Volkswagen

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.

I am the owner of a 2012 Volkswagen GTI. I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with your 12-year corrosion warranty and with the service at Centre-Ville Montréal (324 Peel St, Montreal, Quebec, H3C 2G8). I first noticed corrosion in 2018, which is consistent with online claims that corrosion appears on VW vehicles in Montreal after 6 years. My previous car, a Toyota Tercel, did not have any corrosion on it after 15 years. One of the panels for which I claimed repairs (the right quarter panel) had been damaged by another car and had been repaired by a body shop that had been recommended to me by my insurance company. VW refused to pay for the repair of that panel because the body work had been performed by another auto body shop. I paid for the repairs of that panel.

In 2019, 2021 and 2022, I requested corrosion repairs under VW’s corrosion warranty. There was rust in 2020 but I could not reach VW because of the pandemic. Only some of the repairs were performed at VW’s cost. In 2022, my car had rust on 4 different panels, 3 of which had already been repaired by VW Centre-Ville for corrosion (including the right quarter panel). The request to have these repaired under my warranty were declined. The self-serving explanation provided by your evaluator was that the "paint thickness was out of factory range", making it "no longer eligible for the corrosion warranty as it was no longer in factory condition".

I am unsatisfied with VW because my car developed corrosion every year starting in 2018. I am unsatisfied with VW because I was prevented from protecting my car with a rust protection treatment because, I was told by VW Centre-Ville, it would void my warranty. I am unsatisfied with VW because every time I requested repairs under the warranty, it was a long and tedious experience even when it was finally covered and done. It took an enormous amount of persistence to have the work performed even though it was supposed to be covered by your warranty.

Finally, I am unsatisfied with VW because the corrosion warranty did not cover much of the corrosion problems I had with my car. The most recent repairs were declined because the paint was out of factory range. How can you demand that the paint be in factory condition up to 12 years after the beginning of the warranty? I have heard that poor service is prevalent because it is cheaper than good service. This is the message that has been conveyed to me by my experience with VW.

Also I have a scratch on the bonnet which was there when I bought the car, it was returned to be repaired and they had it for ONE day, the repair lasted a couple of car washes, I did report it to the Person who sold me the car and was informed WITHOUT looking at the car that it was not the same scratch. I showed it to the service agent at the dealership when I collected the car from having unnecessary work carried out, a bodge job was obviously carried out as the car was sent to a back st garage to be repaired which was confirmed by the service agent, he said he would look at the previous paperwork and get back to me, TO THIS DATE HE HAS NOT. Volkswagen you are disgusting and I will NOT recommend your cars to anyone, your aftersales service is deplorable.

This is the second serious problem I've had with VW service. First time was a major engine failure where the dealer got warranty money to fix the issue and then baited and switched me into an $1,800 bill for additional service. VW dealers do not conduct themselves ethically nor do they care about their customers. I believe this is characteristic of the brand and that they encourage this kind of conduct. I'll be offloading this car ASAP. STAY AWAY FROM THIS BRAND!

I had to replace my Evap Canister ($1400 part) and after that didn't work I managed to convince my mechanic to go inside the tank to look for this small plastic pump. It took days of my own research to find out this could be the problem, weeks without my car, endless calls to VW and VW mechanics/specialist with no answer. YouTube led me in the right direction when I found someone with the same issue on their Audi (same engine). The cannister needed to be replaced because the suction pump failed and allowed 4 litres of live fuel to enter my evap system (huge fire hazard). Once live fuel is in this charcoal filter, it degrades and cannot be dried or reused.

My mechanic was incredible when it came to digging into this issue. He called everyone he knew that worked at VW to try and figure this out. And he did fix my problem eventually, and tried his absolute best to keep the costs as low as possible. I was lucky. I have been in touch with VW and they will not help, will not admit wrongdoing and insist that they can only include this in a recall if enough people flag this little hidden pump as an issue. Which, of course, no one can because as far as any official documentation goes, it does not exist. So unless someone is digging deep into forums and Youtube to find their own answers, they just end up swapping out their entire tanks.

Since then I have connected with multiple people who have had the same issue, taken it to a dealership they replaced the charcoal / EVAP canister but the issue wasn't resolved. They then told him they wanted to order in a new fuel tank at another $1200 as that was the only fix in their VW system. He luckily found my forum post and convinced VW to investigate the suction pump before they replaced his entire gas tank.

In Canada there are approximately 160,000 of these cars on the road. They are a huge fire risk. Of course it's unlikely that all of these cars will fail like mine did, but for argument's sake, let's say they did. And for VW mechanics to fix it based on their official system information, it would cost all those 160,000 owners a collective $480 million to have their entire fuel systems replaced. If they admitted they snuck in a faulty part and added these models to their recall, it would cost them around 6 million to repair.

So instead of a huge corporation (with a super dirty past btw) taking the hit on $6 lousy million dollars, they are putting owners at risk of literally catching on fire and collecting an additional nearly $500 million in parts and repair sales. Please share this info and let me know if I can help or if you have any idea who to inform to get the word out. #vwcanada #Volkswagen #volkswagengolf #VWRecall