Volkswagen
reviews and complaints

I bought a car Volkswagen Touareg on august 2005 and what i know that the basic warranty is 4yrs, it was raining here in oman on 06/06/2007 little rain goes into the car but it did not effect the car at all, but just in case i didn't not start the car i took to the dealership here in oman and the first thing they told me is that (you don't have anymore warranty) i asked why?

They said because the water goes into the car! And they brought up a quotation for more than $24'000 (TWENTY FOUR THOUSANDS DOLLARS) and thats only for the spare parts without the labor, which makes me request them to check the car and when i checked it i found absolutely nothing wrong on the car everything working on the car very smoothly therefor, i need to send this letter to manufacture to solve my problem before i go to ministry of trade and the court.

To put it simply. Do yourself a big favor and don’t buy a vw! Especially not a jetta!

I bought this 01 jetta brand new and have had nothing but constant problems.

Bolts all over the car are loose and falling out, all of the screws around the air filter fell out, the 3 bolts holding the ignition coil fell out. The bolts holding the windshield wipers on fell off so the wipers fell off in the middle of a downpour! Main bolts holing the frame together are not tight.

Ignition coil failed at 30, 000 and was not covered under warranty

Cat converter needed replacing at 40, 000 (Covered under warranty)

Turn signals randomly don’t work

Airbag light is on at 40, 000 can’t make it go away

Headlights are very poor, I just drive around with the high beams on all the time and nobody ever flashes at me cuz even the high beams stink.

The way the oil filter attaches to the car, it’s kind of upside down so when the oil is changed the oil runs all over the engine and burns on it so the whole car always stinks of burning oil.

Epc light is now on, the car left me stranded cuz it wouldn’t shift out of park because of this. I figured it was the brake light switch so I walked to an auto place, bought a new one and installed it myself but it didn’t fix the problem. Had a toe truck guy show me the trick to get it in gear (Obviously this happens allot!) drove it home but the car wouldn’t shift out of 2nd gear for some reason!

Vw finally recalled the car for the brake light switch, now that its already been sitting in my driveway unusable for months. We'll see what they do with it.

When the car was shifting, it shifted very poorly, abrupt jarring shifts, sometimes takes very long to shift (Revs for long periods before upshifting) sometimes downshifts for no reason (No change in demand on engine) and then shifts back again almost immediately.

Stroke to bore ratio and gears seem to be set so the car has good getup and go from 0-30 and then nothing after that, can barely pass people that are going 40 mph.

Overall car has fairly poor performance and gas mileage.

This is a review of Greenbrier Volkswagen's repair work done to my Jetta following a theft of my car in October of 2001. I do realize that it has been several years since the original work was done but only in the last year have these problems starting occurring.

First and foremost it took GB VW well over a month to complete the original repairs and several things went wrong immediately following...starting with my speedometer which was not put together properly and then my starter was not connected correctly. After that I found that they did not check the front end alignment either. It has now been over 5 yrs since and the first thing that went wrong was one year ago in Feb 2006 as I was driving to work and entering onto I64 I began to loose the ability to shift threw my gears. I had my car towed to my auto shop and they told me it had to go to a transmission shop. There they told me that my shift arm was completely stripped and needed to be replaced...roughly $290.00. When I picked my car up they asked if the transmission had ever been taken out of my car, which it had when it was worked on following my theft, the mechanic informed me that unless my transmission was shot (which it wasn't) there was no way that part could have just gone bad unless it was installed incorrectly. Obviously this was done at the time of work done in 2001 by GB VW. This was disputed saying there was no way to prove that it had been incorrectly installed at that time. So I had to let it go and swallow the cost of that repair. Now another part has gone bad my shift cable. This part being directly related to my shift arm. My mechanic explained to me that the only way that part could have gone bad is by the shift arm having gone bad. And now I am going to be out another $200.00 for that part and labor.

Also following the original repairs I discovered that the spare tire was never replaced and my insurance company paid for one, my CD changer that was stolen to be replaced was not installed correctly, I have oil stains on my back seat that was a result of my oil pan being put into my backseat, was not properly removed and is still there. Kindly Checkered Flag VW replaced the spare tire and installed my CD changer correctly for me.

Other things regarding GB VW's repair shop is that they stripped my oil pan, claiming that this is something that goes bad regularly. After speaking with 2 different VW dealerships in 2 different states I was told the same thing. This is not common unless the person doing the oil change either over tightens the screw or it is cross threaded. I decided to set up a meeting with GB VW's parts and repair manager to hopefully get this replaced at no cost since it was apparent to me that they were the ones who did the damage because they are the only ones who have done oil changes on my car because they are free. In that meeting not only did he fail to be interested in what I had to say he said that they would only charge me cost for the part and not charge me for the labor. The part would cost around $110.00. I was so upset that I agreed to get out of meeting and immediately went to my parts guys at Bap Geon in VA Beach. There they told me that actual cost was about $72.00. They also told me that this is not a part that commonly goes bad and because of that they do not keep them in stock and it would need to be ordered if I choose to buy the part from them. After much thinking about what I should I decided to buy the part from Bap and have someone else install it. The last thing I wanted was those so called mechanics at GB messing anything else up. The part plus the oil filter plus the oil ended up costing me $144.00. I will no longer be going to them for oil changes. I do not want to have to replace yet another part that should not have gone bad.

