New Beetle seems very warm

The heat from the engine takes a while to dissipate, and your hood and fenders are what is blocking the heat from radiating upwards... So I would think that this is normal, my hood gets quite warm, even in the winter snow won't freeze onto it for a good long while.

All the sound insulation on it tends to hold the heat in longer than you might be accustomed to in older cars.

Odd...my Jetta (1990 GLI) keeps cool under almost all circumstances...unless I'm driving her hard!

You have an engine running about 200*F under the hood in a small space along with the sun beating down. Don't worry, be happy!

Don't Jetta's have a layer of felt under the hood?

circumstances...unless

this may seem a bit of overkill but i've done what i am about to recommend for the past 30 some years on two porsche 911 based vehicles because of the "trapped hot air" under the rear deck on each car. each time i pull into my garage, i raise the deck lid allowing the hot air to escape freely. seems like a small thing but i know heat destroys everything and the more i can do to limit heat in the engine compartment, the longer my engine and associated components should last.

regards

My '90 dos not...I believe that only the A2 diesels had the felt padding.

I have taken the car on 10 and 12 hour road trips where I have driven continuously, and it hasn't heated up...generally I let it run for about five minutes prior to shutting down the engine so that it (the engine) does not become heat soaked.

- Peter

Well...I know that 5 minutes is a little excessive, but I figure it's one more thing I can do to prolong the life of the car...

the major objective, in idling the engine prior to shut down, is to allow the turbo to spool down from extremely high rpms to near 0 rpms. heat sink is also minimized.

regards