2000 Volkswagen Cabrio from North America - Comments

This car has been absolute disaster!! DO NOT BY A VW!!! What hasn't gone wrong with this car would be a shorter list! The fuel pump went, air flow regulator, the lines that control the power top went twice, ball bearings in the brakes went 2X!!! Exhaust went. Leak in the oil gasket. In the 2 years I have owned the car it has cost me over 7,000 in repairs!!! And I have changed the oil ever 3,000 miles and did the 40K tune up and still everything fails and fails over and over again. This is my third VW and I have always like the performance of the cars, but my other two (Jetta, Fox) had similar problems- I figured it was because they were older cars.. but the Cabrio is less than 3 years old!!!

Every time I picked the car up from the VW dealer I though "well at least nothing else can go wrong" well that is funny because I have been at the dealer at least 40 times in the past 2 years!! DO NOT BUY ANY VW!!!

I guess VW's from the US aren't the same sold here in Europe.. I own a 1988 golf cabriolet, runs smoothly, doesn't rattle, built like a tank... of course, this one was made by Karmann in Germany..

Up to today, VW is the reference for build quality, proving to be very reliable cars...

Your problem is that US VW's are made in Brazil... that pretty much explains it all... even brazilian spare parts are junk as any european VW Beetle owner would tell you...

I own 2 VW's, all german made and never had any serious problem (knock on wood;) ).

Of course, vw America would't charge you 6000 dollars for a cloth top as here in Portugal...

To the person making the comment: Not to be rude, but people researching late-model cars don't care about your '88 model. The comparison isn't even remotely useful, if you're attempting to draw a conclusion about quality as a function of where the car is made. If you want to conclude that the older ones were better than the new ones, well maybe you have a case.

And just as a side note, I think you're getting Brazil confused with Mexico, as far as place of manufacture.

I agree with the comparision of older vs. newer cars. VW used to be made in a way that even when something minor went wrong you could fix it yourself. The newer ones aren't made quite the same. It seems like they have purposely made them more difficult to fix and maintain yourself. For example, in a new cabrio you can't even check your own transmission fluid.

My point is that I know people who have recent german made VW'S and never had a serious problem with them. Be it cabrios or not.

I think its pertinent to compare both models... after all, late models have the advantage of 15 years of research and (presumed) improved built quality... here in europe Golfs are one of the most reliable cars you can get.

I only see US owners complaining about their VW's Cabrios. They are all made in Mexico (btw, Brazil also makes VW) with brazilian made parts that are as good as junk. I once har a brazilian hood on my car that rusted 6 months after (where I live it never snows, so no salt to corrode)

Just read the reviews about these 10 + year old vw's, sold in the US and youll see that they all agree on how much reliable this car is. Have in mind that ALL of the Rabbits cabgrio were made in Germany...

This review was dead-on. I couldn't agree more. I too had the "nothing elese could possibly go wrong" attitude - boy was I wrong. I'd like to push mine off a cliff! To add insult to injury, my 2000 is in pristine condition, with 52000 miles on it, and I can't get a dealer (including CARMAX) to offer me more than $3000 for it.

I love my cabrio, I don't know what all you people are talking about!