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Comments
mark- before you use a slang term for the Jetta you better go check the transmission on your Accord, Honda is less than perfect.
nippon- I have a friend with a Camry with a sludged engine and he has a friend with a Avalon with a sludged engine, does this mean that Toyota has lousy reliability? My Jetta has perfect reliability and my Golf has only had a heated mirror replaced and the well known window regulator problem, which is corrected on 2003 models. Anecdotal evidence has little relevance.
;-)
VW told me and my friend to get lost. The car with the broken odo was then resold by a VW dealer as actual miles, even though they had been informed it had been broken for a long time.
And I was not only relying on anecdotal evidence from myself and a few friends - CR looks at 100's of cars or more, to make their reliability ratings.
So there's the rub...
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Has anyone heard of this type of electrical malfunction?
I performed a routine inspection on my 2000 vw jetta to find the rear brake pads worn very far down to the metal and worn very unevenly from both sides of the rotor. Upon removing the pads and turning in the piston on the caliper and reinserting new pads, the piston failed to come back out of the caliper. Hmmm, odd problem for a car with 40,000 miles and is less than two years old. Of course this would never be discovered under warranty because who really needs new brakes before 24,000 miles.
Upon examination by a dealership was told I needed new calipers- yikes, $215 each. This is the first car i have ever heard of that required new rear brake calipers after 40,000 miles. These things usually go at least 100,000 miles. VW of America was NO help at all, they said the caliper(thats right, the caliper, not the pads) was a wear and tear item and that they would offer NO assistance. A caliper is not a wear and tear item, it is a mechanical device, pads are wear and tear. Being that I am out of warranty, i have no options.
VW really doesnt even have to work that hard to lose customers.
Just had struts put in there this past spring/late winter.
:-(
And it sounds like you got a lemon car. They are out there, in every brand. And if you hate VWs so much, why don't you just get rid of the car?
You screw around with something that you know nothing about doing the right way, destroy it in the process, and then have the audacity to blast VW for the treatment you've received. Heads up...You are the idiot. Not volkswagen. YOU made the choice to mess with the calipers when you didn't have the info needed to fix them properly. YOU need to accept the responsibility for destroying the calipers. Not VW. Pretty sure there's not a clause in the warranty that says, "If by chance the owner does their own repairs to the vehicle and destroys stuff out of his/her own ignorance of the vehicle design, VW agrees to pay for anything that the owner might screw up beyond recognition."
Need to point the finger at yourself, bub.
Mopar, you are right, Honda is less than perfect. They did make vehicles with bad transmissions. They also admitted their mistake, and offered an extended warranty on the transmission to those affected. I've received notice on their ownerlink web site that my accord is covered. Now, contrast their behavior with VW's?
How many years has the Junka been afflicted with windows that fall into the door? How hard could it be to replace the badly-designed plastic part with a metal part that it takes them YEARS to do it?
How many people here have had serious problems after warranty expiration and been told by VW to pound sand when calling their "customer service" line? That's what happened to me 20 years ago with my then-new '80 Rabbit. They haven't improved their customer service in 20 years, and it looks like they never will.
This covers 1999.5-2001 models, from what I have heard (MKIV only).
http://mach.mach-nine.com/gti/vwtechcontent/vwpdf/v970101.pdf
If you have had the experiences with VW that I have had over the past several months, you would not be a satisfied VW customer. VW has no cares about the concerns of customers nor do they care about keeping their customers happy. This was an unfortunate repair, and I wanted to inform the general community of some of VW's manufacturing problems.
Maybe ask some more questions before calling someone an idiot.
The Jetta is on the list of "used cars to avoid". Reliability is listed as "sub-par". On the list of the "worst used cars", are the following models: Jetta '95-'97, '99-'00, as well as New Beetle '98-'00, and even Passats from most years with the V-6 engine. Only one year of the 4-cylinder Passat was listed, '95 I think.
Finally, if you go to the page specifically for Jetta, and look at the reliability chart, it is a pitch-black sea of solid black dots, the worst rating each system of the car can get. The only model without a lot of black dots is the '01, which makes sense since they are not really old enough to have had the really expensive repairs yet.
I apologize if I was not clear the first time, but the CR does not recommend this model.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Now, imagine yourself as the VW dealer. Hard, I know, but try. Someone brings in a car which has new pads on it, done by a do-it-yourselfer, who chose to tackle a somewhat sophisticated job that requires special tools. His/her back brakes don't work. What would you think? I gotta tell you, I'm charging that person what it takes to fix it. In my mind, you shouldn't have been messing with it if you couldn't fix it right. It's hard for me to accept that logic of "I tried to fix something that I wasn't properly educated enough on, and I broke it, so it's a crappy design. The company who made it is crap."
