I bought a 2002 Jetta 1.8 T and had nothing but problems. I bought my car used.. because I live paycheck to paycheck. but when I got the car I was so happy to get out of my 92 olds achieva which was dieing slowly at 201,000 miles or so. The first day I got the damn thing. I was just getting home and I had to turn the headlights on and blame. Alternater was bad, along with about 50 thing that I found out in about 4 months of owning the car. I live in Ohio and the 05-06 winter here was pretty mild altoghter except a nice lake effect snow in early to mid December. That’s when I notice the damn rear window wasn’t defrosting all the rear window. Come to find out I have 5 lines that
are bad on the lower end of the window and now I stuck fighting VW to get the whole rear window replace. Along with that, the damn service manager at my dealership trys to act like I’m a 2 year old. I have one thing to say. I’ll never buy a VW again, and I don’t recommend anyone to buy one either. Their service sucks and the people there always talk down to you… I have one thing to say buy a mazda … zoom zoom!!!

I am pleased to announce VW has replaced my engine due to the acknowledgement of there sludge problem, upon picking up my car the service area now has mandatory synthetic oil requirements for the 1.8l turbo engine. I guess they ahve seen enough of them to warrant the replacement of the engines, i was even missing 2 of my oil change reciepts as well, and they still replaced it. I will never buy another VW but i have to say i am pleased with the fact that they are now accepting responsibility for there problem and not putting it back on me. I wish you all the same luck i had.

Since I bought my Jetta in 2001, the car has never “”chimed”" to indicate that my lights are still on when I open my door to get out. I didn’t think much of it, just figured that this car didn’t “”chime”" and got used to always checking to turn lights off (esp. after two “”dead battery”" boosts). Never thought to mention it to my dealer.

Also, from Day 1, my car would re-lock itself after getting in if I didn’t start the engine within several seconds (say, when I am digging around in the glove box for something). Never thought anything of it, as I knew the car also re-locked itself when you unlocked with the remote but didn’t open the door.

Also, from time to time noticed that my interior light didn’t come on when I opened the driver door (yes, the switch was set to the correct position). The problem resolved itself.

Today at the dealership for my 64,000 km service (40,000mi) (yes, I have low mileage on my 5-yr old car), the service tech noticed the car not chiming when she turned on my lights to check the mileage. She also noticed that it re-locked itself after she let herself out of the car. She said this problem has something to do with a “”door lock actuator”" or sensor of some kind. This sensor (in the door) seems to manage (1) door chime when lights left on (2) interior light coming on when door open (3) door (re)locking logistics (4) possibly issues with the alarm.

This stuff (chime, relocking) hasn’t acted properly since I bought the car. Today at the dealership, I was quoted a $600 (CAN) repair bill, about 2h labour for both front doors (at $Can90/hr) and two parts, at $400 total.

The other problem…the service tech was doing some frigging with the passenger door, and tonight, my interior lights wouldn’t go out while driving, and my car wouldnt lock iself because when the doors were closed, the passenger inside kick-panel red light wouldn’t go out. All this stuff is related to these sensors in the doors.

Is anyone else aware of this problem. I have no warranty left, but it appears I had issues since Day 1 that it never occurred to me were actually issues. Does $600CAN sound reasonable to fix this? That’s about $800 US!!

Any feedback or similar problems?

I haven’t posted in a while, but wanted to say that there is hope for VW owners. My fiance and I traded our 2003 New Beetle Convertible and 2003 Jetta Wagon for two brand new Mazda3’s today, an automatic sedan for her and a manual wagon for me. We did have to roll a few thousand $$$ from the Beetle into one of the loans, but I think it is worth it. After the fourth attempt by a third dealer to fix the auto trans in the Beetle, we gave up. That whole mess cost us about $2000 for repairs and rentals this month. Also, the Beetle was in the shop for a month and a half. Not to sound like an ad, but after coming out of the VW’s, the Mazda’s are so far ahead of VW in terms of quality, performance and customer service, I wondered why we even went down the VW route in the first. Much luck to those still suffering through their VW headaches.

Matthew

Not hardly. At least no more than any other automaker. Go on google. Type in ANY automaker followed by the word “”sucks.”" EVERY automaker comes up with scores of sites dedicated to that particular automaker “”sucking.”" Yes, even the beloved Honda and Toyota have sites dedicated to them sucking. Get over it. Cars are complicated things. Some are going to run flawlessly and some aren’t. My old Golf runs like a charm. My brother’s Toyota Corolla was a P.O.S. You never know.
The point? you people all need to move out of mom’s basement and get lives.

Over the past few years, the check engine light on my 2002 GTI has repeatedly come on and it’s now on all the time. My dealership told me the car is misfiring when it starts up, but nothings wrong with the car and not to worry about it. I’ve only got 2,000 miles left on my warrenty (after a 10,000mi. extension bc. the car’s a piece of crap) and am taking it back to the dealership next week for another problem. Any suggestions as to what I should ask them to do? My fear is that just not worrying about it will turn into something bigger as soon as the warranty runs out.

I am now out of warranty, and do not want to go back to VW to get work done ( I had to get my trunk latch fixed b/c I was in a bind, and they charged me $170). Would anybody be able to recommend a good non VW affiliated service center that I could take my car to for regular maintenance and repairs? I would be looking in the Rockland/Westchester NY or Bergen count NJ areas.