VW doesn't suck as much anymore

optoman

Diamond Member
Nov 15, 1999
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If anyone remembers, my wife and I both own VWs and have had numerous problems with them. Both the dealership and the corporate levels sucked.

We moved to Western NY and I am now going back to Dorschel where I orginally bought my car. I had some rust that ate through the sheet metal right around the neck where you fill up the gas tank on a 98 Jetta. The service manager of Dorschel took a look at it and had to call VW to get approval. He got the approval and they had to do an inspection of the car to determine how much work it would be. The body shop started to look at it and basically ripped apart the back right corner panel. It turns out the rust was way worse then they even thought. They overnighted the part and are starting on it as we speak. I was told it would take about 3 days to do all the work and would of cost $1800.

My old dealer, Minuteman would never of done anything like this. They suck. Dorschel has been great to deal with in the past month for the three things we needed to get done on both of our cars. Corporate VW still sucks but having a dealer that tries to help you with corporate makes all the difference.
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
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Many product related issues (car or otherwise) can be smoothed over by a good dealer(or reseller).

Glad you found a helpful dealer.
 

cherrytwist

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2000
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It all depends on the dealer.

I had an '02 GTI with the coilpack issue. I was fully aware of it due to the TSB, so when one failed I called VW Roadside service. They had a guy out within minutes, gave me a loaner for the evening. Three hours later the dealership called. The car was finished with 4 new coilpacks. I picked it up that night. All of this from a dealer I didn't even purchase the car from.

I ended up trading in the car for the 20th Anniversary Edition GTI. It was their excellent service that made me go back to them.

Every car (brand, make) has it's problems. It's how they deal with the issues that's most important.
 

Chadder007

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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Originally posted by: cherrytwist
It all depends on the dealer.

I had an '02 GTI with the coilpack issue. I was fully aware of it due to the TSB, so when one failed I called VW Roadside service. They had a guy out within minutes, gave me a loaner for the evening. Three hours later the dealership called. The car was finished with 4 new coilpacks. I picked it up that night. All of this from a dealer I didn't even purchase the car from.

I ended up trading in the car for the 20th Anniversary Edition GTI. It was their excellent service that made me go back to them.

Every car (brand, make) has it's problems. It's how they deal with the issues that's most important.

What happens when the "coilpacks' issue pops up? I don't know what a coilpack does...
 

Chadder007

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
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Also....i checked out the 20th aniversary GTI the other day. Good lord man....those Recaro seats are awesome. I usually don't like cloth seats but those feel great.
 

Thump553

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
12,651
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On the other hand, my mother in law has had her VW towed in four seperate times to replace the coilpacks, one by one. Depsite complaints to both VW and the dealership, they refused to address this now commonly known defect by replacing all the remaining ones, even on the second and third visit.

She's had other problems with this car also. I think VW's quality control and engineering has taken a huge step backwards. If Ford or GM did this, people would be screaming about shoddy American cars. Fortunately for VW many of their customers are fans who cast a blind eye towards their shortcomings, so long as they continue to crank out cute, "hip" TV commercials.
 

optoman

Diamond Member
Nov 15, 1999
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M wife just got the recall for all the coilpacks. She had one go out and they refused to replace all of them. Now they are saying they want to replace all or the rest of the potentially defective coil packs. My guess is that they are trying to avoid lawsuits. If you were to lose two or more of them then the car dies and this can happen when you're doing 65 mph on the highway. You would lose all your power brakes, steering and so on. VW could get a lawsuit because they knew of the problem but would only fix it if the coil actually went out.

 

Stark

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2000
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Originally posted by: optoman
M wife just got the recall for all the coilpacks. She had one go out and they refused to replace all of them. Now they are saying they want to replace all or the rest of the potentially defective coil packs. My guess is that they are trying to avoid lawsuits. If you were to lose two or more of them then the car dies and this can happen when you're doing 65 mph on the highway. You would lose all your power brakes, steering and so on. VW could get a lawsuit because they knew of the problem but would only fix it if the coil actually went out.

I think it was a supply issue before. They didn't have enough when the problem first became an issue so they had to be stingy with them. Now they have plenty in stock and can replace them as a precautionary measure.

I'm selling my 2002 Passat wagon right now. Good car, but not worth $500 a month for the next 2.5 years. We've got 4 cars right now (just the wife and me) so it doesn't make sense to keep it. Plus my wife keeps getting hit/hitting things and it's expensive as heck to get fixed.

I am, however, keeping the TDI Golf. I love that car, and no coil packs to worry about. :)
 

ElFenix

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Mar 20, 2000
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rust? jeez, who the hell has rust problems? oh, i guess VW
 

OITLadyOwl

Member
Jul 20, 2002
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My last car was a '90 VW Jetta. That thing was pure evil. I had 72,000 miles on it, and the engine literally blew up on the freeway.

I am convinced that VW is a German conspiracy to disable the American highway system, so they'll have an easier time invading.