I was in a really bad accident where a car flew into me going 60 miles an hour while i was at a complete stop. People at the scene wondered how i was alive let alone able to walk out of the car. My wife, who was7 months pregnant at the time also walked out of the car with a few cracked ribs, but the baby was unharmed. say what you want about volkswagon but my 2004 jetta never gave me any problems and saved my life.

Edited by crossislanddrama on 12/31/06 at 7:08 PM

Does anyone know how I can become a part of the sludge lawsuit?

Affected vehicles: 1998-2002 New Beetle and Jetta with Cruise Control
New part number: 1C0-945-511-A-NAR
Color code: Green

This replaces the first brake light switch recall, color coded purple. The original part has no color code (it was black).

This is a hassle of a part for many, particularly for those with automatic transmissions as failure of this part would prevent the driver from shifting out of Park (P). Manual transmission drivers simply had no brake lights or lights that stay on constantly.

Anyhow, the new green model is a redesign instead of a hack like the first purple replacement. Unlike the original and the first replacement, this new switch can be installed multiple times. The original and first replacement could only be set and installed once, after which the part could not be removed without destroying it (yeah, it really does sound stupid). This design eliminates the pieces that caused failure in this switch, replacing a drum/slide rotation lock with a simpler spring loaded lock.

Pictorial Comparison on VWVortex

Edited by paultakeda on 12/13/06 at 9:36 AM

So VW won’t fix my airbags because they say my car is out of warranty and it’s obvious I hit a pothole. I DIDN’T HIT ANYTHING YOU MORONS!!!! Can they tell me where on my pics (http://s116.photobucket.com/albums/o14/dorkchopqueen/) do you see a new dent?

That’s right. No where.

The only thing you can see is that it’s been jacked up in a wrong spot in its lifetime. That’s it. Some scrapes, OLD scrapes, from me backing out of my driveway.

VW can’t possibly get away with this. Where do I contact a lawyer that would specialize in stuff like this?

I bought a 1997 Ford F-350 pickup new ten years ago. I still have it and expect to keep it for at least another ten years. I bought a new 1999 TDI Beetle. In the 28,000 miles and three years I owned it it was in the shop more than the Ford has been in ten years. By a large margin. And the 2003 GLX Passat Wagon that I traded in the Beetle for has been even worse.
If you put a value on all the time wasted on having a VW serviced, I suspect that VW’s would be the most expensive vehicles on the planet.

Hello everyone!

I thought I would share my story of VW trouble with you all. I purchased a 2002 VW Golf GLS on October 5th from 112 Auto Sales on 112 in Patchogue. (Which, by the way, they’re fantastic people over there.) On 11/20 I was cutting through a school parking lot to get to my boyfriends house when suddenly, I heard a loud bang. I thought I had hit a pothole and gotten a flat tire. That is, until I smelled it. The passenger side curtain airbag and the one in the seat had deployed. My boyfriend who was sitting in the passenger seat was holding his arm against him and coughing. At this point the car had stalled to a stop. I put it in park, got out, and opened his door. I had him sit down to catch his breath because the wind had just been knocked out of him. As he was sitting down, I went into the hatch and pulled a flashlight out my emergency kit. I checked out all four tires. No flat. Okay then, why did the airbags deploy?

I went back to check on my boyfriend, who was still coughing. He inahled some of the smoke from the airbag, making him cough so much. He told me to call my insurance company. I called, explained the situation. Since this was 10 at night, the claims guy had to call me the next day. He called 9 AM on 11/21 and I explained to him what happened. He took down my boyfriends number and told me my choices. Pay my $500 deductible and they fix everything. I said sure. They towed my car (which I had to drive home) to their mechanic. Inspector couldn’t look at it on 11/21, but got to it on 11/22. He called me up and said that there was no impact for the airbags to deploy and that it was VW problem. My boyfriend calls up Donaldson and they said they couldn’t see my car until 11/29, a week later. Later that day, my boyfriend and I go down to Donaldsons and see if they can squeeze us in sooner. Some snotface there suggested we could drop it off first thing Monday morning but it could sit there for 2 days and not get looked at. After we left there, we went back to 112 and explained to them what happened. One phone call later, they told me to drop my car off at their mechanic Friday morning and they would take care of all of it. Drop the car off, and Friday afternoon we call the mechanic, Bill, and he ran some diagnostics. His computer came up with a bunch of codes he had no idea what they meant, but said one thing for sure is that there was no reason why the airbags should’ve gone off. There was no impact.

Ha ha.. funny. Second person to say that. He calls up Donaldsons and they tell him to bring the car to them on 11/29, same day they told us. They tow it over there and come 11/30, Donaldsons is saying they inspected it and there’s an impact point on the rail on the passenger side. My boyfriend explains to them that TWO different people inspected the car and they said there was NO impact. Two people who have no link except me. Felipe over at Donaldsons said he would call up VWoA and see what they say. It is now 12/4. It has been 2 weeks since my airbags went off and I’m just getting the run around from Donaldsons now. Felipe is not there today and tomorrow, and apparently, neither is the gentlemen Joe who is supposed to be handling Felipe’s cars. You call and ask for a service manager and you just get voicemails. No one ever returns your calls. My claims guy, Steve at Progressive called my boyfriend today and told him that if nothing is done with my car by the end of the week, to go down to Donaldsons, get the car, bring it to their mechanic and they’ll fix it and then go after Donaldsons to reimburse me for my deductible.

I LOVE my car. I have had no other problem except this one. I HATE Donaldsons VW. Their staff is ignorant, pompous asses and my patience with them is running very, very thin. I am contactin the BBB about their ways and I will never, ever, ever give them business for as long as I live.