I am long time supporter of VW products and my most recent Jetta (3rd Jetta, 7th VW) has been a mediocre at best. The passenger window decided it was time to break loose from the Mickey Mouse contraption to lowers and lifts into position broke away. The car is 3 months out of the extended warranty and very low mileage (43k), I was hoping the VW “Customer Care” would see in their heart to cover it under a slightly extended warranty because I failed to use my window enough to force it to break in 7 years. They declined. Therefore, instead of buying the new Jetta this year as I was planning, I will not. My 25 year relationship with VW is done. I will no longer support the brand as I have against the naysayers. I now am forced to agree with couple my friends that have been burned by VW, that it not only doesn’t produce cars with high levels of engineering and performance anymore, the basic quality sucks as well. Good luck VW.

The new TV ads for the Passat (”Lowest Ego Emmisions”)are brilliant. Stunningly brilliant. Thank goodness the product is so bland, so pedestrian and so Asian (except for the quality) that potential buyers are likely to be spared the bitter disappointment that comes with owning a VW, once they’ve taken the test drive, by opting for an Azera, Camry, Accord or (yikes!) Malibu. While Hyundai’s advertising isn’t nearly as seductive, I’d sooner drive a boring reliable car than a poorly supported, expensive-to-maintain historically unreliable VW.

Hi, I got into my VW Golf today and tried to start it and the immboliser light on the dashboard permanently flashes and the car starts and runs for about 5 seconds then stops.

How can I disable the immobiliser???? My car is stuck at the mall until I get it working!!

I found the post below and tried it but it didnt work, any other ideas?

“”Try disconnecting the battery cables and touch the cables together for approx 15 seconds.Then reconnect the battery cables to the battery and see if system operates normally.I know it sounds stupid but this solves alot of immobilizer and battery drain issues from control modules”"

Post edited 06/29/06 9:08 AM by synsing

Post edited 06/29/06 9:09 AM by synsing

At 45,000 mi my VW service center noted that the oil pan drain was stripped and needed rethreading. They rethreaded it and noted that this was not a permanent fix and the pan would need to be replaced in the future. At that point I had never taken my car to another facility (not even another VW facility), so it was their fault that it was stripped. Now it is leaking, and the pan should be replaced. Shouldn’t the service center be responsible for replacing this if it was their fault? They’re telling me they need to check with the service department manager, but that they if he says no, then they won’t replace it and I will have to pay $$$ to fix it. Is this right??!! They stripped it…they shortened its life…they should be responsible for it!!!

My VW Tuareg has had all the problems you can imagine. From hesitation when accelerating, Stinky A/C, premature tire wear and tear, gas tank door breaking, headlights replaced 5 times, etc, etc. The worst part about this is that the car’s factory warranty is about to end so I’m selling the car as soon as possible. VW of America sent a tech guy who is the equivalent of a Neanderthal to check my car and give me attitude about it. I hate this car and VW of America sucks!

