Door moldings have fallen off many times.
Leather interior peeling away from door.
Replaced alternator at about 25,000 miles.
Replaced anti-lock brake sensor at about 30,000 miles.
This car has been a complete waste of money.
The door moldings have fallen off several times. Of course, with VWs ridiculous 2 year warranty, everything starts to go around then. So at a cost of about $100 for the piece and labor, I have had the molding replaced three times, about to be the fourth, in the four years I have owned the car. What is worse is that the part is not available anymore. I have seen plenty of VWs with this same problem so it's not just a Cabrio thing.
The worst defect I have had is that the leather on the interior of the doors is pulling away. It was simply tucked underneath the moulding instead of glued, stapled, etc. Obviously it was too short to stay put. This car now looks like crap because the interior panels are peeling away. I was told by the dealership that it would cost upwards of $1,000 to repair each side!!! When I complained to VW, I was sent a form letter addressed to the incorrect name telling me there is nothing that they can do for me even though I was only 1,000 miles over the 24,000 warranty. So, I assume this is a common problem with VW.
Mechanically, it hasn't been awful, but not great either. The alternator and anti-lock brake sensors have been replaced.
In my opinion, Volkswagen should be ashamed.
My car is a piece as well. All of the same issues with the exterior door trim and the interior door trim I have had. I installed a piece of solid black exterior molding I bought at Pep Boys to the interior door trim to cover the places where the leather had separated. This is an acceptable fix for the problem. The trim I used is approximately 3/4" wide and is solid black. This matches up pretty good with the VW interior. Additionally, my leather interior looks terrible for the age of the car. I haven't found any seat covers that will help the problem.
If the door panels are real leather, they probably came apart due to the leather shrinking due to heat and age.
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