Check engine light on within days of purchase.
Car dies for no apparent reason. Dealer no help. Works fine for them. Drive for first six months praying it won't die in traffic.
Car dies again and then again and again... but restarts grudgingly.
Car hard to start. Lots of smoke. Car dies totally at one year of ownership. Dealer has car two weeks. No help. Tow car from dealer to independent vw specialist. Problem diagnosed within 24 hours as main computer problem.
Send car to dealer to have security codes flashed onto new computer. Dealer can't do it. Independent VW specialist drives to dealer and shows them how!
Car now at 240,000 km done on power badly. Foolishly give dealer one last try. Need new turbo for $2,000. Decline and put in mass air sensor for $75.00 and five minutes work in my driveway. Problem solved.
240,000km wipers die. Dealer wants $350.00. I take them apart and clean and lube the spindles. Have to repeat this about twice a year it seems.
Car dies in dead of winter (-20 c) on way home from work. $150.00 to tow. VW shop (not dealer) finds corroded ground under battery.
250,000 hit pothole and lose belly pan from under engine. Oil pan is so low to the ground I dent the pan. VW shop has three cars in with blown engines after owners hit ruts or ice and break pan, losing all oil.
260000km and cd player stops working. Also radio reception very poor. Replace antenna with after market. Radio back.
260,000km replace glow plug wire harness with after market to correct check engine light.
Check engine light on again. car runs fine and I'm ignoring it. I'm spending no more on this car.
The car is so nice to drive when it works.
The dealer I have locally is useless. It's as though they have never seen a VW in their lives. Without the help of my local VW specialist I would have rid myself of this car ages ago.
Which is the other problem. VWs depreciate at an unbelievable rate. I was fed up after one year of ownership and the best offer I had was for 1/4 of the price I paid. So I have kept the car.
Car has now at 270000 km and no major issues for 10 months and counting. Getting 60 mpg!
I consider myself lucky. I found an excellent mechanic, and compared to other owners I know I haven't lost too much money yet.
Not a car for the faint of heart, or mechanically uninclined.
Reliability and bad dealer service is going to kill VW.
270,000km's on a single car. A few things are going to go wrong. My girlfriend is in the exact same car they have had similar problems, but you can't beat 50+ MPG. She's got just over 250k's on it and it runs a little weak. Never thought of the Mass air flow sensor. We got the same answer from the dealer that the turbo was on it's last leg. Good car none the less, but there are definitely bugs in the system. Buy a newish one with less than 60,000 with a good service record if you want a car like this.
This is an update to the original comment. The car in question is still in my possession. Reason being it is completely worthless. Really! Not even an offer after it was fixed and running fine. The word is out apparently that VW's are not reliable. In the meantime I have replaced the computer. Then left on the side of the road again. My independent mechanic tore the car apart to find a frayed wire behind the dash. Not correctly installed at factory. Replaced antennae numerous times. Trunk latch failed. Hood latch failed repeatedly. Won't bore you with the numerous other small failures.
Finally the engine let go. Apparently this is common in TDI's. The soot builds up in the manifold and gets sucked into the engine, which locks and bends the connecting rods. This has been seen by my mechanic over and over again. In fact TDI engines are hard to find used for this reason. Over $4000.00 to replace.
I must emphasize that I am an aircraft mechanic by trade and a car nut. This car is maintained religiously. No help. It continues to fall apart.
Be warned potential VW buyers, you are in for a world of misery with the A4 VW's. Buy with low miles and sell before you reach 200,000 km (if you must have one), which seems to be when things go south.
Note: A Comments RSS Feed is available. New comments appear in the Members Area before the main site