Hello!
I have a 2013 turbo beetle. It has about 127,000 miles. I have gotten regular oil changes every three months and for the 5 years I've had it I've only used premium gas. It takes regular but its an audi performance style car so I fnd that I get the best drive and gas mileage when I use premium.
I was in the process of turning this car into a camper for visiting state parks. It's actually perfect for a one person tent on wheels and hooks up to tents to connect it into a whole camping set up for longer stays. I love it. The reason I'm selling it is because I was on a trip and stayed a while in New Mexico. While there I got into it with a guy who told his friends to make me stranded. So when I took it into a oil change place they messed with it. They literally took chunks out of the liner on the hood to encourage mice to nest and pulled some plug that made my sensor go off then a mechanic tried to scam me for almost a thousand for a repair that it didn't even need. I drove back to ca after buying a new used vehicle to find it was fine. But now I have two vehicles and this one has been sitting in storage for almost a year. I have plans for a permanent build on the inside that I can give you. I also have a complete set of the expensive window covers with gold on one side black on the other, it has half a platform inside already but its a temporary floor it was just to get an idea of what I could make permanently. It also have the audi ombd port reader that has ability to clear codes and reset the battery after installing one. That alone costs a few hundred every time you have to take it in to do. The reader i have is one below the dealerships version. I think you can fine tune your own system with this one. The car is kind of like a phone and a tent in and car in one. You can upgrade the drivers seat by getting it reopholstered for a few hundred that would help upgrade it to highest level model. I was going to install an ecoflow alternator charger because I was plugging in the battery to the 12v charger and I blew out the fuse. So that is completely brand new and still in the box to install where you want. It's the 500W version so this car can handle that its max is much higher I checked. The cool thing about the alternator charger is you can manually through a phone app jump your own battery if youre ever camping and it dies. If you get a flexible mount solar panel on roof (bougie rv ciggs specifically) plus the alternator charger it will keep whatever battery you choose fully charged and be completely off grid capable. I tried this out with just a 175 W fold up solar panel i put on the windshield few weeks while camping. It was only pulling in at max 60 watts and I never had to use the alternator charger it was enough to keep the ecoflow 600w battery charged each day. So a rooftop panel would make stealth city living full time a real option. I have a den dry mattress underlay that is twin size you can have. It's a must for carcamping it allows airflow under your mattress.
The tires are still good. They're Goodyear brand. I don't remember if they're all season. They're not winter of course but I'll update this later.
The things it needs:
Spark plugs with coils! I really wanted to get the high performance set of euro car parts online they should give a tiny boost in performance but with this car every tiny thing makes a difference in performance. A perfect hobby car to make something bad ass. I wanted to get the wing hinges for the doors to make it open like bug wings for my final build imagine that? I'll give you my sketches for the build idea I finalized after living in it full time a few years. It's detailed and functional I would love to see it in real life!! Like post the build on YouTube or something because the design is fkn perfect. 😆
Every repair I've had to do dealt with seals and gaskets. It was from Arizona before I bought it so that is probably why but thats a normal thing to have to replace at this many miles anyway. So I had around 3 or 4 gaskets/seals replaced. Like i said it needs a under hood pad and the rubber seal changed, I had the transmission oil drained and refilled a year ago, and a decarb done 3 years ago.
It needs a full tune up since its been sitting so long. Drain and refill all the fluids, but its due for the clutch service. Thats very important on this style car you should do that first. It needs the vacuum pump replaced that is a 3-400 fix if you take it in but 100 or less if you can do it yourself. It is registered in Oregon so I didn't have to pass smog and that just happened when I was in nm on a new work assignment.
The battery was replaced a year or so ago, its still great. But one of the terminal wires is a little short I don't know why it was like that when I bought it. I was planning on having them install a longer terminal cable to the battery on the farther side because sometimes when I go on offroad type places it would jiggle and when I'd turn off the car the battery would die I would have to wiggle the cable to get it to connect. It's tightened as far as it could so it really should be replaced with a longer one.
Other than that, one headlight needs to be replaced it burned out.
And the drivers side window won't roll down I accidentally rolled the window down when I had some alien tape on it holding a window shade on and it rolled up somewhere in the door mechanism and now all it will do is roll down a tiny bit automatically when you open the door. I am not a mechanic so I didn't want to take the door apart to try and fix it.
