Volkswagen Reviews

Fast forward to June 26, 2023 I took the car back to Volkswagen because I heard a metal rubbing noise that was loud while I was driving. They kept my car for 3 days because they said my EVAP was seized. And my rate housing was replaced. This car is completely bad and I tried to return It and it keeps having issues. I’ve had this car for 10 months with major issues, more issues I have ever had with a used car! This company is completely the worst and this has been the worst experience of my life. I have children I thought I bought a reliable car and I bought a lemon. I even spoke the salesman that I purchased the car with and told him my headaches and Me he told me, "That's why you have warranty," what do I want him to do. This has been a complete nightmare again. I requested another buyback and now I’m waiting for another response. I do not want this vehicle!

As mentioned, I only exceeded my Lemon law time frame due to them not having and not shipping parts timely. I forwarded all service details (local dealer did all they could with what they had. No direct contact, generic 800. I am floored as to how disgusting their treatment and response to me beyond reasonable circumstances have been. We will never own another VW in our household again and will for certain post on every media channel and discourage anyone from doing so. Seriously all I did wrong was buy a car. By the way they have low skillset and distinctively poor speech call center people who cannot speak properly. I'd rather work through a language barrier with someone enthusiastic and intelligent. A Colossal Cluster as the thanks for my loyalty from VW.

The advertised range on a full charge is 250 miles. I completely understand that there are factors that will affect that such as outside temp, speed, terrain, and weather. We took our first road trip from Baltimore to Charlotte, NC towards the end of March 2023 and I was completely flabbergasted by how much extra time we had to spend charging the vehicle. It’s a 426 miles trip from our door to my sister in-law's house that should take roughly 6.5-7 hours to drive. I usually tack on an hour with extra stops since we have a 4 year old and two small dogs.

I drove 5 miles over the posted speed limit the whole way and It took us 12 hours to get there with the four stops for charging at an almost an hour per stop to charge. I thought that because the temps were in the 40s and it was raining that maybe this greatly affected the range so I was anxious for the drive home since it the weather was much nicer, 60-70s and sunny. Nope…4 more times to stop and charge on the way home turning the 7ish hour trip into 12.

The following week my wife contacted the dealership to express how disappointed we were with the performance of the car and explained that this would not work for our family since we make the 6-8 hour drive often to see our families. Mine live in Lake Placid, NY and hers in the Charlotte, NC area. The salesman that she spoke with attempted to get us to come in and see what we could do about the car. At this point I asked to be added to the email thread because I refused to go sit in the showroom for 6 hours while they ran numbers when we had just purchased the car from them two months prior and we knew that a Tiguan would be our best option.

They agreed to run numbers for us via email so that we could see our options and when the first sheet came we almost lost it when they said we had to eat $15,000 to get out of this car… The car truly does not work for our family so we talked it over and decided that if that’s what we had to do to get out of it then so be it. They didn’t have a Tiguan in a trim level that was comparable to the Atlas we traded in so my wife was not happy but at this point we were willing to do whatever to get out of this car. We were literally in the room signing paperwork when VW Credit told the salesperson they would not roll that much negative equity into a Tiguan because it would not hold the value so we were back to square one after spending 6 hours in the dealership with our 4 year old, which was what I was trying to avoid.

By the end of the back and forth they had figured out that if we went into an Atlas Cross Sport that it would work as far as the negative equity was concerned. But this was not going to work for us because it was almost $150 more a month for a lesser car than we had traded in originally and completely negated the whole reason we went into the dealership in the first place, to get a smaller vehicle for the city.

We were both burnt out after all the back and forth and told the sales manager, Charles, that we needed the think about it because we felt like given the situation that Volkswagen should step up a bit on the trade in since we had gotten a car that did not work as advertised. Charles had told us before we left to contact VW Customer Care because sometimes in these situations they’ve been known to help by providing some sort of credit towards another car which he thought would at least get us back down to what we were currently paying and get us into a car that would work for us.

The next day we contacted VW Customer Care and explained our situation and expressed what we were looking for to which the reply was “We don’t offer credits towards new cars.” We were a bit taken aback by this since Charles has shown us paperwork from VW giving another customer a credit to use towards another car (he was sure to hide and information that could have identified the customer who had received the credit.). The customer support rep continually told us that she could not give us a credit but continued to ask how she could help. It was very confusing, and as a Software Support Manager I knew she was trying to lead us in a different direction to ask a question in a manner to where she could help us.

We finally got there after a very frustrating and confusing 30 minutes and she said she could open a case for us to begin the buyback process. The first thing she asked us was if we had taken the car in to be looked at. The answer was no and I was a little surprised that the dealership hadn’t suggested it when I started to think about it more (as was the VW Care Support Rep). She told us at that point she couldn’t do anything else for us until the car had been looked at.

We called the dealership immediately and attempted to schedule a service appointment. They asked if I had planned to wait with the car while they ran diagnostics or if I planned to drop it off. I said I would wait because it’s our only vehicle and she transferred me over to the shop manager who then explained that I needed to leave the car with them because the diagnostics would take a while but they didn’t have a loaner to provide me.

This doesn’t work as it’s our only means of transportation. I reached back out to the sales manager Charles to see if he could help and he said he would speak with the GM and Shop Manager to get something worked out. He has called two more times since then to tell me they don’t have a loaner and I’ve called the other VW dealerships in the area including Antwerpen Volkswagen and Heritage Volkswagen Catonsville. Antwerpen said they didn’t have the trained technicians to work on ID 4s and Catonsville never returned my phone calls.

This past week we had to drive to Lake Placid to help my mother move and it’s been the same thing all over again. What should be a 7-8 hour trip, with stops, has been 11- 12 hours due to having to stop and charge. We left Malta, NY with a 100% charge and made it 124 miles before we had to stop again because we were at 3%. Again, only going 5 over the posted speed limit and in eco mode.

When we return home I am taking the car to the dealership and dropping it off and getting a rental car out of pocket so they can do the damn diagnostic test and we can start the buyback process. I’ve been trying to work through the proper channels and follow the provided directions but this is absolute garbage and has ruined any remaining trust I have in VW as a company. I truly will do whatever it takes to get out of this lease and away from this brand and will tell everyone I know to stay away as well.