Even with VWoA’s change of advertising agencies and a massive ad campaign, somethings cannot change. You cannot polish a turd. A Volkswagen is still a Volkswagen. And sales reflect it.

Hi all;

Thank god for the internet. I am posting this message in hopes that I can prevent someone else from going thru the aggrevation that I am currently going thru with my 2002 Passat. I bought my car brand new in 2002 from Donaldson’s volkswagen in sayville ny. I have had nothing but aggrevation with this car and especially with the quality of customer service at Donaldson’s from day one.

This is the first new car that I have ever bought and I bought a Volkswagen because of there reputation of quality German engineering. This was mistake number one. maybe at one time long ago Germans did build a quality vehicle, but like everything else in this world quality is strongly lacking.

Problem 1: I always took my car back to the dealer for oil changes while the vehicle was covered under warranty. (so they couldn’t claim otherwise if a problem occured). In order to change the oil in a Passat, a plastic shroud that covers the entire bottom of the engine has to be removed to get access to the oil pan. This is no easy task and the shroud is held on with flimsy plastic screws. (a real pain in the butt, quality German engineering) 2 days after my second oil, at Donaldson’s Volkswagen, I was driving down the highway when I heard this loud scraping sound. I pulled over on the highway and saw that the plastic shroud had come loose and was dragging on the road and was now ripped to shreds. I immediately called Donaldson’s to let them know what had happened, before I finished my explaination I was advised by one of the quality service managers at Donaldson’s that I must of hit something in the road which caused the shroud to fall off and without missing a beat, he told me that Donaldson’s was not repsonsible, it was not covered under warranty and would cost me $200 to fix.

Problem 2: Within the first year, I had problems with the vehiicle not starting or loosing power while driving. This was attributed to faulty ignition coils which was fortunatley covered by a recall notice.

Problem 3: One day I open my glove compartment to find it filled with water. I return the car to Donaldson’s Volkswagen for more repairs. The claim the problem was a faulty hose in the engine compartment. They could not explain why the hose was faulty or how it caused water to get into my glove compartment. I have not had water in the glove compartment since, but now my car has this constant musty/mildew smell. so I took it back to Donaldson’s Volkwagen. They claim there was nothing they could do. (the car was only 5 months old and still covered under warranty.) After much agrrevation and complaining, their wonderful service manager Felipe Pagano, , advised me that he had permission from Volkswagen to go ahead and de-ionize my vehicle to remove the terrible odor. (I have no idea what de-ionization is or what it does and niether did Felipe). Needless to say the vehicle still stinks to this day.

Problem 4: One day I open the hood and notice that the entire engine is covered with oil. (the car is only 6 months old at this time). Again, I take it back to Donaldson’s Volkwagen. Still covered under warranty the car is repaired, but of course I am given some vague, cryptic response as to why a brand new car has a major oil leak.

Problem 5: The vehicle is now out of warranty. the engine light goes on and off more than my turning signal. Because the engine light is on I cannot inspect my vehicle (this is in New York). So I make the big mistake of going back to Donaldson’s Volkswagen. They tell me that there are several problems with the vehicle and it will cost me $700to repair. I decline the service and pick up my car immediately. of cousre they weren’t going to let me go without ripping me off. they charged me over $100 for there troubleshooting. The troubleshooting consisted of plugging a cumputer into my car to download the error codes. This took all of 5 minutes and they charged me over $100. They did this with a smile I might add. By the way, I have taken my car to private mechanics all of which told me the same thing. They cannot troubleshoot VW’s because volkswagen encrypts there error codes. only VW knows what they mean, so you basically have to go back to VW to get certain repairs and get ripped off!!!!

Needless to say I have put this piece of junk up for sale before it causes me any more aggrevation.

Please, if you are considering buying a Volkswagen, don’t. Don’t be fooled by the myth of quality German engineering. It no longer exists, if in fact ever did.

and don’t ever buy a vehicle from Donaldson’s Volkswagen in Sayville, NY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They will ripp you off with a smile!!!!!!!!!

Edited by paultakeda on 11/27/06 at 4:57 PM

Faulty window regulators.
Faulty ignition coils.
Leaking sun roofs.
Leaking air filter seals.
Oil sludge.
Air conditioning compressors that fail.
Failing injectors.
Fuel line failure.
Broken glove box doors.
Rotting “”soft”" surfaces.

German engineering, the Volkswagen way!

(feel free to add your own list)

Well, it looks like Pieceofshitrider is out at VAG.
In order for VAG to survive in the increasingly competitive world market they needed to reorganize and get major concessions from the unions. Piech has allied himself with members of the labor unions that are on the board. They have barricaded themselves in the boardroom to protect themselves from the howling wolves of competition. Each time they get a concession from the unions they throw out another executive to appease the wolves. With Piech staying on the board, I wouldn’t want to be an executive at VAG. You know that if you make a necessary change, you will be thrown to the wolves as a sacrificial offering. Who’s next on Piech’s list?

Hi All,

I’m so glad there is a forum for fellow haters of VW cars. In 2004, I bought a used 1995 Jetta III VR6 with all the bells and whistles. Biggest mistake of my life, to date. There were nothing but problems. The vehicle had a clean history, looked pretty good and felt great when I test drove it. After purchasing the car the following happened:

1)Electrical fire — burnt wires from the driver side door all the way into the engine Cost to fix: $2,000
2)Sunroof stopped working — didn’t get it fixed as it wasn’t vital
3)ABS light started going on and off
4)Catalitic (sp?) converter started to go out — Cost to fix about $1500-2000
and wouldn’t pass smog
5)Only one window worked — $750 per window to fix
6)Air conditioner went out
7)Started to stall for no apparent reason

This is absolutely ridiculous, the car had reasonable mileage and the only thing I can I’ll give them is that yes, maybe the A/C should have gone out by then. Whatever. This car was the biggest POS I ever had the unfortunate experience of owning. I’ve never run into a VW owner that didn’t hate the company because of their bad luck with their vehichle, and everyone of them, whether they purchased new or used, had to install a new catalitic converter at least once some up to three times.

VW SUCKS!!

I’m now a proud owner of the new Mazda 3 Hatchback and they probably took my POS trade-in straight to the crusher!

Thanks for the site, it’s awesome.

VW Buyers Beware,
Melissa