2001 Volkswagen Jetta TDI review from North America

I bought the car in July of 04' and had very few problems with it. I bought the extended warranty so the few problems I did have were covered, one of them being a $1500 repair, but have had no similar problems since. What I have had is the check engine light coming on about every 1.5 months. It's on again as a matter of fact!

Of course this happens after the warranty has expired, over 100k, so I'm paying out of pocket since March of 06'.

Took it to the dealer and they tell me is a glow plug harness, but they have to order it. Three months later it's finally in so I have them replace it along with other maintenance things, rotors, headlight, oil change, tire rotation, etc. The harness alone cost me $380. Get the car back, and three days later, the engine light is back on. Take it back and they said a glow plug has gone bad and that replacing that one glow plug should fix it. $108. Get it back and again, three days later, the engine light is back on. Take it back and they said, "oh, well you should always replace all 4 glow plugs, not just one", even though it was their mechanic that suggested replacing the one glow plug. Idiots! And this is the dealer, Hallmark VW of Cool Springs in Franklin, TN... yes, I'm rating them out! So I have the replace all 4 but I'm only paying for 3 since they failed to tell me I should have done that to begin with. As they take the plugs out, the mechanic accidentally breaks one of the off on the head and they end up having to replace the entire head. Of course they play it off as they did me a favor (had it out with their service manager over and over) but if it wasn't their fault, they made no effort to show me why it wasn't their mistake! $312!

So here it is, 6 weeks after the last repair and the light is on again. Of course I call them back and immediately they tell me, it can't be the glow plugs! Yeah, right. I'm just sick and tired of having to take it back for the same problem over and over. This dealer keeps claiming the computer gives them a different diagnosis, but of course, they can tell me anything. But this time, if it is something else, I'm going to refuse service and take it to another shop, not another dealer! I've spent over $800 to try and get this light to not come on anymore and feel like it's ridiculous to have to keep taking it back over and over in such a short period of time. My feeling is they are not diagnosing the problem correctly, they are just curing the symptom, not the disease.

If these kinds of problems continue, I will NOT buy another VW. As much as I like their cars and features, Toyota and Honda are quickly catching up and my wife's 94 Civic has been in the shop less times in the last 4 years than my VW has in the last 8 months. And she is hitting 200k miles!