2001 Volkswagen Passat from North America - Comments

Door and hood seals deteriorated and needed replacement at 27,000 miles.

Full brake system had to be replaced at 29,000 miles.

Drainage hose from sun roof had a hole and flooded carpet with every rain - this took four visits to the dealer to repair and required replacement of the carpet which had rotted and smelled exceedingly foul.

Alternator needed to be replaced at 30,000 miles.

Trim periodically falls off on the highway - 3 pieces of door trim lost between 30-40,000 miles.

Vacuum hoses required replacement at 41,000 miles.

Coil packs required replacement at 41,000 miles.

I purchased my 2001 Volkswagen Passat after much research into buying a used vehicle. Sadly, I will never purchase another Volkswagen. I purchased the car with 25,000 miles and have experienced the following problems in the short 1.5 years that I have owned it. Granted, the car is beautiful, receives many compliments, is extraordinarily comfortable, and drives beautifully when it drives at all.

Door and hood seals deteriorated and needed replacement at 27,000 miles.

Full brake system had to be replaced at 29,000 miles.

Drainage hose from sun roof had a hole and flooded carpet with every rain - this took four visits to the dealer to repair and required replacement of the carpet which had rotted and smelled exceedingly foul.

Alternator needed to be replaced at 30,000 miles.

Trim periodically falls off on the highway - 3 pieces of door trim lost between 30-40,000 miles.

Vacuum hoses required replacement at 41,000 miles.

Coil packs required replacement at 41,000 miles.

You bought a used car, and didn't have it checked out.

Deal with it, and stop blaming VW.

Since much of the problems occurred within a few thousand miles of your purchase. It seems you might have been taken in by the looks of the vehicle and not looked beneath the surface, and had the vehicle checked out. If the seals were gone at 27k miles and the brakes shot at 29k, these issues would have been spotted at 25k miles.

You state you wonder if there is a lawsuit in there somewhere? Please!

If you ever buy another used car, I suggest taking the time and expense to have it inspected thoroughly. It will save you money and heartache down the road.

Are you guys for real? Check the car out! Coil packs alternators and trim falling off the car what kind of car inspection is going to find that? I have a passat and jetta been thru alternators turn signal switches windows fell down in the doors check engine light is always on give me a break these cars are junk just admit it. Oh yeah the cd changer broke after a few weeks and before I got the passat home the kids broke the rear cup holder. I'll be unloading this junker the first chance I get too bad I'll probably lose 4-6k doing it. You guys sound like used car salesman or dealers for once when is the customer right?

This is a response to the third comment listed.

First of all, if the reviewer had to replace the door and hood seals at 27k miles, I'm sure they would have shown wear at 25k miles. The same goes for the brakes at 29k miles. If the buyer knew that he/she was looking at a brake job in 4k miles they may have passed on the vehicle.

I have a question for you. You say that VW's are "junk"

but you own two of them. If you were having so much trouble with a "junk", WHY would you buy another?

You ask "when is the customer right?" I answer "do your homework before buying and you will reduce the heartache".

If you surf this site you will read of Dodges with head gasket issues, Nissans with alternator issues, Hondas with transmission issues, VWs with window clip issues etc. I see virtually every model of vehicle (including the highly regarded Camry and Accord) called "lemon" "junk" or worse on this site.

All manufacturers have issues with their vehicles. If you do your homework like you should, you will be aware of these issues. Then if you choose to buy that model and experience these very issues blame yourself not the manufacturer. If you don't do your homework. well that's on you too. Come on, take a little responsibility for your

actions.

As far as sounding like used car salespeople. You call Volkwagens junk. You sound like a salesperson for a competitor who has no recourse, but to sling mud at a superior product.

(I suggest that you go read some of the horror stories in

the Toyota Camry section or the Honda Accord section.)

Lets face it- their nice looking junk! Unload it!

Why are there so many people out there slamming Volkswagens?

You know there are plenty of positive reviews about VW's posted on this site, but it seems people choose to cling o to the negatives.

Do yourselves a "favor", go buy a GM or Ford product and see how good they are!

It seems some problems on a used car can be traced to a single incident that caused them. This case seems that it might have been a flood damaged car. It sounds like the adhesives, electrical, and other systems were effected by water damage. This isn't a fact, but merely an observation. Buying a used car can be great or horrible depending on the situation.

OK, True, every car manufacturer has theirs faults. But it is obvious that VW have more by far! I have had friends with Jettas and they are complete pieces of dung. It wouldn't b that bad if they weren't so damn expensive to fix, but they are and VW wins the battle of worst customer service fare and sqaure!

I agree, there is no argument on the fact that VWs are trouble and expensive to fix! Coil packs, windows falling in the doors, shattering sunroofs, failing 1.8T motors, failing transmissions, the list goes on and on!

I'm on my second Passat in 8 years, both bought used. I'm very happy with them. I feel their reliability is about average.

However, I think they look better than any other car in their price range. Why can't other car manufacturers design nicer cars? It gives VW a big advantage.

I own a 2001 Passat until this past week I have had no problems with my vehicle. I believe VW has a design error that they refuse to admit.

I took my car to the dealer because it began to "lurch" and the engine light came on. I was told,"due to a water drain being clogged my Transmission module was fried". The cost a mere $2,000.00 & that I must pay. The owner of the dealership told me he feels it is a design issue as the water lines are under the rugs draining to electrical areas. No where does it mention cleaning these in my manual. Also, no tsb was ever put out on this issue. He then said he would do what he could, but, VW does not provide customers much satisfaction if their vehicle is out of warranty.

I have spoken to three other VW mechanics at different dealerships they are seeing the same issues over and over again. There must be hundreds I have read about on-line since.

VW of America told me they would speak to my dealer first before giving me an answer as to whether it is covered or not. Today they lied to me and told me they talked to the dealership yesterday. They are closed on Mondays when I asked how they talked to them, I was told we tried to call they didn't call us back yesterday. I have since filed a complaint with www.nhtsa.com. Hopefully others will do the same.

The Passat is a beautiful riding car and very nice looking, but it will be my last VW. They have lost my family as customers because of the way this has been handled. Their customer service is extremly poor.

I wish the dealer sold other makes as I do feel he has tried to be 100% honest with me. If anyone reading this has a VW please have your water drains checked before you need a very costly repair. It took years for the mechanics to figure out what the issue was, but now if you ask them to check your water drains it may save you thousands of dollars.

It's a VW what do you expect. will say a really stylish car even by todays standards. but sadly endless problems with electrics and leaks and general things going wrong. still better than other manufactures who ask for more for cars of the same size or less.

I bought my 2001 Passat brand new after a careful review of the Consumer Reports. The only downside they reported was the quality of the interior. I wish that were the only problem I've had with it.

I work at home and only drive around town so I naively assumed this car would last a very long time. However, with only 64,000 miles on the car I've needed the following in addition to regular maintenance and new tires:

New alternator

New rear brakes

Replaced vacuum hoses

New Boots

Recalibration of the computer that turns on the indicator lights

New Motor Mounts - when I reacted to the need for these the Service Man replied "they are hydraulic and just wear out - yours just wore out earlier than most" He could not explain why that might be.

Oil Leak - covered by Power train warranty thank god

New reservoir hose for cooling system.

All this in addition to the interior just literally disintegrating. Also cosmetic, but equally annoying, the outside moldings falling off, having to replace headlamps, the inside of the headlamps frosting over, and a dozen other little reminders never to trust what you read, even in Consumer Reports.

Needless to say, I will never purchase a Volkswagen again.

Here is your lawsuit http://www.volkswagen-classaction.com/