Scary
My passenger side airbags deployed for no reason at all while driving on the highway.
I was told by Volkswagen of America that small impacts under the car by rocks can cause the bags to deploy at any time, even days after a small rock hits the sensor under the car!
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 10th August, 2006
Questionable
OBD 2 computer was not working.
Driver side window dropped down into door.
When we took our 2002 Jetta to be emission tested, the test site could not find a reading on the OBD 2 computer.
We took the car to the local VW dealership and they said everything was OK. We took the car back to the emission testing site, and they again said they could not find a reading. The local manager was an ex-VW technican and said they had a problem. The manager went with us to the VW service, and by using his computer, was able to show the local VW people that there was a problem with the OBD 2. It seems the local VW service did not have a computer to read this part of the system.
After several days and much communication with VW, it was decided that the car's on board computer needed to be replaced. VW did this with VW warranty picking up 50% of the cost and the local dealer 50%.
Less than a week later, the front driver window drops down into the door. Took it to dealer and they said the clips needed to be replaced at a cost of almost $300! We have a copy of the letter VW sent out in 2002 extending the warranty of the windows to 7 years. It seems that the local dealer reads the extension differently from me. Our car has manual windows and it seems the extended warranty only covers electric windows, even though the letter does not mention this. I guess I will be in for a battle when I pick the car up tomorrow!
After reading all the other complaints on the windows, dating back to the late 1990's, I hopefully will be successful.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 7th August, 2006
Perhaps electric windows are standard, but when I got my 2002 Jetta, I chose manual windows, hoping that fewer electronic parts would result in fewer problems. As a rule, that's worked fine. However, just yesterday, I was rolling my driver's side window down, heard a THUNK, and now the window won't stay up. I'm going to try our local dealer to see if they'll fix it - after reading various posts on this site, I'm not sure if it'll be covered by the warranty.
Nice car when the accessories are all working
At 65000 miles, both front windows fell into the door and had to be replaced, costing nearly 600.00.
A sensor went bad, but was not too expensive.
Then at 70000 miles, the power windows and locks quit. I spent 4 hours at the dealers only to have them tell me it needed a new computer. I said I would think about it. They charged me 41.00 to tell me that. I question that diagnosis. It seems that it would have many other problems if it needed a new computer.
Everything else works, but the windows and locks. The owners manual says something about a circuit breaker for the windows to prevent the fuses from overheating, to reset it. But it does not say where the circuit breaker is. I think the dealer is ripping me off.
I would not buy another Jetta from this era. But I would purchase a new VW, but not from this dealer.
The car has great acceleration. The turbo makes a huge difference. Unfortunately the gas mileage has never been more than 27 MPG.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 2nd August, 2006
14th Aug 2006, 20:01
I thought that power windows were standard on ALL VWs made after 1998. I have never seen/heard of a '99 or later Jetta with manual windows.