2007 Volkswagen Passat from North America - Comments

I bought a 2007 Passat less than a month ago, and these are the problem I am experiencing:

Unable to release key from ignition. Had to take the car in the second day after I purchased the car. The dealer fixed it at no cost to me.

Unloading grocery from trunk, I barely pulled on the emergency latch that is supposed to release the trunk in the event you are locked in the trunk. The trunk lid now is in the upright position. VW does not cover this. It is a very bad design.

I have a feeling I will be spending a lot of time at the dealership. I would not recommend this car to anyone, unless you enjoyed being tortured.

The VW customer service and dealership sucks.

How did you manage to pull the emergency release? I don't believe you - you or somebody would have been playing with it and broke it only then to blame the car! I have never managed to go near it unloading the car as the boot lid would normally be open when unloading. I also do not believe that you own a Passat - probably a Japanese Crap car instead as you fail to mention anything also about the car - such as good looks/drive, etc or any reason to why you brought it in the first place! Not a good review.

You guys in the USA got such a bad deal with Volkswagen's. Most, if not all Volkswagen's outside the USA, are built in Germany, and have a good reputation for reliability. All the negative comments towards Volkswagen always come from the USA on this site. And that's because the USA Volkswagens are built in Brazil, with shortfalls in quality control I think...still, Volkswagen must make a profit hiring cheap labour to build their cars so what do they care?

The trunk emergency release works, but with problems. I tested the release. The defect is that the handle and cable must be pulled further than the hollow plastic grommet that mounts it to the trunk lid. This means the spring return on the cable will return only to the dismounted location off the grommet and hence the trunk-lid will not close. Trial and error on moving the plastic handle around to fit over the grommet (about 30 seconds) will allow it to slide back to the original position and then the trunk can be latched again. That being said, I trust that it will work in an emergency, but I won't testing it again.

I have a 2007 Volkswagen Passat 2.0T bought in America made in Germany. Almost 12,000 miles I've not yet had a problem. I like this car better than the one replaced, 2002 Acura TL. Had issues with the Acura in the first month! Engine light and it actually left me on the side of the road after the dealer "fixed" the engine light... Just down hill from there.

The '07 Passat, looks great rides/drives nice, has plenty of power and alot of clever freatures. The only downside I see is the same with most European cars, over engineered! Sorry you had such bad luck with yours and sorry your driving a Corolla!

Yeah I got a passat not too long ago. I was bored one day and opened the rear seats to reach the trunk release just to see how it worked, and it popped right open no problem. but at least once a week my key gets stuck in the ignition. I found out to get it unstuck, start the car, shift into a gear, then go back to park and the key comes right out. it's an awesome car and has a lot of pick up for a 4 cyl. very pleased with the performance in the snow too.

I bought my 2007 Wolfsburg Edition 3 months ago.. I loved the car, however it isn't trivial when your car is at the shop over 4 times in 3 months and the dealership pretty much stinks at trying to go out of there way to make you happy. The key stuck in the ignition, had to take it back a second time, now my horn doesn't work at all, one more time with the ignition... they can have this car back, I have had a 2000 BMW, a 2004 Cadillac and a 1997 Volvo and if there was a problem it was fixed and they dealership went out of there way for me... NOT VW.

About the key getting stuck in the ignition:

I have a 2006 2.0T Passat and it gets stuck quite often, but with my Passat, I figured out very fast that all you have to do is push the shifter up a little bit, into park, and sometimes you wiill hear a tiny click. Because of safety, the car will not let you pull out the key unless it is 100% in park. works everytime with me. I got nervous the first time it did that until I figured it out.

Also, anybody having problems with their automatic transmission shifting hard from 1st into 2nd? (kind of a knocking) the rest of my gears shift perfectly, except 1st to 2nd. any advice/suggestions?

I don't own one, but I know someone who does and I've had to ride in it many times. I've always liked VW, but this car is just too plastic. Horrible rough ride (the owner says this is because he has the "sport suspension"). I think it's just because it's an overpriced piece of plastic.

To the person who said sorry if you drive a Corolla! I had a Passat made in Germany and got rid of it because of many problems, for a used older Corolla that was better than any Passat or VW you will ever have.

Sorry for your luck.

I have a 2006 Passat. It has been in the shop for 42 days total since we got it... not all at once. I have over 26 pages of repair documentations for over 10 things that have gone wrong with it... the least of which was the AC blowing out @ 1 year and the best of which was total brake failure @ 6 months... by far the worst and most unreliable car on the market...I'm letting everyone know.

Hello everyone!

Had to post a comment about my experience with a Passat.

I'm Canadian, but currently living in Germany. I just bought a 2008 VW Passat 2.0L TDI Highline 6 speed manual. Highline in Germany is the top 2.0L model that you can get with all the little bitty goodies. I have to say the interior is just awesome. I got the new RNS 510 Navigation system. It is touch screen, with all music formats (Mp3,wma..etc),DVD player, 30 GB hard drive (you use a SD card to down load music, just like a computer), 250watt amplifier, 10 speakers and so much more. My last really fun car was a 2000 Honda Civic Coupe SiR V-tech engine 5 speed manual, very fun to drive, BUT this Passat 2.0 TDI is at a whole new level. I drive all over Western and Eastern Europe, sometimes 1500km one way and I haven't been in a car which is so comfortable. The dealership asked that I put sportsline suspension on the highline, but it was a good idea not too. The luxury suspension I have provides a really smooth ride. I have had the car for 2 months and already put 15,000km on it and it still drives really good. Passat is by far the most comfortable car in its class. Exterior and interior is superb. I put 17" Monza rims on it and the total price with all the options, parking sensors, tinted back windows, nav system, leather interior, Dual climate control, rain sensors and head light washers, extra rims, heated seats, bal, bla, bla comes out to €40,000, which is I think around $63,500 USD.

The money was well worth it.

If your key gets stuck in the ignition, just push it back in, but don't start the car, push it in until the lights come on. Then, with the shifter already in park, just push it up, and you will hear a click sound. Then you can take it out.