7th Oct 2005, 10:26

My 2003 Jetta GLS had many of the same problems listed above. Twice I was stuck in park, had my arm rest door latch break, and now my car has little power and huge difficulties shifting (A/T). VW of course said their "computer" found nothing wrong. Maybe that's because my warranty doesn't expire until 500 more miles... then they'll probably find something.

10th Jan 2006, 08:42

Suddenly, without any warning while driving on Interstate 95, the clutch on our 2002 Jetta Wagon burned out and I completely lost power to the engine. The car has 31,000 miles on it. The repair cost will be $1,800. Until reading this website, I'd never heard of a clutch burning out at only 31,000 miles. Both my wife and I are experienced drivers of manual shift cars. My Passat has 160,000 miles and the clutch is fine.

Something seems to be defective with the clutch on the Jetta Wagon and perhaps other Jetta's as well. I hope VW will look into this issue. We are very fortunate that the drivers behind us on the Interstate were good drivers and did not rear end us at 65 mph when we lost power to the engine. January 10, 2006.

9th Apr 2006, 03:18

I also have problems with my 2000 VW Jetta. I got stuck outside a mall. The automatic shift won't go out of Park.

Don't know what to do. Also brake light won't work.

19th Apr 2006, 15:50

Just experienced a similar problem with my 2003 Jetta-got stuck in gear and couldn't get it out. I had to have it towed to the nearest dealer, who had a customer service ethic that would not be out of place in the former Soviet Union! I was wary of VW's to begin with, but bought this one in spite of gut feelings. I may try to sell it soon (while still under warranty and (for now) everything working) and buy a Subaru or Honda.

20th Apr 2006, 09:56

I had the exact same problem and was told it was a faulty brake switch and there was a recall for it (2001 Jetta). They made the change (with no charge) and it fixed both the brake light and not coming out of park problems. It's been working fine since then and it's been over a year since they did it.

Also, when I did have the problem I had to SLAM my foot on the brake to get it out of park. You can only shift when the brake light on the dash is off so keep slamming on the brake until that light goes off.

10th Sep 2006, 07:30

I have had some problems with My VW GTI I'm in Florida and every time it rains when I'm running around getting stuff done, roads that I HAVE to take flood. Even with Flood waters not being as high, my clutch will not shift. It has been 5 days now and so far I still can't put it into gear, once the reverse didn't work, but after a day or two letting it dry it was fine. Now ALL of the gears! GRRRR Help.

24th Sep 2006, 15:16

I have had many of these similar problems and wish that I knew of this forum before buying my 2000 Volkswagen Jetta GL 2.0L around this time last year! Currently, I cannot shift my car out of park, it has been a few days that I haven't been able to. The problem began a few weeks ago, and I thought that there was a problem with the battery not holding sending enough voltage to deactivate the braking mechanism. Now, I am not so sure and have held off on going to purchase a new battery, as the car starts up fine. At times, I am lucky with getting the car to shift out of park by revving up the engine. This has not worked in the past few days, however.

The armrest latch is also broken. A few weeks ago, I opened the glove compartment to place my new insurance cards in there and the handle went too. I owned a 1986-87 VW Jetta and that car ran like a horse, so I assumed that VW would maintain the same quality in its newer vehicles. What a disappointment to find that this is not true. Beware in purchasing a 2000 VW Jetta.

26th Nov 2006, 14:28

I have a 2002 Beetle automatic and my EPC light came on out of the blue and it would not let me shift out of park, I slammed and slammed on the brake to get the light to go out next to "P" so I could shift, but to no avail.

I had it towed to VW, it is out of warranty, but it had all recalls and the expensive (and seemingly worthless) VW services. I sure hope it is just a sensor like everyone says...

24th Mar 2007, 12:33

I have also had problems with my 2002 jetta 1.8T. At about 66,000 miles my clutch is pretty much shot. Instead of going to the dealer I just purchased a stage 1 race clutch. I think it was about 200 dollars cheaper than the stock one. Also, I am not taking it to the dealer to get fixed, because they wanted over $1500 to do it. I am taking it to a regular place and they only want about $500. I have other problems with the car such as the armrest latch breaking, drivers side window fell, tail lights going out, and my engine light comes on frequently...

3rd Apr 2007, 13:53

Well, there's a pretty good chance that you had the same problem as my 2003 Jetta GLS. Clutch gone at 46,000 miles. Never seen such a thing? The funny thing is that your clutch probably, was not burned out. The transmission seal was faulty. It probably leaked transmission fluid into on to the clutch housing causing the clutch to slip at high speeds or when it got hot.

I can show you pictures of my $1,200 problem. Volkswagen refused to pay for repairs. Because I did not have it towed to their shop.

I'd say buy another BMW. And stay clear of the VW brands including Audi and Porche.

18th Jun 2007, 08:06

I purchased a 2006 Volkswagen Jetta TDI with a standard tranmsission. Our clutch burned out at 27,000 miles, and I have been told the same story from the dealer about the repair not being covered by warranty. This was our first Volkswagen, and up until this occurence, we have been very happy with the vehicle. I am waiting to hear back from Volkswagen about the issue. We have owned 2 standard transmission vehicles in the past, and both clutches performed for a minimum of 140,000 miles. I don't think the issue is with our driving style. My hope is that Volkswagen will be helpful to us, but based on what I have read, I am not real hopeful.

26th Jun 2007, 18:00

I, too, own a 2002 Jetta GLS, and my automatic transmission is stuck in 4th gear. It did this once before several months ago, and once I turned off the engine and restarted it, it worked fine. Till yesterday! Now it's stuck in 4th gear again, and the emission control light came on. It's at the dealer as we speak- we shall see what the verdict is!