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  • From: ron thigpen <ron AT fuzzsonic.com>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] VW Wants Your Old Diesel
  • Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 12:02:45 -0500

Michael Czeiszperger wrote:

Yeah, I'm ranting, but after talking to as many Volkswagen owners as I have who's engines have burned up and the manufacturer refused to honor the warranty, they deserve bad press.

Engines burned up? Sorry, but this is counter to my experience.

I've driven two VWs as my primary vehicle for the past 20 years and loved them both.

VW has had some quality issue. Most notably with coil packs, mass airflow sensors and window regulators.

The worst of it was probably the coil packs. If a coil pack went, your engine might have sputtered out at an inopportune moment. That's bad, but I wouldn't refer to the event as "blowing up".

All of of these systems were eventually covered under warranty after some initial institutional reluctance. Credit the Internet and fan sites such as vwvortex.com for making it hard for manufacturers and dealer networks to hide from this sort of thing. Score one for the people.

In general, VWs have historically been known for excellent mechanical systems (drivetrains) and sometimes cheap ancillary systems. For instance, something like the wipers would break and drive you crazy while the vehicle would be driving great. Combine this with a sometimes reluctant dealer service network and it's easy to understand why there's some frustration out there.

Despite all this, VW has a loyal following. People love their 'Dubs. The magic mixture of styling, engineering, and lifestyle affinity of their products appeal to a lot of people. It's kind of Apple-like actually. And when people start developing /feelings/ for their vehicles, they are willing to forgive a lot. Once the issue is resolved and they're back on the road, they remember what they loved about the car in the first place. How many of you had to forgive Apple for something like cracks in your Cube, motherboard wiring in your iMac or a two hour battery life in your iPod but still came back for more? Same type of phenomenon.

Given the methodology Consumer Reports, it's not surprising VW has rated poorly. CR values appliance-like reliability above else. Issues such as styling, handling, power and whether a vehicle is otherwise pleasant (never mind inspiring) to own and drive are not taken account of in their equations. Any issue, whether adequately addressed and resolved or not, is a permanent black mark. This is a good way to rank refrigerators, but only captures a slice of what I want out of a car.

More recently, VW's quality has improved in a lot of areas. Their interiors are better than anything in their price range. Body styling and quality is also very good. Drivetrains remain solid. They perform well without being either stodgy luxury cars or putting on ridiculous displays of fin and scoop.

VW has also shown a lot of leadership in developing green diesel power. Diesels are durable and have an efficiency edge, but the old ones were dirty. VW has done a lot of good engineering in cleaning these engines up and making them suitable to large scale use in passenger vehicles. Using the newly mandated low sulfur diesel fuel, these cars will go a long way towards lowering US motor fuel consumption. And that certainly matters a great deal.

--rt

See:
http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publish/volkswagen_news/article_1906.shtml







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