I have owned and driven VW’s from the Scirocco, to the Jetta to the Passat.
They screwed customers a few years back with the engine sludge fiasco in the 1/8 l engines I believe. Many engines burned up due to this and they never issued a recall.
The last two were my wife’s cars, I’d never buy a VW again after being involved with the sludge non-response.
I can just guess what the standard excuse was that they used for the sludge issue.
IMO, the VW/AUDI 1.8T is one of the finest engines ever produced. Small but powerful at 180hp. Good gas mileage, too.
Yup, VW love n hate relationship here as well.
80’s Rabbit Diesel blown head gasket at 110K miles
2000’s TDI Turbo “carbon’ed up” replaced at 65K mi due to conservative driving $2800
Oil pan 3.3 inch road clearance - ridiculously design & damage / replacement.
$900 timing belt replacement service req’d every 90K mi
$90 VW dealership only oil changes mandated because of special VW 0 SAE oil
Eff VW and disgraceful German clever toy maker bleed-you-dry service revenue model.
VW, BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Porsche are for people who don’t mind pissing away money.
What good is fuel economy savings when your overall cost of ownership gets screwed over in excessive maintenance expenses??
RE: “I have owned and driven VW’s from the Scirocco, to the Jetta to the Passat.
They screwed customers a few years back with the engine sludge fiasco in the 1/8 l engines I believe. Many engines burned up due to this and they never issued a recall.
The last two were my wife’s cars, I’d never buy a VW again after being involved with the sludge non-response.”
Exactly the same. My third VW owned was a 2003 Passat with the engine sludge problem. They weaseled out of all responsibility for that despite my having records of all the required oil changes. It was an absolutely terrible car maintenance wise, and their non-response convinced me never to buy another one. I tell everyone who asks me also to avoid them at all (exorbitant) costs.
My first car was a Scirocco. 1975. I bought it in 1981. Ran it into the ground and sold it to a guy at college. He said it cracked in half one day sitting in his driveway.
I really liked that car and still prefer smaller, more nimble cars. I have a company pickup truck but still drive my Manual Pontiac Vibe often, just because it’s fun.
A friend has a TDI and loves it. He will wait as long as possible before getting rid of it. Alas, we live in Maryland and they will probably come confiscate it at some point.
“They screwed customers a few years back with the engine sludge fiasco in the 1/8 l engines I believe. “
They also screw their customers with front end plastic and sheetmetal that falls off. I spent $.75 a pop for dozen of screws to try and keep the front end in place on our daughter’s Jetta. And the POS quit on her between Barstow and Mojave in the middle of summer when the crank trigger decided that it was too hot and quit sending the engine timing information. We had to drive 400 miles to rescue her only to find out that as soon as the sun went down the little bastard started working again. That Jetta was the biggest piece of crap I’ve ever seen.