Volkswagen: 2000 VW Beetle, vw dealership, vw dealer

Question
Hi Mr. Wolff,

I really hope you can help me! I have a 2000 VW Beetle Gls, it has about 60,000 miles and I have had the car for 4 years. It was not brand new, I got it with about 20,000 miles on it. For the past year or so, when I start the car the RPM gauge moves up and down by itself. When I start driving and come to a stop, the gauge goes up and down, and it feels like the engine is surging. It also jolts the car a little bit, I can feel when that happens. The check engine light will come on for a few days, and then go off. I took it to the VW dealership and they said it was a problem with the shocks. I paid about 700.00 dollars to "get it fixed". It was fine for a few days after, but it started happening all over again. I finally got some time to take the car in again, and now I was told that I need a new coil pack, and O2 sensor. I managed to get the parts from a friend who works at Carmax, and had a local mechanic replace these parts because VW wanted to charge me $1100.00. Well, two days ago I had these parts replaced, but its still happening. Maybe just not as bad as it used too. Could you suggest anything that I could take into consideration? I have spent more money on this car then its worth!

Please, any help would be greatly appreciated!
I feel like the VW ppl take advantage of the fact that I'm a girl and have no idea what they are talking about, so I just let them "fix" the problem and it never seems to get fixed. Every time I go back and spend $100.00 to have them look at it, they come up with a new problem that will cost at least $1000.00.

Thank you so much for your time!

Answer
Hi Khadija,

Sorry to hear about your experience.  The best thing you can do now is to go to a GOOD VW dealer and have them plug in the diagnostic plug into the car.

This will generate a print-out which should tell everything that is malfunctioning in the car.  You do not need to get it repaired there, but at least we have something to work with instead of randomly replacing parts.

This, in the long-run will save you a lot of money.

Feel free to contact me if you decide to get the codes, I'll help you interpret what it means.

Take Care,

Ron