The first ignition coil blew at just over 19,000 miles. The dealer replaced it under warranty, but would not replace the other three coils even though they have had an extremely high failure rate. The second coil failed two weeks later. It took three days for a replacement coil to arrive. VW USA told me that they were not planning a recall. They also told me that they could not replace all the coils in my car because they did not have enough parts to replace all the failed coils. During my last visit to the dealer, I was told they had six cars on the lot waiting for ignition coils that may take weeks to arrive.
The VW response to the serious quality and safety problem with the Passat is inadequate and unacceptable.
I don't feel that it is fair to judge a whole car as unreliable when a single component sourced from outside of VW is what fails. VW has since recalled all the faulty coil packs and is replacing all of them, not just the ones that fail.
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