4th May 2008, 08:33

I'm having the exact same problem with my 2002 jetta. I bought it used, my warranty just expired and now my tranny needs to be rebuilt. Not only that, but VW says that the transmission has MELTED due to the previous owners neglect. The dealership from where I bought the car will claim no responsibility for this since the warranty has expired, however they sold me a car that had a faulty transmission with the wrong transmission fluid in it!!!

Same question... will VW buy back a car without a working transmission??

I can't afford to fix this.

7th May 2008, 22:24

I bought a new 1.8T Jetta in 2002 and am having the exact same problems everyone here is describing. I feel like I am reading my own story when I look at some of these comments, including the same actions taken by the service departments!

I brought my car into the VW dealership at 69K for the routine 70K service. The service manager told me that the car needed a new air flow sensor, but that it was not "necessary." Considering the price of the part I opted to have it replaced at a later date. Other than that they said the car was fine.

I had to bring in my car about 10 weeks later (2,000 miles later) because it was shifting weird. The VW dealership told me I needed a new transmission, new brakes, new air flow sensor, a new door latch, and new radio (which worked fine.) They gave me an estimate well over $8,000 gave me an estimate. They said they found about 8 error codes and valve leaks. I was not told any of this 10 weeks prior and find it very hard to believe that all of these errors and malfunctions occurred in under 2000 miles!!! Furthermore, they told me to "just trade it in and get a better one."

Something is seriously wrong here. There are way too many coincidences. Lets do something about this.

27th Oct 2008, 18:59

And oh yes, we bought a 2002 Jetta Wagon; it has 78,000 miles on it and the transmission just went, and is estimated at around $5000 dollars, which just about totals it out. So -- this is the last VW we will buy.

29th Oct 2008, 11:09

I've owned 10 Volkswagens over the years, some some good, some bad (Most were pretty good cars, though). After reading all of the problems with the newer ones, I don't think I'll be buying another VW anytime soon.

It's a shame that Volkswagen's quality has slipped so badly, but when so many customers are experiencing the same problems, I don't think it can be a fluke.

7th Dec 2008, 10:32

Hi, my name is Alex and I am another frustrated Jetta 2002 owner. No need to explain the problem, same as described by almost everyone here. Since there seems to be nothing we can do about getting our cars fixed by VW, all I can do is make sure no one I know ever buys a VW vehicle, and word of mouth will take care of it. This is not how things work in America VW, you will hear from the public.

13th Apr 2009, 23:48

I have read several of the complaints listed on this site, and I have to say that I am ashamed. The only thing you need is a bit of general knowledge about vehicles, and these major problems will seem a lot smaller. My advice to everyone is to purchase a repair manual and fix these small problems yourself. That would be a lot cheaper than letting yourself be ripped off by a shady mechanic. Sam.

24th Apr 2009, 18:34

To comment on the comment above me…. I have to say that if you have ever worked on a Jetta or any VW for that matter, you would maybe have some say in this. I have worked on every car that I have owned previously, and these idiots that made this car made everything harder to do and more expensive. As a friend tells me, a VW is a mechanic's car. This is true.

I purchased a 02 Jetta in December of 2007. It did have an extended 2 year 24,000 mile warranty. I bought it because my 98 Acura Integra GSR was stolen and stripped and was just a shell. I was lured in by the Jetta and the sales people with promise of safety and a reliable car.

Less than a month later I discovered a massive oil leak under the hood. Shortly after that I had ignition coil failure, cat failure, ASR failure, hood strut broke, dipstick tube cracking 2x (the dealer does every one of my oil changes), thermostat failure, temp. Sender failure, worn out bushings, and the window fell in the door (window clips).

All of this happening during the first 6 months of my ownership. I may have missed some mind you. Some of these problems were covered by the warranty and some not.

During the last 5 months I have had it to the dealer 3 times because the transmission seems to slip and shift hard in the first couple of gears. They are never able to as they call it, "duplicate the problem."

Then this past Sunday morning I couldn’t shift past 3rd gear. It would rev at 5000RPM, unable to shift even manually with the tiptronic shifting option, and 5 minutes later would shift VERY hard and then seem to operate normally. This then happened the next two mornings, and I called my VW dealer and got it in the next day. They again are unable to "duplicate the problem." They then informed me I am over my warranty by 400 miles and that I needed to pay 384.00 to pay to have the tranny flushed out because they said the tranny fluid is burnt smelling. I then try to see if I can trade it in, but they tell me that they can only give me 4000 for a trade in... Which is only 1/2 of what I actually owe. YAY!

During this time I realize that they lied or maybe just "didn’t know", but my warranty is actually UP in 400 miles. So I am still certified. I don’t know if they were trying to see if I would catch this error or not. They really still don’t believe me that anything besides burnt tranny fluid is even wrong with my car because there are no error codes. I call and complain to the manager, who informs me that he himself has driven my car and with his VW expertise doesn’t seem to see or feel anything wrong. I then proceed to schedule the tranny flush because he tells me that this is the only way to determine if the tranny is actually going bad. Today I got the phone call and indeed during the flush they found that the oil is full of metal shavings and the tranny will need to be replaced. Hmmmm... right away I think amazing how this manager said nothing was wrong and he's a professional. Imagine that! I was right!

So now starts the fight. I had to fax all the paperwork to him proving that I am not out of warranty. But shouldn’t they have this?!? I am hoping it is covered... keeping my fingers crossed. I just wish that there was something I could do about this lovely lemon I own. But I was told it couldn’t be a lemon because it was certified. And according to VW they pay big money to certify these cars. WHAT A JOKE!