Again, sounds like you've got some legit concerns with your car. I drove around without a working drivers' side window for months. I understand the frustration. I'm just not sure you've got a leg to stand on with this brake thing...
Best of luck and sorry for the verbage...Soupnazi
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
That was only because moparbad jumped in to challenge my words so quickly and thoroughly!! LOL
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
re mark- vw is repairing window regulators w/o charge even if the car is out of warranty. The new part fixes the problem and VW is contacting owners and replacing the old part even if it has not failed yet. The Toyota, Honda and Nissan dealers in my area are just as bad as the VW dealer in my area. Chevy and Ford dealers are much better. I sincerely hope that VW improves their customer service. I wish no one a bad experience with their vehicle.
Once again if anyone eles has had this problem I would like to know.
Thanks
I have called that customer service line on four problems after warranty expiration: two window regulators, one seat belt malfunction, and one door lock/power window problem. In all four cases, VW either reimbursed me or covered the repair 100%, even though the warranty had expired.
Of course, I wish my Jettas were more reliable, but I have to say that the company has stood behind their product when I asked them to.
I have a 2002 jetta 1.8T. I’ve had the car for 7 months. This morning tried to turn my radio on and it did not turn on.. I tried to turn the radio on when the car was running and when it was off, but had no luck. The radio will not even eject the CD that is currently in the cd player. I do not have the monsoon. I heard about radio troubles with the monsoon system, but was surprised to see that even my standard radio is broken. I’ll have to call VW and take it in for repair, I guess . Has anyone had such an experience
With there Jetta radio? If so was the dealer able to fix the problem and what did they do to fix the radio. I fear that when they fix the radio they’ll have to remove it from the dash and which will somehow introduce more rattles to my car. I live in the DC area, and I hear many dealerships aren’t good at fixing car problems, does anyone know of a reliable VW dealership that can be trusted to fix my radio? Also is it true that I should expect VW to give me a loaner, or does it depend on the dealer?
Thanks in advance
I live in Austin and until recently, the only dealership that serviced VWs had a terrible reputation, and it was deserved.
Recently, Hewlett VW opened in nearby Georgetown and their service department is much better than the one in Austin.
However, I'm not delighted with VW today. One of my Jettas wouldn't start on Saturday. The car is only three years old and has 52,000 miles on it. I took it to Hewlett, where they report it will cost $296 for a new battery, new fuel pump relay and labor. To me, this seems pretty steep for a three-year-old car.
My other Jetta, also three years old, has only 35,000 miles on it, and the battery in that one had to be replaced also. I've never had car batteries last for such a short time, or cost so much to replace.
in the dash fuse panel
Locate fuse #42 pull it out, then after a minute, put it back in.
New batteries at 3 years is not outrageous, but remember, you don't have to buy your dealership's $125 battery - you can go to the local parts store and buy one for half the price. It will take you 10 minutes to install, and it is really easy.
Batteries last longer the more regularly you drive the car (assuming a healthy charging system)...at 35K your other Jetta sounds like it is not driven that much, so that may contribute to shortened battery life too...
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Before the problem, the Jetta cranked slower and slower, and then on Saturday morning just wouldn't crank enough to start. I am told that the owner cannot replace the battery in the Jetta. I've replaced batteries many times, of course, in older cars. But both the dealer and the independent shops assure me that once you take the cables off the posts, you will have to re-program the computers and the reset the radio security - - which require special electronic tools. Has anybody actually replaced the battery themselves?
Now as far as radio security, I wouldn't know, but the worst that could happen is the radio wouldn't work, and you would have to stop by the dealer for a two-minute reset...
And this sounds even worse - sounds like when your battery quit, your dealer also charged you to replace a fuel pump relay?? I would have wanted to see the faulty relay, and test it myself to see if it was really faulty. It might well have been, but what a coincidence!
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
The only known problems have been window regulator problems, MAF sensors, and brakes wearing out prematurely, particularly on the back wheels. The first two problems have been pretty much fixed for 2003, but the brake thing might still be there. VW is being very good about this though, and replacing affected parts at no charge, if you call their customer service line and let them know about it.
The Jetta might require more maintenance than your typical Honda or Toyota, but it's alot more fun and solid to drive as well. You just have to be sure you wanna compromise.
Also......buy one with a 5 speed. Trust me on that. The "fuzzy logic" automatic in the Jetta is just that. I also owned an automatic 2000 Jetta GLS (also VR6) which I traded in . I tried to accelerate out of a parking lot one day with fast moving oncoming traffic and it was a full second or two before the tranny realized I had the pedal on the floor. So much for moving out when I want to. I almost got nailed. I was pretty angry at the car. Anyway, get a manual. Even in parts of the country with heavy traffic it will still be a joy to drive and its much much better with the manual in the snow and everywhere else for that matter. ~M