24th Aug 2004, 16:02

I to have had the ordeal with the coils, first year towed in three times. In the past few months it was towed in because smoke came out of the dash, next morning radio was gone. In the winter I scrape the ice from inside the car not outside!

It leaks oil so I change the oil every 2000 and check often. I have 21 more months until this lease is up. I will never lease a volkswagen again. I am in the automotive business. I see all makes and models every car has its problems, but I have never had such a lemon to deal with on my own... Counting the minutes, days and weeks till this is back to volkswagen with a big red bow!

15th Jun 2006, 20:08

It is unfortunate that Volkswagen produced such a terrible car and did little to stand behind it. I have been through 6 headlights, 2 CV boots, 4 interior bulbs, an emergency brake button, 2 coils on 2 different occasions (after I was told that all four were replaced due to the recall) and brakes that barely last 20000 miles. Apparently many of the bugs have been worked out in the 2003+ models, but I can guarantee that Volkswagen has lost many North American consumers due to this horrid car.

18th Sep 2006, 16:17

I own a 2002 Passat 1.8T. I just bought it 5 months ago, I've put 20000km on it since then. It runs very well, comfortable, it tends to consume some gas, but given the h.p., its not so bad. For reliability, I would say that I had to change 1 CV boot; 1 head-light went out, but then mysteriously started working again; the surface of the door handles comes off, and becomes ugly; Other than that, I had no problems. So I would say that it's a great car, but we will see in a year.