2001 Volkswagen Jetta 1.8T from North America
Summary:
Biggest mistake I ever made was buying this car
Faults:
Most serious problem was the car would frequently not accelerate; after I brought it to the dealer 3 times, was told by the Service Manager that it was because the weather was hot--his Passat does the same thing. I live in Phoenix, and this explanation was not the right answer. After I was almost killed on the freeway because of this problem and the service rep. at dealership was completely unresponsive, I sold the car.
Rear brakes went bad at 25,000 miles (just after warranty expired, of course) --apparently a common problem, although service rep. acted as if this was first time they had ever heard of this happening!
Fuel coil failure; had replaced under recall.
Accelerator stuck on car on occasion. This was not as frequent as the acceleration problem. I understand this is not an uncommon problem.
Yellow viscous fluid leaking out of all doors.
Paint defective.
Air conditioner totally inadequate; noticed the problem immediately, even though purchased car in November during very cold weather--reported problem to dealer, who blew me off. When I traded the car in, was told the air conditioning was REALLY bad. If they could tell, why couldn't the service dept. where I purchased the car tell?
Window fell into door; dealer actually was very responsive for this problem.
General Comments:
Owning this car was a huge disappointment. Not only did I have way too many problems with it, but the dealership service departments were horrible to work with, and when I contacted VW in America to get some help, they were also terrible to deal with. They said they would call me back the next day. About two months later, I got a call from them. Of course, by this time I had unloaded the piece of #%@!.
I still continue to get mail about recalls--the most recent one is the exhaust system.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 12th January, 2004
26th Jun 2004, 10:46
Glad to see the review, but too late for me. Mostly I have had a similar experience. Cost of service and maintenance seems to far offset the saving in fuel consumption. Have a new problem, just after my replacement of timing belt at recommended interval. Cost included new water pump which dealer said was leaking, total service including oil and filter was $923. Cdn, AFTER they applied a 10% discount to most parts. My car is a 2000 TDI, just over 100000 km, and now after the timing belt service there is strange performance which indicates a problem with turbo or fuel injection somewhere, black smoke, hesitation under load, air hissing sound apparently when turbo boost is being called for.