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[ron thigpen <ron AT fuzzsonic.com>]

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