2006 J D Power Initial Quality Ranking

I thought I was a proud owner of a 2001 1.8T Wolfburg Edt. Jetta. I bought this car in November of 2001 and I was thrilled. It looked great, it ran great and it only had about 12000 miles on it. I couldn’t have been happier. UNTIL… about 3 months after owning the car (Feb 02) my cd player started acting funny. I have a 6 disk one in the trunk. I took it to Greenbriar VW in Chesapeake VA. They wanted some outrageous amount of money to fix it, so I told them that I was taking my car to the Checkerd Flag dealership in Virginia Beach.
Checkerd Flag fixed the problem with very low cost so i was happy. Well about 3 months after that (June 02) my car started making this weird screeching noise whenever I applied the brake. So I went back to Checkerd Flag and I needed new brake pads and rotors. They did the repairs and it ended up costing me close to $400 dollars to fix it. I was 6 months pregnant and my husband really doesnt know much about cars. So whatever, 400 dollars for the piece of mind was fine by me.
Well then I recieved numerous safety recalls that VW had issued and needed to fix on my car. And everytime they issued a new one I had to take my car in the dealership, leave it there all day until they fixed the problem, which is a pain in my butt considering that was my only means of transportation and they wouldnt even offer me a rental or anything!
Over the years the car has required NUMEROUS amounts of work done on it….to the tune of nowhere less than 700 dollars every time… Serpintine belts, brakes *YES AGAIN*, crack in my turbo valve, alignments, leaks in my oil pan, *basically you name it i’ve probably shelled out the money to fix it* BECAUSE THE WARRENTIES ESPECIALLY THE EXTENDED ONES DONT HELP OUT AT ALL!
Well in July of 2005 I was making a trip because my best friend’s grandmother passed away. So I drove him out to Atlanta, Georgia *from Virginia Beach, VA* My car drove fine all the way there and most of the way home. When I was in North Carolina, about an hour outside of Virginia my transmission didn’t work anymore. So I ended up having to have the car towed from North Carolina to Chesapeake, Virginia to the horrible Greenbriar VW dealership. They worked on my car and told me I needed a new transmission, clutch, and all the parts included in replacing the transmission and the clutch. Well they called me and told me that this would cost me close to 2000 dollars to fix. Well a friend of mine who works for the Volkswagen dealership as a mechanic told me that he would do all the repairs and everything and it would only cost me about 800 dollars. So I was happy 800 is a lot better than 2000.
Another recall notice and another day without my car.
November 25th 2005: I got into a car accident. My headlight, drivers side panel, hood and bumper all needed to be replaced. Well when I get my car back about a month later all this electrical stuff starts breaking on my car. My gas floater wasnt working properly and everytime i stepped on the gas my gas tank would go down 1/2 a tank, my speedometer wouldnt work, my headlight (the one that was just replaced) didnt work.
May 2006: FINALLY SAVE UP ENOUGH MONEY TO FIX MY CAR…i know VW repairs are costly and I wasnt sure if it was in fact because of my accident or what so I saved up 3000 dollars towards repairs on my car. I take my car in on a Friday May 18th. I get a phone call friday afternoon from Checkerd Flag VW telling me that I need a new instrument cluster, new headlight (my old one had blown a gasket??? and was leaking coolant into my migration filter???) new gas tank or something like that, new brake pads and rotors (yes…yet AGAIN), and a bunch of other odd ball things that ended up adding up to 2416.76!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday May 26th I pick up my car. I part with my 2500 dollars and am so happy that my car should be in working order!
Saturday May 27th, my car starts this weird shaking thing that it was not doing prior to me bringing it in there.
Sunday May 28th, Service Dept closed
Monday May 29th Memorial Day Service Dept Closed.
Tuesday May 30th, they are too busy cant fit me in.
Wednesday May 31st. FINALLY BRING MY CAR INTO THE SERVICE DEPT!!! They have my car the WHOLE DAY again and tell me that they need to perform an alignment and they wanted to charge me for it! ARE THEY SERIOUS?? I was NOT about to pay for an alignment after i just forked over 2500 dollars to get my car fixed HELL NO. So I talked to the service dept. manager and he agreed that he wouldnt charge me! WOO HOO. The woman that I spoke with told me that after they performed the alignment that nothing was in fact wrong with my alignment and that they didnt know what the problem was but my “”next big step would be replacing the tires.”" I asked the woman if my tires were unsafe to drive on and she told me nowhere in the tech notes or anything did it say that my tires were UNSAFE. I asked her if she was sure because I have a 3 1/2 year old daughter and I didn’t want to be driving around in an unsafe vehicle. She told me that there was no notes that the tires were bald or unsafe. I thought my perils were over….THINK AGAIN!!!!
Saturday June 3rd: I am driving back from the outlets in Williamsburg, VA. Minding my own business driving down the road and my right rear tire blows out. I decrease my speed and start to pull over to I can change my tire and my car spins out of control, jumps into a ditch, jumps out of the ditch and runs into a tree!!! CAN MY LIFE GET ANY WORSE!?!
The Virginia State Police come out to the scene and he looks at my car and LOW AND BEHOLD my tire is smooth as a baby butt bald in ONE place. Now in the state of VA in order for it to be deemed as hazardous, or negligence, or faulty equipment the tire has to be bald in 3 or more seperate locations on the tire. Well it was only bald in that one location where the tire actually blew. The rest of the tred is fine. I didnt recieve a ticket and have since contacted Checkerd Flag who still concures that the tire was not unsafe to drive and that replacing my tires was not a necessity but a recommendation.
My insurance company is looking into perhaps taking legal action against the VW dealership because WHAT IF MY DAUGHTER HAD OF BEEN IN MY CAR?!? What if I had’ve been seriously injured??
SO NOW I AM WITHOUT A VEHICLE YET AGAIN. I hate VW’s and all their service departments and I will never own a VW again. I don’t care if I got one for free I wouldnt put myself through the expense or the hassle that I have had to deal with since I’ve owned this car. I genuinely hope that my insurance company will total my vehicle so I can get another car.
Beware for all of you who want to buy a VW because they are horrible and expensive cars!!!!