I purchased my 2004 Golf GLS brand spankin’ new….or so I thought. This car has caused me more problems than my old 1992 Corsica!
I’ve already had it in to 3 different dealerships 11 times (my 12th appointment is next week). The problems began approx. 1 month after owning this car (the car is now 10 months old with about 26 000 kms on it). A wooing-grinding noise when driving coming from my back brakes. (I was told that this was “”rust on my rotors”".) No one can figure this out!
I’ve had my caliper pins replaced (they were bent and pushing my brake pads against my rotors), brake pads replaced 3 times (once for “”uneven”" wear), right rear wheel baring replaced (leaking grease), calipers replaced because of binding, caliper anchors serviced, parking brake adjusted, rotors replaced, and most recently my brakes replaced. I was told that I had little notches on my brakes from rust build up (that weren’t worn down with regular braking.)
Not to mention wiper problems, problems with my doors, creaking suspension, and now a transmission (automatic) that shifts VERY harshly….feels like I’m being rear-ended. The Transmission problems and wooing noise are intermittent.
Can anybody shed some light on my situation?? VW obviously doesn’t know what they’re doing! I am a female and feel as if I’m getting the run-around! HELP!!!

Hello Guys, I have got a Golf GT TDI and its about 5 year old. Anyway the warning light keeps coming on in the dash board. The one which is a triangle with a circular arrow round it. It only happens when i go on journeys more than 30 miles and i am usually travelling at about 80mph. It never comes on when iam driving round town. I havnt got a clue why it comes on.??

Any one gota nay ideas or suggestions?

Thanks, Nicola

When I arm the car it does not always chirp. All doors, hood, and trunk are secure. The lights flash and the red light starts to blink but no chirp. The horn and panic work everytime. Then out of the blue it will start to chirp again when I arm the vehicle. I rolled the windows down and armed it then opened the doors, the alarm went off every time exact for the driver door. The dome light sometimes does not come on also when I open the driver door. So it has to be that door but where is the sensor or button located that indicates when the door is open or closed. Can these two problems be related ,but then the car would not arm if the door was not registered closed. Any input would help thank you for your time

Why did VW change the style so much? What does everyone think of the new style?

WOW!! What a rip off thats like the $5.00 vw window washer fluid. “There is a sucker born every minute and two to take em.”

I had a 95 Jetta GLS I put a new belt on it and the vehicle was not running right after that and the CEL came on. It have lots of power loss so I took it to a dealer they stated that I needed a mass air flow. $650.00. So I got a new used one from a junk yard $35.00 , but no change in the performance. Put the old one back on, Went to a different dealer they stated that the timing was off by five. Its the dealers.

The first thing that went was the Mass air flow and that made the cat. go bad, thank god that was a recall. Next the coil pack went everytime it rained the CEL would come on and it would misfire. The dome light does not always come on when you open the driverside door? The alarm does not always cirp when you arm the vehicle? But the alarm is on, when you open the driverside door the alarm does not go off, all other doors it goes off. The hinge on the glove box is broken. That net holder in trunk is broken. The hinge on the middle console broke. The red message area in dash goes black sometimes. The most recent is the dealer states I need a new fuel pump. It sputters when you first start off or really get on the gas and the CEL comes on and stays on.

Obviously a distinction needs to be made between company and dealership. While VW itself and the product it manufactures has problems which have been documented here and in other sites, such problems are either alleviated or exacerbated by the direct contact consumers have concerning their car: the dealership.

I know I used to throw out the link to a site where dealerships were rated, but many have correctly pointed out that a rating is subjective, and doesn’t help much if any Tom, Dick, or Jane can go to that site and put down whatever rating they felt like, especially if Tom is a VW rep for that dealership.

Instead, perhaps we should develop our own little database of dealerships across America (and why not, the world), where you can list a dealership and relate your experience with them in a clear and concise way. Others who have visited said dealership can also weigh in with their comments. Dealerships would be divided into the three basic departments: sales, service, and parts, as I know from experience that a dealership may have excellent sales but horrible service.

The comments will be the only subjective aspect of the listing, no ratings will be made, so a listing cannot be ranked, a person visiting the site can only search for a particular dealership and read up on the experiences of others.

For now I would keep the experiences locked to those who have registered on this site, though if anyone feels I should open it up to visitors, feel free to say so.

On the flip-side, I am working on expanding user profiles to list the cars they own and their experiences with them, broken down as pros and cons.

Edit: my misspelling of exacerbated was bugging me.

Post edited 03/31/05 2:36 AM by paultakeda

How can you tell if one is bad? dealer says that I need one.

Has anybody had problems with the 99 automatic transmission? It revs to 35-40RPMS and then “thuds” into next gear. This began with only 45K on the car, so VW covered replacing the tranny. Problem is, the new one is doing the same thing. Also, AC has gone out (keeps freezing up), moonroof started eating the material from the ceiling of the car, trim around doors started coming off, passenger door handle fell off, interior fininsh peeling off, cover for the moon roof fell off, drink holder fell off, stereo suddenly had NO reception, trunk CD player never worked, and I still owe money on this. Is there anyone at VW that handles these complaints? I looked up the vehicle on Carfax – but it came up clean.