2002 Volkswagen Passat from North America - Comments

At about 6000 miles, an ignition coil blew necessitating a tow for repair. The dealership could not guarantee that the remaining three would not blow because they admit to having innumerable problems with coils on the 2002 1.8T.

Volkswagen must recall and repair these Passats as soon as possible. To blow a coil at high speed may cause serious damage or death.

Just a quick comment in VW's defense. I believe that VW did in fact conduct a recall on the problematic ignition coils...however, I can hardly believe that failure of the ignition coils (be it one, or all four) would be anything more than a delay and an inconvenience... at worst the engine would shut off, and one would have to pull to the side of the road.

So you're driving to the airport to catch your flight and one of your coils decides it won't run any more... Or you find yourself driving home on a rainy night and you have to stop by since the coil (s) "decided" so. Come on, at least VW should have acknowledged the problem and issued a recall instead of changing coils one by one every time a car broke down. All cars have problems- it's inevitable since all cars are far more complex (electronically and mechanically) nowadays. BUT, and this is a big, but, the companies are also judged by the way they treat their customers on after-sales terms. The truth is that VW (being in part shortage) decided they would not admit the problem as long as they would be able to do so, and this is inexcusable.

I have to say that I totally agree with the last comment, however I know from personal experience that this type of attitude that VW America has should be fixed, and I have to say that all the fault comes from the dealers itself. I have lived both in Germany and Spain (job reasons), and in both European countries I have owned a VW. First the service over there was way better than over here; never had a problem with either of my cars.

I do have a friend that had the same coil problem that you had with your 1.8T (in Spain). He took it to the dealer and changed all coils no questions asked.

I do thing that VW needs to step up over here in the US; the dealer's attitude, knowledge and customer service is one of the worst.