At least in the context of the Taiwan market, do you think it’s been overpriced ?
What does it sell for? I’m not up to date on the the current powerplant of the VW beetle and what they sell here in Taiwan, but my folks used to have a 1998 VW beetle with the 2.0L engine…it sucked!
Anyways, back to the OP…if the beetle sells in Taiwan for anywhere near the price of a GTI, then yes, it’s overpriced.
All import cars are overpriced here IMO…
Are there any cars who are not imported?
Are there any cars who are not imported?[/quote]
Quite a few companies manufacture cars in Taiwan for the domestic market (and some export I think), namely ; Toyota, Honda, Ford, Suzuki, Nissan…
Honda Civic, Mitsubishi, some models of Nissan are made in Taiwan. Subaru impreza used to be assembled in Taiwan too.
I’m going out on a limb here to say that the Beetle is a pointless hunk of shit.
Which foreign car of the same class would you choose?
And yes, its surely overpriced for whats inside. A bit like a iPod Shuffle 
The last good beetle was made circa 1975, imho.
Which foreign car of the same class would you choose?
And yes, its surely overpriced for whats inside. A bit like a iPod Shuffle [/quote]
What class, the pointless hunk of shit class?
The ‘new’ VW Beetle must be like a Rolls Royce compared to the one I drove back in the 1970’s. No power steering, no A/C, hot as hell in summer, freezing cold in winter, noisy, and it drifted all over the road the moment I went over 80 km/h on a downhill. Biscuit wheels with hubcaps. No luxuries.
But it was RELIABLE, and easy and cheap to maintain. I even serviced it myself.
I’ve never been inside one of the snazzy-looking new ones.
Is it overpriced? To me that’s the same question as “Are Diamonds overpriced?”
I would say yes, as nobody really needs one and the same goes for a VW Beetle. Its cute, but does it do more than other cars considering its high price anywhere in the world? I don’t think so.
So in a roundabouts method of reasoning “Yes!” it is overpriced…Anywhere in the world.
Kind of same as scirocco, more expensive for looks.
Continental cars are notorious for having too many unnecessary gadgets. I thought Beetle was a pretty “simple” car, simple in the ‘basic’ sense.
Regardless of the purchase price, all Volkswagen parts are very overpriced in Taiwan. And I’m not talking about the Beetle only, but all VW models. At least, this is what I’ve heard from VW owners here. One friend who bought one sold it quickly as soon as she needed servicing and saw what the bill was going to be.
best regards,
DB
I don’t believe the T4 to be overly expensive to run, but there are also lots of locally produced spares for them anyway.
Personally besides the T4 I wouldn’t purchase a VW in Taiwan. I came very close to a Skoda a couple of years ago as the price was about twenty percent less than a Golf and the Octavia was much bigger. According to a member high up in Audi, Skoda may be re-introduced to Taiwan. I hope it is. Skoda is a much better car for the money than VW, model for model that is, with greater reliability, and models like the Octavia which are more practical than their VW counterparts, for a lot fewer NTs.
Still it remains a tough contest between Skoda and other Japanese manufacturers as Taiwanese don’t relate to the Skoda brand being that of quality. Most have never even heard of it, and those that have, have no idea that its owned by VW. Taiwanese consumers being the fickle group that they are go for either big brand packaging mobiles or Japanese cheap and reliable mobiles and buy little in between.
I would applaud Skoda for having another go though. And they should hire me to manage their marketing. 
skodas are awesome, i test drove a remapped fabia VRS… feck me that thing was F A S T!!!
Not only that but it drank almost no fuel over a 30 mile flat out run, shame theres no DSG auto option 
Anyway the beetle is a pile of shite for ladys who have no clue about cars, they are built on the mk 3 golf chasis and are built in a country where their idea of ‘top gear’ comes in a syringe…
Well the fabia VRS may cause a gearbox of that type more trouble than its worth as the DSGs are known for not handling torque well without breaking down fairly frequently. Even Audi admit to problems with chipped S4s because the torque is too high for the gearboxes to cope with.
Onto the Beetle’s credentials. It has poor boot space, poor quality interior plastics as the rubberised coating sears of with relative ease. The number of blind spots they provided would only be summarised appropriately by Mr. Steven Hawkins as I’m sure only he can describe best how the world outside may actually still exist without physically observing it, and it would probably depend on some gravitational disturbance of the time continuum caused by the total mass of the B and C pillars that the Beetle was designed with. The fact that they made that car work at all given the exterior design target and the platform they were given is a testament to modern engineering, so I suppose it wasn’t all that bad. It certainly pushed the boundaries of what can be achieved as well as what people would spend all that money on as opposed to something that could be used with ease.
My wife Luuurvs the things. I admit, they do look…I’m afraid to say, sort of pleasing/pretty. Having said that, I prefer the original. In my book if its to look good then it should surely have to break down a lot. If it doesn’t break often enough, yet it looks good, then that’s meddling with automotive history. 
Do you think our top class mechanics in Taiwan have the ability to service Skodas ?
I’m with you on that one. If I could get one of those in good nick, I’d still buy it.