Faults:
I have had the car for 4 years, and have had nothing but problems since the day it was bought.
Day one: the check engine light came on as I drove out of the parking lot of the dealership. I would later learn to ignore this as it has practically been on since I have had the car.
3 months: clutch went out and I know this could possibly been because of me. Shortly after, the oil pan was busted.
8 months: New engine was put in due to the fact of the oil pan incident, because I didn't know that I had busted the oil pan, so it sent shreds of metal in the engine and stripped the whole top and bottom end that was at 80K miles.
Later both my tail lights and my third brake lights stopped working.
Went through numerous headlight bulbs.
My flip key broke into 2 pieces.
The window switch has been replaced twice, and another one fell off later.
October 2008, the water pump stopped working and the timing belt was replaced at 100K; that was a 2000 dollar fix.
January 2009, the hose that connects the radiator and the water pump was dry rotted and broke loose; seems to me they would have noticed that when the pump was replaced?!
June 2009, there was a large vacuum leak that was causing the car to die when the RP-Ms were low. That was over 1000 dollars to fix. A short while later my fiance was changing my spark plugs and noticed that the vacuum hoses were not connected, and were the same old ones that were on there before I took it to the dealership to be fixed. He put new lines from a motor cycle that were the same kind; no trouble since. At the same time the trunk latch broke and had to have the wiring fixed for it.
This past summer, the control arms went out; the dealership was quoting 2000 dollars for parts and labor. My fiance did it for free; the parts were less than 200, and it took under an hour to fix.
2 coil packs went out. We fixed it at home for 200 dollars for all 4. Again, VW was quoting outrageous prices.
And the most recent problem; the switch to turn the heat on and off broke in 17 degree temperatures outside, so we ordered the part and put a toggle switch in for the meantime so I could have some heat; big mistake, the rewiring made everything go hay wire and now my ASR, emergency brake light, ABS and the computer light have came on, and the clock/thermometer and drivers side heated seats quit working.
It just seems that every time one thing gets fixed, something else goes wrong. I am not rough on the car at all, really I can't afford to be cause geez, if something else goes wrong my mechanic AKA my fiance might not be able to fix it, and I will have to take it to VW. This car is going to a car auction next week to sell to a dealer that has the time and money to invest in it.
General Comments:
I do love the cuteness of the car.
The leather interior is still pristine; no cracks or rips.
The heated seats are amazing.
The non-slip coating on everything flakes and peels on the door handles.
I took the head rests out of the back and put them up front, because the ones in the front were too high for my short self.
The car when running right is very fast.
2nd Mar 2010, 20:34
I thought my bug was a lemon. Transmission just went out at 70k, and it's going to be 7 grand to replace it. The blue book value of the car is about 6 grand, oh and I owe 13 grand still. The car was in and out of the shop routinely over my 3 years of ownership. I've had enough, and the bug is going bye bye.