I’ve owned VW’s for the past 30 years. I always thought they were great cars, really reliable, solid and comfortable.
Now I am starting to change my views after repeatedly encountering the VAG stance on letting customers pay for expensive problems caused by their known design faults.
The tipping point was my new 2006 Transporter Multivan with 180k miles on it. Not a lot of miles for a VW and certainly not for a workhorse such as the T5.
This is my second T5 with 2.5 TDi Motor. Its a pretty solid motor with no timing belt to be replaced. However… it makes up for that by the other faults that manifest themselves.
If you are thinking of buying a T5, read on.
Volkswagen Sucks 
I have a 2013 Volkswagen CC — black colour.
Rust/paint peeling began to appear on/near the rocker panel by the drivers door of my car. I took the car to the dealer to show the rust coming from underneath and eating away at the paint on the rocker panel. The dealer took pictures and submitted them to Volkswagen Canada. Yesterday (i.e. one and one half months later), I learned that Volkswagen Canada denied the claim stating the rust and paint peeling was caused by “outside influences”.
This is preposterous. The rust was bleeding through from underneath causing the paint to peel away. This damage is located on or at the rocker panel/door sills by the driver’s door. The damaged spot is protected by the driver’s door, so that it is not exposed to flying debris from the road.
There is no evidence of “outside influences” as claimed by Volkswagen Canada. There is no lack of care, or failure to promptly repair. I did not get any third party rustproofing done, so there was no use of any inferior rustproofing agent or method. There is no evidence of environmental damage.
This is Volkswagen Canada’s method of denying warranty claims. Although Volkswagen Canada has a 12 year warranty against rust, this warranty appears worthless.
YMMV.
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may be worthwhile cutting out the rusted piece with a few cm of good metal around. video to prove. see if there more or larger rust spot on inside. if so, then that’s where it started. also you might discover they fecked up the factory rustproofing.
small claims court 👍
I actually had a similar experience with rust blisters around windscreen on my passat.. and same rejection of factory warranty
bastards
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Of course VW sucks. I have driven VWs since 1970 – Karman Gia, Bug, 2 Jettas, 2 Passats. You don’t buy them for reliability. I had the infamous coil problem in the 1990s, I had a brand new Passat bust the oil seal after 3,00 miles. I have every fan motor possible go bad, leaking seals of all types, CV joint problems….you name it. And now I own the Jetta TDI diesel that is the source of the current VW scandal. That scandal was caused by pure arrogance and that has been going on for a long, long time. So, all of us that have been dismissed, dissed and frustrated by that arrogance are about to get redemption when the USA and other countries sue them big time for lying and fraud. Let them fall hard…
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08 passat I bought new in 07…less than 60 k miles…now is a pile of metal in my garage. .should have got rid of it a long time ago…I feel stupid for not doing so after fixing the last problem
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oh sh!t !!!
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“The only thing worse than Volkswanker’s products are it’s customers”
I have never wanted, nor owned a Volkswanker product. Wait, a Porsche Cayenne which was a remarkably good car….but I don’t know how I got lucky. I have the misfortune to be surrounded by VW fans as I am a College professor on the West Coast and my co-workers are smarter than Moses and Warren Buffet combined. Most drive Prius’ with Bernie stickers or VW, and despite what great cars these things are reputed to be, these braindead bogans are always begging people for a ride. “It still won’t start”……”It won’t go into gear again” or my favorite “We smell smoke again but now it’s A LOT OF smoke”. And they keep buying that garbage !!! And the dealership stories are fantastic, except I want to do my curriculum updates and go home. I hear it all : “They can’t look at it for 3 weeks” or “They said warranty doesn’t cover that” or I love the one where only one mechanic has the special VW software and he’s in rehab so she doesn’t know when she gets her NEW car fixed!! Why would people buy such garbage? VW keeps all of the vital info secret even from it’s dealership service people so they have huge obstacles when they see data on a scan tool and Volkswanker won’t tell them what it means !!! Here’s your German language lesson for today: Volkswagen is German for “worse than Hyundai” They are, how do you build something shittier than Hyundai and charge more for it? Just look at the resale value of these welfare sleds. The old air cooled cars were notoriously good cars, but wake up: It’s not 1954, They are flushing your pocketbooks and the joke is on you.
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2011 Tiguan had a new differential installed, new transfer case, new oil pan and now at 109,000 kms requires a new engine as the timing chain tensioner failed. See class action lawsuit in the USA for this exact problem. repair cost estimate $10,000. Perfectly good car going to the scrap yard as a result!
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Yes dealing with outrageous issues with my 2010 Tiguan with only 155 thousand km on it. They are telling me the motor blew. How crazy is that And I also own a 2011 A5 convertible which was my dream car. Sad to report I have had a ton of problems with it. The Audi has not even reached 100 thousand km and has never touched the snow. I will never buy another VW again!!!
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I concur. My 2003 Passat 4Motion wagon has a fuel leak from the fuel tank that they won’t fix, even though thee is a Safety Recall issued from the NHTSA. The replacement tank is $1,000.00 and the labor time to replace it is close to 12 hours.
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