[Jetta Jake]

In spring 2007 (Mother's Day), my 2005.5 TDI manual transmission would not start. Towed to local dealer (NOT who I bought it from), who worked on it for three days and replaced several components saying that there was a wiring issue that "shorted out" several components.

Several months later (September) it wouldn't start again. It turned out that the whole wiring harness needed to be replaced. After several b & m calls to Customer Service, VW paid for the harness, I had to pay for the labor. Their part about $350, my part about $1160. It was out of warranty due to miles (I put almost 48k in 2 years).

I love my Jetta, but this really hurt. I felt that, even though it was out of warranty, it is NOT reasonable to expect that the wiring harness would fail in the lifetime of a vehicle. I'm posting this message to make others aware of the problem.[teacher]

 

[ENRGZR]

In spring 2007 (Mother's Day), my 2005.5 TDI manual transmission would not start. Towed to local dealer (NOT who I bought it from), who worked on it for three days and replaced several components saying that there was a wiring issue that "shorted out" several components.

Several months later (September) it wouldn't start again. It turned out that the whole wiring harness needed to be replaced. After several b & m calls to Customer Service, VW paid for the harness, I had to pay for the labor. Their part about $350, my part about $1160. It was out of warranty due to miles (I put almost 48k in 2 years).

I love my Jetta, but this really hurt. I felt that, even though it was out of warranty, it is NOT reasonable to expect that the wiring harness would fail in the lifetime of a vehicle. I'm posting this message to make others aware of the problem.[teacher]

Call VWoA to get this straightened out. There should be a 1 year warranty on all service performed. If you took it there for that problem and they did not catch it, then it should be on them.

 

[texasguy25]

im sorry to hear that man. i have had some relatively minor issues on my '07 gli compared to that and have found VW service, here in dallas, to be a real disappoointment. i have been bold faced lied to and everyone on up to service mgmnt. seem to be fundementally opposed to correcting problems that are not caused by the owner. i love my car but i do not love vw service.

 

[ak1551]

VW's biggest short fall is their customer service, going to the dealer is not a fun trip. Their sales departments suck and their service departments are far worse. Hopefully if enough of us complain to VWoA, something will change.

 

[sdlucky7]

VW's biggest short fall is their customer service, going to the dealer is not a fun trip. Their sales departments suck and their service departments are far worse. Hopefully if enough of us complain to VWoA, something will change.

This can vary depending on what dealership you go to....

For example, I have been to two separate dealerships for service (some routine and some not). One near my house (Santa Barbara VW) and one near my work (Nefftin VW in Thousand Oaks). The dealership in Santa Barbara has been amazingly helpful in everything I have brought to them; whereas Nefftin has a different attitude towards what I bring to their attention. Both have helpful sales and I have had no problems with them (bought my car at Nefftin). On the other hand, I visited Sunnyvale VW (a bit north of me) and their sales team was extremely annoying and unhelpful. It's almost luck of the draw...

This has been the same with all other makes of cars I have been involved with (Ford, Chevy, etc). I would see if there are other VW dealerships in your area (or within a reasonable distance) and see how they are.

 

[texasguy25]

i completely agree about luck of the draw ordianrilly but with VW it really remarkable how rough its been. on my trade in it was a hassle, i had to drive to austin to get a reasonable deal, and then i took my problem back down to them and got shafted. perhaps next time ill try an oklahoma dealer, or maybe arkansas....

 

[super73man]

My experience with the dealer in my area has been good and bad I guess. I found an issue with the paint on my decklid, two days after my purchase. The paint had began coming off due to a contaminant of some kind, and had began to rust in a very small spot. The car was "certified pre-owned" and all they could do was to give me touch up paint. I guess I didn't have to pay for the paint, and it was a used car, but damn it only had 9700 miles on it.

Now, last night I discover that my aux stereo input is broken, hopefully I can just fix it myself instead of having to deal with VW service.