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Does the new Volkswagen beetle have the engine in the front or back?

A radiator in a Volkswagen Beetle? The engine's in the front? What's going on here?

  • I am not too experienced with the new ones. I know the old ones inside and out, every square millimeter. I can assemble one with my eyes closed. My friend just got a 2003 Volkswagen Beetle. I took a look at it, looked okay. I wanted to see the engine, so I went to the back and opened the lid. I saw no engine! Although I had serious doubts, I opened the front hood. There it was. It was in the front! A Beetle with a front engine! I stared in complete disbelief. Then I saw......a radiator! A watercooled Beetle? Am I being tricked here? Then about five minutes later I needed to jack it up to spin the wheels. So I jacked it up, got in, and hit the gas. That's when I realized that it was front wheel drive. A front wheel drive, front engine, watercooled Beetle?! What is going on here?

  • Answer:

    I think you are pulling a fast one Prime, having read many of your answers to other peoples question. Either that or you are suffering from a. A severe case of amnesia b. Think you are Rip van Winkle But I share your sentiments - What the hell was VW thinking of.

Prime at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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The original Beetle was designed from the outset as a rear-engined, rear-drive car. The New Beetle is basically a Golf wrapped inside a different set of packaging. The floorpan, drivetrain and engine choices all come directly out of the Golf. The New Beetle is one of those retro craze of cars like the MINI and the Fiat 500, which at one time although quite utilitarian are now being sold as fashion icons.

Rollo

The new beetle has been this way since it came out, air cooling was dumped because it is not as reliable as water cooling is more efficient. Rear wheel drive is not used as with front wheel you can obviously direct the power, VW just made some changes that they thought were for the better.

Anthony

You have been in a coma for ten years. You transformed into a troll

Gerry

Okay I guess 40,000,000 air-cooled VWs produced plus millions still on the road doesn't testify the reliability of the Air-cooled. The "new" beetle (snicker) is not a reliable car, maybe in 2009 but when they came out, they were horrible. Expensive to fix, not too fun to drive, expensive to fix, did I mention expensive to fix. I dont call them beetles, I call them a jettas/golfs with a hump, because like a previous answer said, its basically a jetta/golf. One more thing, Air-cooled VWs were phenomenal in the snow simply because all the weight was in the back. They also make great rally cars.

vwbuggin64

It's called progress my friend! Front engine, front drive is more stable, goes better in snow and such. And any aircooled engine expands and contracts so much that they leak oil. Period. Plus, like you I love the old cars, the heater works like a welding torch!

wayne

It the way the new Beetles are made

Ironball

Yup, its based on the Mark 4 VW platform (and still is to this date, even though all of their other models are based on the Mk5 platform). It shares its engines/tranny/suspension with the Golf and Jetta and came with a 2.0 liter 115 hp, 1.8 liter with a turbocharger (which is a great engine, 150hp in the beetle but tuned to 180 in most other cars), or a very torquey and efficient 90 hp 1.9 liter turbodiesel. It came with either a 02J manual five speed, a 01M 4-speed automatic made by vw (from 1998-2002), a 02G 6speed automatic made by Aisin (from 2003-on), or a 6 speed double clutch gearbox in the diesels from 2003-on. Theres no trickery here :-P..just a fun, perky, reliable new version of the classic beetle. Matt

Matt P

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