Re: Newbie Questions

[David Strope <dstrope@erols.com>]

Robert A Parsons wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 22 Aug 1997 09:52:36 -0600 jeremy.brandow@ilsinc.com (Jeremy
> Brandow) writes:
> >Hi everyone,
> >  My name is Jeremy Brandow.  I am 20 years old, and I am new to the
> >list.  Right now I don't own a Jetta GLX, I own a '95 neon Sport
> >Coupe.
> >I am currently throwing arround the idea of trading my neon in on a
> >'97
> >Jetta GLX with a lease.  The Jetta is white with a tanish leather.  I
> >really like the Jettas, but I like my neon also.  The only problem is
> >that the quality of the neon is really starting to get to me.  It also
> >keeps having stupid little problems.
> >  Is there someone here that can tell me a little more about the
> >Jetta's
> >reliabuility, and performance.  Would you recomend it to someone
> >looking
> >for a car with looks, awesome performance, reliabuility, fun factor.
> >  I am also a little scared about a lease.  This will be my first one.
> >
> >I am axcited with the fact that I can afford a nicer car for the same
> >payment I have now.  That a lease gives me the option of getting into
> >a
> >new car when the lease is up, but there has got to be somthing that
> >the
> >dealer isn't telling me.  Could someone with a lease tell me the
> >good/bad points of a lease?
> >  Thanks for any and all help.  I am going to go to the dealer today
> >and
> >check this Jetta GLX out a little more.
> >  L8R, Jeremy Brandow
> >
> 
> Hi Jeremy
> 
> The GLX is a sweet package and a blast.  It is not, however, reliable.
> There's a high probability that the annoying problems you've seen in your
> neon will also continue with a Jetta.  Most of the people on this list
> are attached to their car, so that all the problems are an expected part
> of GLX ownership.
> FYI, in Feb 97 I bought a GLX and it's a lemon.  VW will be replacing it
> with another GLX within the next week.  I could never recommend this car
> to a friend, but I enjoy driving it enough to get another (call me a
> masochist!).   Good Luck!
> 
> Heres a copy of a sob story I posted a while back:>>
>         >>My "VW experience" began with a phone call from City Volkswagen
> (San Diego) explaining that they found a car for me but that the hood had
> a paint blemish and was returned to the dealership they traded
> with....they wanted my new car to be "perfect".  OK, I can be carless for
> a while as long as my first new car is "perfect".  One week later my
> Windsor Blue GLX  with Biber Beige leather arrives.
>         Feb 16, I sign all the paperwork while the car gets washed, and
> then the cleaning dude shows up with the keys and says that he couldn't
> get the car into reverse.  He said that it took him awhile and that the
> gears were tough to get in to (stick shift).  The salesman gave me the
> "Well, sometimes these take a week or two to work themselves out."  So,
> out of ignorance, I drive off the lot.    Stoooooopid me.
>         The transmission was VERY hard to get into all gears, at least
> compared to other VR6s I had test driven.  On the second day of ownership
> my girlfriend is driving and we're stopped at a light, and she can't get
> into the entire left side of the transmission!  No 1st, 2nd or reverse!
> After convincing her not to fry the clutch, and, wondering if this is a
> chick-thing, we switch seats and I'll be damned if it didn't feel like a
> metal plate was sectioning off the left side of the tranny.  We just
> happened to be on one of  the steepest streets in San Diego with airport
> traffic all around;  bad scene.           .................after a couple
> minutes I was able to get into first.  Later that night I experimented in
> a parking lot and found that with the stick in the reverse position the
> car would go forward about 30% of the time!  I didn't feel any difference
> in position and thus couldn't predict which direction the car would go
> in.  Also, by this time I had realized that the car was not equipped with
> the BOSE sound system that the MSRP I had negotiated on included.   At
> this point I'm not feeling good about my new car.
>         The next morning I drop it off at the dealership and they keep it
> for a week.  The mechanic later told me that he didn't even have to take
> it for a test drive;  the "tightness" of the transmission revealed that
> something major was wrong.  The work report states that reverse gear had
> chip marks and 1st and 2nd showed abnormal wear marks (the car had ~300
> miles on it).  To my surprise they did NOT replace the transmission but
> instead replaced every part related to reverse, 1st and 2nd.  After
> picking up my car I drove across the street to the sales dept. and
> demanded a new car.  After several days of stalling, I was eventually
> told that I should be happy with the $2,500 worth of transmission work
> and that mine was better than new since transmissions are not tested at
> the plant.   I eventually spoke to the factory rep for
>  the region, dealership owner, VWoA.......all leaving me with a sinking
> feeling in my gut.
>         After driving my new/heavily-worked-upon car home, my horn didn't
> sound when locking the door(s)!   Tested several times and the horn
> wouldn't beep  when arming the alarm. It would, however, work when
> pushing on the steering wheel or testing the alarm system.   After 2
> weeks I take it back to the dealership (without the horn sounding once)
> and later the next day they give me a call and say that it works fine,
> don't see any evidence of there being a problem.    ....You gotta be
> shittin me!
> Sure enough, it worked fine, and I was expected to believe that either it
> always worked or that it miraculousy fixed itself after I dropped it off.
>  Of course, a service advisor witnessed the problem (they wouldn't have
> given me a loaner unless he had) but seemed to suffer from a bout of
> amnesia when confronted about it.
