So long Volkswagen…..

My 15 year love affair with Volkswagen has officially come to an end. I would like to scream from the roof tops that this company doesn’t back their product and does not care if they lose loyal customers. And I will never buy another car from them again.

I leased a 2007 VW New Beetle in October of 2006. It is a 5 speed manual transmission. It has 10,000 miles on it to date. Thursday while attempting to drive up North to visit my family for Thanksgiving the clutch started skipping and a horrible smelling white smoke started blowing out of the car. We pulled over to see what was wrong, it finally stopped smoking and the clutch was barely working.

I called the local dealership Saturday morning (McKenna VW, Huntington Beach, CA) and they say “”bring the car right in”". We bring it in and then they tell us “”well, we don’t actually have anybody who can look at it today but we’ll see what we can do and call you”". They call me at 5:00 p.m. and say “”nope, didn’t have anybody to look at it, it’ll have to wait until Monday”". So Monday in the middle of the afternoon they call us and say “”we need your authorization for the $900 fee to take the car apart and look at it, it may be a wear and tear item and not covered under warranty”". ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????? 10,000 miles???? I have been driving a stick shift since I was 16 years old. I have leased two other New Beetles from Volkswagen and have never ONCE had an issue with the clutch. I KNOW HOW TO DRIVE A MANUAL TRANSMISSION. I’m sorry but if their product is so badly made that the clutch will burn out after 10,000 miles I have no interest in putting my life in the hands of Volkswagen.

We called the corporate office to complain. The corporate office didn’t call back until the next day and told us we’re out of luck, that’s policy. Their policy is 12 months or 12,000 miles for wear and tear items. We’ve had the car for 13 months. They don’t care that we’ve leased 2 other Volkswagens from them and have been a loyal, on-time paying, perfect lease returning customer since 2000. They have never had one single issue with us. And they would not even look at the car to see if it was a possible failure opposed to “”wear and tear”" unless we first fronted $900.

I am DONE with Volkswagen. Their product is NOT well made, they don’t back their product and they care more about profit than keeping loyal GOOD customers. I am sad to see them go… I look back on my ‘68 and ‘69 Bugs, I look back on my 1990 GTI and I look back on my 2 New Beetles with fondness. But I WILL NOT deal with a company who isn’t willing to work with GOOD customers. So long Volkswagen.