I will end with this, mostly because of all of the heartache and time without my car and money spent on these repairs, this is the saddest thing of all. Just over a year of owning my Jetta I went to have the air conditioning looked at. It wasn't working and I wasn't sure why. I had a diagnostic done and was told that some valve was bad and it was a manufacture defect. It wasn't replace because I was 2,000 miles outside of my warranty and just didn't have the money to repair it. This summer 5 years later my grandfather decided he was going to test the refrigerant level and see if maybe just maybe that was all I needed. Seeing as he couldn't find anything else wrong with it. Sure enough all I needed done was my refrigerant recharged. So after 5 years of driving in Virginia summers with no AC it turns out the part they said would cost me over $400.00 to replace worked after all. My grandfather recharged my AC and off I went to spend the remainder of my summer in air conditioning.

I have been trying for years to find out the owner or regional manager of this dealership so that I can try to deal with someone who will see me as a paying customer that just wants her car to run properly and not just another angry customer. I am completely fed up with Greenbrier Volkswagen, they have made me feel like my business doesn't matter to them because there is 10 other new customers walking in right behind me. No one has told me the names of the people who are in total control of this dealership and it makes me mad that they think so little of me as a consumer. This review is to inform people of what to expect when buying from them. This is not to say anything negative about my car itself. I love my Jetta and will own another VW. Over all I am completely satisfied with my car and it's performance. It's that dealership and how they have managed to mess it up that upsets me.

I also would like to thank my mechanics at All Tune and Lube on S. Lynnhaven Pkwy, the guys at Bap Geon on Lakin Road and the guys at Advanced Auto on S. Plaza Trail. All have been absolutely wonderful in helping me resolve all these repairs and have gone out of their way to make this as painless for me as possible.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this and I hope that it may help anyone else.

I purchased my brand new 2006 V8 Toureg on 11/20/06. 4 Days after the check engine lite went on for the first time. Since then it has been at the dealer 5 times and so far 18 days in the 2 months I have had it. It is still there they say for at least 10 more days. They have replaced 2 ignition coils, a fuel injector, re-attached a hose, purged the coolant system, drained and refilled the gas tank and now they say there is a coolant leak inside the engine and that they will have to take apart the engine, see what additional damage has been done and re-build the engine. Meanwhile VW has generously given me a $25/day shoe box on a roller skate Enterprise rental car to drive when I have paid $45,000 for a luxury suv. VW has said no to an upgrade for the rental car. No to replacing my car w/a new one. No to a buy back. They have basically said oh well, we will fix it no matter how long it takes. They should fix it, but on their time not mine. Well, that is what my attorney is going to tell them. I meet the requirements of the lemon law and at this point I don't want a VW. I will never buy one again nor will I ever have anything good to say about them.

I purchased a 2004 Passat TDI in July 2005 from VW of America. It was a buyback with claims that the engine did not start, probably due to failure to understand what a glow plug indicator light was all about, or so I assumed. In the last year and a half I have been very pleased with all of the features that the car offered, good milage, reasonable maintenance costs etc. I have had all service done by VW at the local dealership at the intervals stipulated.

On December 10, 2006 while driving the service indicator lights came on stating STOP... a good effective communication. The car was overheating and after letting it cool down I made my way home being careful not to let it get hot again, stopping along the way as necessary. The following day I went to the dealership to purchase new coolant and told them about the episode and that the heater was not putting out any heat. They responded by saying that the was a high incidence of the water pumps failing in these cars at 50-75,000 miles. I made an apointment for the next available time, Thursday the 14th, and brought the car in as requested.

The service advisor started by telling me that there was an $80.00 diagnostic charge to look at the car. I responded that since the car had 59,337 mile on it and that the powertrain warranty covered the water pump until 60,000 miles that I didn't plan on spending $80.00. His response was that if it was the water pump then there would be no charge. Five hours later the motive began to become apparent.

First, after I called to check on the status I was informed that the thermostat was bad and that it would be $200.00 to replace it... a $22.00 part suddenly grew to $200.00. He also stated that it was possible that the failure of the thermostat could have caused a failure of the water pump, in which case the powertrain warranty would be void... how convenient. It doesn't require MENSA membership to guess what happened next.

Meanwhile I was in touch with VW customer care center. Jeff Monroe, the first 'customer advocate' I spoke with agreed that if the waterpump and the thermostat were bad that VW would err on the side of the consumer and warranty the whole claim. Later in the day I spoke with Joann (no last name) who promised that someone would be back in touch with me by the end of business the next day, Friday the 15th. Needless to say, that promise was as unfulfilled as it now appears the warranty is. A call today, Monday December 18, 2006 has elicited yet another promise of someone getting in touch by 'the end of the day'

I will keep this updated and would appreciate any other experiences, good or bad, on other folks treatment by the Customer Care Center at VW.