Best and worst cars:

Brand Problems per 100 vehicles


Top 5

Lexus 163
Infiniti 174
Buick 193
Porsche 196

Worst 5

VW 391
Suzuki 403
Daewoo 421
Land Rover 441
Kia 509

This is about my experience with VWs as well.

I will never buy another one.

On Thu, 10 Jul 2003 15:22:33 -0400, Dave <dogs1 (AT) cox (DOT) net> wrote:


i have an old 1987 fox... and my friends all have old vws (before 92)
....they are all great cars. The new ones, are total junk. No matter
what survey you look at, they come out looking wrose and worse. Its
funny, becasue people are always selling them (new ones). usually a
brand new car doesnt go up for sale 6 months after buying.

Its sad, i used to love VW's, now i cant buy a new one without buying
something with a check engine light that comes on once a week

So i am now shopping for a subaru impreza.

Which survey is this? JD Power does a bunch of them, and
all the numbers, especially the best 5, look pretty high for
their Initial Quality Survey. In any case, you have to take
these surveys with a grain of salt since a loose trim piece
counts the same as the engine falling out.

The top 5 in the 2003 JD Power Initial Quality Survey were
(with problems per 100 cars):

Lexus - 76
Cadillac - 103
Infiniti - 110
Acura - 111
Buick - 112

The industry average was 133 problems per 100 cars. VW had
143 problems per 100 cars and was rated above GMC, Suzuki,
Jeep, Subaru, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Saturn, Saab, Mini, Kia,
Land Rover, and Hummer.

Todd Kuzma

I think this is the 3 year survey, I recognize those numbers from the
newspaper..... of course we all know those numbers are off, Mercedes buyers
will complain about the slightest problem, whereas <insert N-A domestic
brand here> guys might not care if their cover for the glovebox is aligned
down to a 0.01mm tolerance all the way around :-)... 3 years ago VW had all
those coil/MAF/EGR/window regulator problems, and all of these were resolved
by VW apparantly....

143 problems per 100 vehicles. That is not too bad, I mean Lexus, Acura,
Infinity - they are all nuts about final assembly quality in Japan, they
probably go over each car with a fine toothed comb... .not a problem when
your car isn't selling close to what? a million units a year + for the
Jetta/Golf, plus hundreds of thousands of Passats.... Caddy and Buick, this
is because GM is going insane being bashed by auto reviewers and buicks and
caddys are built in their least problematic factories.

Aren't these statistics North America only.... I wonder how VW AG is doing
in Germany, or how about VW of UK.

What were the statistics back in the day... like in 1990 or so. Our 1991
seems fine, so do the other cars of that day and age... and I read VW was
having huge quality problems in the 1980s and early 90s.
"Todd Kuzma" <tullio (AT) TheRamp (DOT) net> wrote

Looking at Consumer Reports, All VWs have an abismal repair record
except the Passat, which is quite good. There was no data on the
Eurovan. The Jetta was the absolute worst in the VW linup.

Seems they could do better.

Dave wrote:

On Thu, 10 Jul 2003 19:43:08 GMT, dontbeleivethis (AT) hotmail (DOT) com wrote:

My experience with VW goes back to my brand new 78 Rabbit Diesel.
I've had at least one Jetta from each body style. By far the worst VW
I've owned was my 92 Jetta TD, which was as unreliable a POS as I've
ever encountered. In 4 years it left me stranded (had to be towed)
more than all of the other VWs I've owned in that 25 year period
combined.

I've had 3 leased A4 Jetta TDIs. I had the "relay 109" problem on the
first TDI (very early production), but it only caused me to stall out
for a couple minutes. The only other problems with the A4s have been
glove box doors (a problem on the 99s that is fixed in later years)
and similar interior faults. All covered under warranty. None caused
me any grief or left me stranded. Purely cosmetic.

There were PLENTY of TERRIBLE quality older VWs out there too. Been
there, still have the memories of aborted family trips and sitting
stranded in the middle nowhere waiting for a tow truck.

--
Remove preceding and trailing X from username for replies
(Sorry, but I'm SICK of spam...)

I've had problems with my 87 Jetta Gli but as you can see in many of my post
I praise this car and for good reasons. It had starting problems for about 1
year after I bought it that my mechanic and VW/Satan couldn't figure out.
Well, some $750 odd dollars later all it was - was an improper ground from
the negative terminal on the battery to the chassis!!! Ever since then it's
been basic stuff to replace and I have drivin 130+K miles in it and it's got
easily 260K+ now and it still rips up the mtn hills to this day!! I've also
got a 88 16v Scirocco with turbo but it's not expected to be reliable since
it's a project car. It's running freaking great right now though! >
home.comcast.net/~vw16v

OLD SCHOOL RULES!
"lcopps" <lcopps (AT) nospam (DOT) com> wrote

My $.02:

I had a 86 Golf Diesel. Never had 1 problem that wasn't related to
wear and tear. Literally! It was a stellar car that lasted 330K
miles before I sold her!

I have a 98 Jetta TDI. It's a fine car except for... The alarm goes
off for no reason on cold nights. The seat makes a funny noise when I
accel/brake. The ignition switch is faulty on hot days. And I could
list at least 10 more things that should *never* happen during the
life of the car.

Somewhere between 1986 and 1998, VW dropped the ball.

JJS

Huh, and my wife and I just put on order a 2004 Jetta TDI. To be honest, I
have no worries.

What kind of "problems" are problems? Is a major problem like Ford Focus
wheels falling off counted on the same level problem as when the glove box door
broke on a Jetta?



In article <42frgvo21q5gb8lakn8jqofftajt6ias6q (AT) 4ax (DOT) com>, dogs1 (AT) cox (DOT) net says...

Was it Powers or some other company that reported that Humvy owners were
disappointed with their gas mileage? Duhhhhh!

Was VW downrated because of the coil problem or other things?

The coil issue was not well handled by VW, but it doesn't mean anything
about whether VWs are or are not well made otherwise.

So far (3800 mi.), my 2003 Passat wagon hasn't had any problems, while my
friend's 2003 Passat sedan had a major steering problem at less than 1000
miles. [She was eventually given a totally new 2003 Passat.] Something like
the steering problem gives me concern; the coils do not.


"Pencilneck" <news2 (AT) 4130-products (DOT) comZ> wrote