, could you tell me why the top had to be replaced?

Thanks!

[Banshee365]

Geesixty, thanks for the reply!

I'm located in North Central Florida. The car has alway's been garaged and meticulously maintained by myself with synthetic oil changes every 5k along with all of the other scheduled maintenance items. I have alway's done the maintenance myself to keep other grubby fingers from breaking and stripping stuff on our car. The one time the dealer touched the skidplate to replace the valve body under warranty, they left half a dozen fasteners out. Before I left the parking lot I checked and made them replace every single screw and bolt that they touched in front of me with hand tools, no air tools to strip the nut clips out!

New Beetle convertibles have common problems with the original factory convertible tops with the back glass coming unglued. Even with our car garaged it's whole life, we had the problem. On a trip to the North Georgia mountains for vacation a little while back I noticed the canvas starting to peel away from the glass. I was heartbroken as the car was out of warranty. I researched online way's to possibly repair a problem like this and tried once. Many had success using a distilled cyanoactrylate glue (super glue type) to glue the canvas back to the glass. I tried this but there is just NO WAY to make it look factory. Shortly thereafter I found that VW began covering this issue out of warranty and our car went in for a brand new OEM VW top installed by the dealer partially under my supervision to make sure they gave a crap about their work! I asked if this issue would happen again and the service manager told me that he was informed that the formula in the adhesive was changed in the newer tops to prevent this from happening again. Many cars that I have seen go across auction sites and classified have either an aftermarket top (horrid looking!), seperated rear glass, or a crappy looking repair job that will not hold over time.

I still have the timing belt kit sitting on the table to install upon private sale, that will be done and good for another 80k miles. I also have a new cabin air filter and I'm going to replace the valve cover gasket as over several years the gasket hardens up and could leak, this one isn't yet but I'm just going to go ahead and replace it.

Our dealer is putting the order in for the new car so if the car doesn't sell privately it's going to the dealer where they have a list to the ceiling of people looking for Beetle convertibles as they havn't made them in a few years. Please PM me or reply to the thread if you want any special pictures that I can go take or any more info about the car.

Thanks!!

[az2142t]

Please let me know...interested.

[Banshee365]

Right now we still have the car, but we're thinking about doing the trade this week.