Faults:

2 of 4 ignition coils have blown. We play Russian roulette every time we start the car with the remaining two coils, hoping it will run properly. VW says that you can still drive the car, but the engine barely idles, never mind climb a hill.

The driver door cable snapped, keeping the door from latching shut. My wife had to drive to the dealer holding her door shut. Dealer was great, though.

The tires were completely shot at 30,000 miles of highway driving.

We have replaced two headlights in less than two years, which the dealer has to replace because you can't get to them easily. (The owner's manual doesn't even tell you how, it just says "See your dealer.").

Both key fobs are useless. One doesn't work anymore, and the key ring part broke off of the other one. We have to unlock the car by hand. Unfortunately, there is only a keyhole on the driver's side door, so you can't unlock the car from the passengers side.

The LED on the drivers side door that flashes when the alarm is set now just stays on, all day and all night.

Rolling down only one of the rear windows results in a deafening resonance on the wagons. Try this one during a test drive.

General Comments:

Great performance, fun to drive. Decent mileage as well.

This car has made me appreciate how much reliability matters. Toyota and Honda (and Lexus and Acura) are now the only two car companies in the world that I would consider buying from.

I am afraid VW is killing its future chances of success in North America. I know myself and plenty of other twenty and thirty-somethings will never buy a VW again.

Faults:

After having the car for approximately 6 months, I had an emissions valve replaced.

2 months later the car had to be towed to the dealer and have some ignition coils replaced.

1 week later the malfunction indicator light was on again and upon calling the dealer, I was informed that they were not authorized to change ALL of the ignition coils and that some more had probably gone bad. The car was again towed to the dealer. I explained to the dealer that I did not feel that, since this was the third time in 6 months the car was in the shop, I should be inconvenienced by missing work or being without transportation. This comment gave the service manager a bad attitude toward me and she basically wanted nothing to do with me from this point on.

The dealership was also not happy with me calling to find out what was the matter with the car this time. After finally being told it was being looked at and promised to get a call back within 30 minutes, I was called back 3 hours later and told the car was ready to be picked up. I asked what had been done and the girl really didn't know other than a valve had been replaced and it was then test driven.

When I picked it up that night, I again inquired what was done and was read word for word what the receipt said. I could have done that myself and I still didn't know what a purge valve is or what it's function is.

General Comments:

It's a shame I've had these problems with my car because I truly love it when it is performing correctly. The dealership I bought it from has been completely useless and unsympathetic.