Faults:

The first time in her life my mother bought a car. (which we both use) It's an expensive car, but we thought VW is reliable, we can drive 15 years with this.

Oh God...We've owned it for 4 years now and have been to the garage about 14 times. They had to come and pick us up about 6 times. (not talking about the times we tried to get home in very dangerous circumstances. (engine falling out, restarting at stop light, just stopping in the middle of a highway)

-first we went on a 3 hour driving trip from Holland to Belgium... after 2 hours at 120 km/h we couldn't take any gear anymore. Nearly crushed by a truck while trying to get aside. gear pump broken. (3 months old)

- A couple of weeks later we had trouble to put the car in third gear.. sometimes it was impossible. It happened about once a week... garage owner drove with it... no problem...it still happened several times. Result: they put a new gearbox in. (after going to the garage about 3 times) problem solved.

-then the car was leaking oil... VW knew about, but didn't tell their costumers.. we had to find out ourselves.

-then the well known exhaust emissions warning light problem. No problem they said your car is not going to break down. (up till now it broke down about 7 times.) Our car sounded like a tractor which was about to fall apart any minute. Most of the times we couldn't start the car... The garage replaced the Exhaust Gas Recirculation valve about 4 times. Still every 3 months we had the same problem. Every time we drove more than 2 hours we could hardly drive, hardly start the car and he to risk our lives to get home. The light was on for a week, then went out, then again on and of. Last time no light at all, but we broke down again and the same problem. maybe they turned it off?

-the all 3 ignition plugs had to be replaced... after breaking down 3 times..

-then our drink holder got stuck.

And on and on and on...

General Comments:

4 years later, and after reading everything on this website (we thought we were the only ones, the garage always said we were the only ones... but now we heard different things) there is no other option than selling our car with a huge amount of cash loss. My mum is a single mum and money doesn't grow on trees as we all know. She's having health problems because of the whole situation.

Because in those 4 years our car broke down every three months (at least). Whenever we have to drive a long distance we are very scared of breaking down...

I can't understand that VW isn't doing anything about this situation..We've been ripped of... we will NEVER EVER buy another VW!

Faults:

Absolutely nothing went wrong, until I crashed it.

General Comments:

The car is not the most comfortable and isn't made for racing.

However :

- although quite old, it never needed any repairs during the 3 years I owned it.

- small engine, cheap maintenance and insurance.

- When driven properly it only consumes 6.4 liter / 100 km (mpg = 36.6)

- not fast, but still somehow very powerful: last year we drove from Ghent to Dubrovnik and back (+-5000km), surviving flooding, the Alps and other mountain ridges (including the katschbergpass in Austria and the impossibly steep hills around Sarajevo), very hot temperatures (40C) and the traffic of former Yugoslavia

- incredibly reliable, although already sleeping outside for 10 years, it never gave any problems starting.

- it doesn't look cool, but its looks and feeling somehow grow on you

- I wouldn't recommend driving it faster then 120 km/h, I think it lasts forever if one treats it kindly

- I fell asleep in it and crashed it. although the car itself looked very messy, I was still in quite good shape.

Faults:

Boot didn't open anymore after the dealer fixed the car following an accident.

General Comments:

Very reliable car.

The engine could be a bit more powerful.

Dealer forced us to pay a +/- £1100 bill cash (= illegal in Belgium). We were forced to threaten them to get the police involved or they wouldn't give us the car back.

Dealer refuses to do an oil change because his schedule was full for the next 2 months. Had to look for another dealer.

Please avoid this brand, as the dealers are not worth it.