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VW to Replace 27 New Beetles Sold in the US

A recall of a peculiar nature was announced this week by Volkswagen, concerning some New Beetle models sold in the US. The cars, 27 of them, will be recalled and replaced altogether, because they do not meet the new barrier test requirements which went into effect on September 1, 2010.

Apparently, the Volkswagen production lines, once started, are very hard to stop and, for some reason, production of the now recalled models continued for a brief period after the new regulations came into effect.

Officially, the models affected by the recall have been manufactured from September 1 to September 22, 2010, come in both sedan (26 units) and convertible versions (one unit) and fail to comply with the Federal Motor Vehicles Safety Standards No. 208, "Occupant Crash Protection."

Since there is virtually no fix for this problem, Volkswagen announced it will be replacing the non-compliant vehicles, but not with newer ones. The car maker instructed its dealers to offer the customer affected by the recall a comparable vehicle produced prior to September 1, 2010.

Volkswagen says that it has received to date no reports of "actual injury or crash resulting from this non-compliance." Owners of the affected models will be notified starting today, February 1.

The Beetle problem, bizarre as it is, comes right when Volkswagen is preparing to launch the new version of the model, one which hopefully will bring a bit more customers to the showrooms than the current one. We'll get the first glimpse at the 21st century Beetle, as VW calls it, during the Super Bowl XLV next weekend.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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