Faults:

At 49,000 miles, the oil pressure failed.

At 55,000 miles, the air intake valve failed.

General Comments:

After owning a Dodge Neon that had a new problem every week, this car was a nice change.

Originally purchased in New York, the car has been driven from Florida to Washington, DC, then on to Michigan and back to New York!

I consider it highly reliable, and cannot fault it's two problems around 50,000 miles.

My best advice is keep the oil changed and do the ten thousand mile check ups with the dealer.

I still love this car and find the problems others have had to be surprising, as my car has been driven very hard the past three years and held up delightfully.

Faults:

The flasher unit failed after few months. No indicators and no hazard lights available. It was replaced under guarantee.

The steering rack started to leak at 30,000 miles. After much arguing Volkswagen and the dealership paid half of the replacement and fitting. Fixing in situ was not possible. I was still stuck for over 600 euros.

The clutch master cylinder was next to fail. This time it was "tough luck" the car was out of warranty.

The same lack of backup applied when the water pump failed; we discovered this when the heater no longer worked.

We paid about 600 euros to have the timing belt replaced. In the next service I found out by accident that the dealer planned to replace the timing belt again and charge me for it. Apparently they had two maintenance computer systems, one not talking to the other.

General Comments:

This was a beautiful car to drive.

However the constant trips to the garage took all of the goodness out of the car.

Faults:

Engine failure at 49,000 miles due to poor design of 1.8L Turbo. Volkswagen is not covering under Limited Power Train Warranty because our maintenance records do not meet "Volkswagen standards" (not described anywhere in owner's documentation).

General Comments:

Volkswagen has been horrible to deal with. They are clearly out to avoid warranty performance. Stories of this exact same failure and obstinate attitude of manufacturer are easy to come by. Volkswagen amazingly continues to try to pin the blame on its costumers.

Faults:

Door and hood seals deteriorated and needed replacement at 27,000 miles.

Full brake system had to be replaced at 29,000 miles.

Drainage hose from sun roof had a hole and flooded carpet with every rain - this took four visits to the dealer to repair and required replacement of the carpet which had rotted and smelled exceedingly foul.

Alternator needed to be replaced at 30,000 miles.

Trim periodically falls off on the highway - 3 pieces of door trim lost between 30-40,000 miles.

Vacuum hoses required replacement at 41,000 miles.

Coil packs required replacement at 41,000 miles.

General Comments:

I purchased my 2001 Volkswagen Passat after much research into buying a used vehicle. Sadly, I will never purchase another Volkswagen. I purchased the car with 25,000 miles, and have experienced the following problems in the short 1.5 years that I have owned it. Granted, the car is beautiful, receives many compliments, is extraordinarily comfortable, and drives beautifully when it drives at all.