Sunday, April 22, 2007

My VW Beetle Woes

I have a 2002 VW Beetle with 61000 miles. I took it into the shop 3000 miles ago saying there was transmission trouble. "Oh no sir. There is no trouble at all", was all I got in reply (the warranty ends at 60000 miles). Now I take it in and suddenly, "Yeah. The transmission needs to be replaced.". It's going to cost me $3800!!! My Ford Taurus is a piece of crap but at least I was able to buy a new transmission for it, installed, for $1900. I tried bringing up the fact that I took this POS to them 3K miles ago and they found nothing and that I'm only a few thousand over the warranty but got zero response. All I have to say is that I will never again own a Volkswagen and now I'm making it my mission to tell everyone I know, hit every automotive bulletin board, write letters to corporate and say what a piece of crap VW products are.
Not only has the transmission gone out but I have had it in the shop for the air conditioner twice, Anti-lock braking system, things popping off of the console that are not wear parts and turn signals that go out on a whim. If you want my advice do not get a Beetle. I am seeing all kinds of problems like this online. Please, if you value your wallet do not inflict yourself with this curse of a car.
I plan on getting the word out to everyone I can possibly reach (as an IT guy that means quite a few people) and tell them every aspect of my horrible experience with VW. The only thing that could mollify me at this point is if VW refunded me the cost of the transmission. They seem to forget that if we as customers tell ONE person not to buy a car from VW they are out more money than the transmission costs. I plan on reaching thousands through every means at my disposal.

No comments: