Faults:

Water leaks into the passenger compartment floor mats.

General Comments:

This car has been very good to me. I have over 270000 km, but the car has leaked water as long as I can remember.

VW has a recall on sunroof drains, but did not fix my problem. The drains are missing inside the front door pillar. VW says it's not part of this recall.

I opened up the headliner, the drains are fastened to the top of the sunroof, but don't make it to the door jam drains, so water drains into car via a kick panel. May have to drill holes in the floor to drain this water. VW won't help for less than 2 or 3 hours of $90 per hour labour.

Faults:

Windows open and close on their own.

Alarm goes off on its own.

Stereo speakers work when they want to.

All knobs have fallen off the radio.

Windows fall inside the door.

Engine light always coming on, which I was told was "normal".

Not to mention ALL of the performance problems!!

General Comments:

Worst car ever in my life! I bought it for $9,000, and in 2 years of having it, have spent over $5,000 on car repairs. It has died on the side of the road more than I care to remember... and with a small child in the middle of winter that is NOT OK.

I cannot wait to get rid of this piece of crap car!! Do NOT buy one of these! I am bringing it in to the car repair shop today in fact as the battery keeps dying while I am driving. I have often wished someone would just steal it and do me a favor, but unfortunately even if they tried, they would not make it far... this car SUCKS!!!

Faults:

Door light switch will not work.

Covering coming off all of the plastic parts.

The driver seat's arm is broken.

Worst cup holder ever invited.

Glow plugs and harness needed to be replaced, $700.

Oil change costs 100 bucks.

New cam-shaft was needed, $3,000.

Mass air flow sensor replaced, $100.

AND the check engine light is still on.

It won't start if it is too cold, and stinks up my garage.

I will never buy another VW.

General Comments:

The car is good on fuel. However, the overall charges and repeated need for repair work have far offset the savings gathered from the fuel mileage. (If you factor in the time using the bus while it was in for the cam-shaft repair, the equation gets worse).

It squeaks when you turn or hit a bump; the air conditioning barely keeps up with the heat, and seats are not all that comfortable.. the trunk lid won't stay up.

Faults:

Transmission shifts hard between 1st & 2nd gear at 35000.

At 74000, we were told we need to replace the transmission.

General Comments:

Fun to drive, but when it is in the shop, it's not fun to pay for.

Transmission going out after 74000 is ridiculous.

Faults:

I've had pretty much all the problems others have listed on this site: windows falling into the door (twice!), wheel bearings, battery issues (when not driving car frequently though), catalytic converter broken -- does anyone know if warranty / recall will still cover this? I am just getting to fixing mine because the state my car is registered in (Florida) does not require inspection and I am looking to sell the car in NY/NJ.

I also had the moonroof / sunroof drains clog and flood the car, accessories break inside easily (though they look nice) and twice had the mirror cap fly off the car going 80 miles an hour on the highway... very dangerous and annoying.

I would say overall this car is more style than substance, though it has been OK over the years, as I have not taken the best care of it, partially due to the fact that every little thing seemed to cost me big bucks to fix.

My experience with the VW dealers has varied (It's been all over from Florida to California to Jersey to NY). On dealer did my 60K service, for which I paid some astronomical amount ($1,000), only several days later to have the car flood from clogged sunroof ducts. When I brought it in for another $500 fix and asked why they didn't check the ducts at the service, their excuse was that's not covered under the service package. Give me a break.

We are now getting rid of the car and buying a Subaru Forester (more room and more reliable). I still love the look of VW, but I'm not sure I'd buy another one -- maybe lease, but not purchase, because my experience has been a bottomless pit of fixes and expensive little issues.