Brakes are not squeaky, there's a tiny leak on the seal of the antennae. I bought it like that. I thought it was the seal on the trunk so I put a strip of gorilla tape on it and found out it was just needing a little caulk around the antennae or just readjust it so its sitting flush and that fixed.
So its basically just tiny little things wrong with it. If you're mechanically inclined this car can go another 150-200k. I've babied it the entire time I've had it because I intended on keeping it forever. All the seats except the drivers seat is removed so its ready for the final build once you do the tune up. Liquid molly products is what this car likes if you want to do it solo.
Im asking 1,650. This is 200 more than what a junk yard offered me. I'd rather it go to a forever home then to a junk yard. It's one level under the highest trim this model has. It's a good car it just needs love. That is why I'm asking so little. So you can invest a few k into making it amazing. If you take it to a specialty german automive place look at 2800+ additives cost to maybe 1850? I havent gotten a quote that was just google estimates. was going to do repairs in chunks. But if you wanna invest in german tools and upgrade the reader you can do all of it plus the build for the same amount. It has alloy stock rims I think theyre 19" they look good, the tires are wider than the usual kind so it hugs the road when youre in it. Its low to the ground i was thinking of getting a few inch lift for camping and i thought the truckbed paint would look cool and last forever for camping. It has good speakers, wifi phone system capable. The stock cd player is still there, one upgrade i had planned was to put in a newer entertainment system that had a backup camera. I never drove the car passed 65-70 mph. Idk of thats good or bad to you. A lot of site seeing and chillin. And going to work.
I can't think of anything else to add. I think it has all of the floor mats that are rubber weather tech style still but vw decal. Maybe one is missing I think I spilled something on it. I don't remember if I threw out the bottom rubber one or just the fabric one on top. I'll have to look next time I go to storage.
I'll update this when I go with photos of tire tread, actual odometer miles, and picture of the body etc.
It's a charcoal grey color. I love this car and im looking for someone who is looking for a new age beetle for a hobby car to invest in and make something fun and amazing to have adventures in.
Im working on a different build on the newer vehicle I have so I can't do both. This car is automatic dual clutch triptronic 4 cyl turbo. No issues with turbo, no noises under the hood. But I stress it needs a complete drain refill on every fluid and clutch service and maybe a decarb treatment, I recommend you continue with only liqui molly additives. I also use the high mileage oil. And this car only uses VW brand coolant. It's the same price as the kind at auto zone but they told me its some audi thing to have a specialized formula made to work with their parts. 2 years ago the thermostat was replaced and I had the mechanic refill it with that specific coolant and original parts because thats what I was told. Oh but the mechanics before that did a pressure test that I think caused a partial block because the passenger sides last vent neat the window takes a while to catch up to the temp of the ones on the driver side. So I was going to do a reverse pressure treatment to the heater core and refill. It does get Luke warm but the drivers side is scorch hot at the max setting.
All parts are to my knowledge only vw/audi and not aftermarket.
For future planning and total transparency, there was some kind of repair that was done on the engine block before I bought it. The rubber caulking on the engine block looked black like it hadn't been very long since tbe repair. So I've had it 5 years and haven't had any transmission or engine issues but have had issues with seals so I think they probably had to do a partial rebuild to change out rubber pieces before reselling it. Either way, plan to put some money aside because you have to reseal and caulk past repairs there or you get engine leaks. I think within a year I'd get that done either way because its at least a few years old from when it was done now. I stay in shaded areas as much as I could but the engines hot either way. I drove slow mostly through towns taking scenic routes. I used it to camp and move around doing travel work. Awesome minimalst experience I love the beetle for camping and city living in. it's looks chic. Feels like a bubble of peace. Beetles are totally undiscovered for this purpose.. way safer and better than a tent. A mobile room on wheels. If you think about it... if you just keep buying parts cars will last forever. I heard Ludacris still has his first car at 300k+ and thats what he said.. I think about it like paying a rent bill its kinda the same amount for a while until the upfront investment pays off and all your income becomes profit. I put in a few k when I bought her and its been reliable. The little things had been adding up along the journey and here we are now. I have two key fobs with the button to pop up the key. I like the feel of the car and the road. The side mirrors are my only gripe with the design of the car they should be a little wider. I guess that's what those stick on tiny mirrors are for.
I think there's a tiny chip on the passenger side window the kind that are fixable with kits. Which I tried but I didn't do it right. But it never got bigger than 1 inch so I left it alone.