>         3 days later I go skiing and all four windows go down immediately
> upon unlocking the door (no ~3 sec delay) or, the 2 rears would go down
> with the front 2 remaining up.  Also, the horn would either not sound or
> have a sick half-powered sound when locking the car.  Over the 4 day trip
> the central locking system malfunctioned, one way or the other, EVERY
> time I unlocked or locked the car.  After arriving home (different
> altitude, temp, humidity) these problems gradually went away.  I was
> unable to reveal the car's "personality" to dealerships despite several
> attempts.  The system would malfunction and I'd race to the garage, and
> of course it would work perfectly.   The locking system settled down by
> April and has been perfect since, with the one exception of the alarm
> going off for 2 sec after opening up the driver's door normally.
> Convinced that my car was possessed, I called  the Better Business Bureau
> (BBB) autoline late March.
>         In April I started hearing a faint squeak from the left front
> wheel every wheel rotation.  I smiled to myself because when you have a
> car like this you're curious as to what the next problem will be.  I had
> the lug nuts tightened with no effect, made an appointment for the
> following day and, of course, the noise went away the next morning.  Over
> the next 2 weeks it became sporadic and alternated between squeaking,
> grinding, and groaning.  Another VW visit resulted in an embarrassingly
> quiet 10min tour of the neighborhood.   20 days after I first heard the
> noises I drove up to Palo Alto (Nor Cal)  to visit the family, and when
> pulling into their driveway I heard a deep, ominous growl that came from
> the entire chassis.  The next morning a service manager at Carlsen VW
> heard the noise and told me that I had a bad wheel bearing (No kiddin,
> guy!).  4 days later I get the car back and the alignment is way off, so
> an hour later I go back and while they're figuring/plotting what to do I
> ask the mechanic what happened  - the service record mentions a failed
> hub assembly and bearing.  The mechanic says, "The hub assembly is held
> together by a nut, and that nut had come loose.  When you drove in here
> that morning your wheel was hanging on by a thread....if it had come off
> you would have been a goner!"    Uhhhh, yeah.  I hauled ass over  the
> grapevine and the 152;  a 3 wheeled car would have been interesting.
> Regarding the alignment, it turned out the Palo Alto goons didn't follow
> a VW bulletin on Eagle GA tire rotation (?), so I drove back to SD with
> the car pulling right.
>         About  a month before my scheduled BBB hearing of June 25, the
> reverse gear resumed its old ways by moving the car forward (1st gear).
> This time around I could feel a slight difference in the location of the
> shifter when this would happen, so it wasn't a major safety concern for
> me.  I opted not to bring it to VWs attention so that I would have
> something concrete and tangible for the hearing.  Also during this time a
> loud whining sound started when the engine was cold and under boost -
> it's loud enough to wake up my neighbors.  I had a service manager listen
> to it and he told me "Your problems are progressive, you should bring
> your car back when they get worse".  During that visit I had a burnt out
> interior dome light replaced.
>         June 25:  The BBB hearing.    The last time I was this nervous
> the night before was when I took the SATs.  Recently out of college,
> buying a new car was a big deal and it was depressing that an investment
> of this size had become "that pathetically unpredictable yet fun to drive
> thing outside". Representing VW at the hearing was the regional
> factory rep, City service manager and City sales manager.  Their position
> was one of denial (shocker!), and it was this inane denial that helped me
> in the end.   They started by saying that the guy who cleaned the car and
> noticed the transmission problems on the day of delivery did not remember
> having a conversation with the salesperson and myself and remembered no
> such transmission problems.   I informed that arbitrator that it was too
> bad that the salesman wasn't present, because he remembers the
> conversation very well.  In fact, 2 weeks ago he was ready to submit
> testimonial on my behalf but was directed by the dealership owner  to
> only  provide information if subpoenaed in court.
>         Overall, I was dumbfounded by the stupidity of these guys (my jaw
> dropped a few times).  The service manager went off on a 5 minute tirade,
> proclaiming the malfunctions of the locking system, transmission, and hub
> assembly as being impossibilities.  This was inspite of the transmission
> and hub assembly defects as being well documented by VW service
> departments.
>         During the test drive the arbitrator noted that the whining sound
> was not a noise he had ever heard or expected to hear from a new car.  I
> put the car in reverse and we all felt the car go forward with release of
> the clutch. By this time I had "practiced" enough with the transmission
> to be able to make it malfunction when I wanted.  Luckily, the arbitrator
> shifted into reverse with the same results (on the 3rd try).  I was
> shocked, and thrown-off, when the VW dorks in the rear seats denied this
> as being a problem, implying that it was a design characteristic.  wow.
> VW concluded the hearing by talking about the 10yr/100,000mile powertrain
> warranty, and that VW was "here to help".   I thought to myself, as did
> the arbitrator, "What good is a warranty if it doesn't cover a car going
> in the wrong direction?"
>         2 weeks later I was granted a repurchase on the car.  VW will pay
> me back for all money invested, including the last 6 months of payments.
> The BBB gave me 30 days to respond to their resolution, and I'm currently
> awaiting the arrival of another GLX (BOSE included) with a born-on-date
> of July 16, that's a wednesday!  Needless to say, I'll be dealing with
> another dealership.  It works out to 6 months of free miles and $1,000
> off the total purchase price of the car (by putting the monthly payments
> towards the initial down payment I'll save on the finance charge).
> There's nothing better than driving hard, knowing you'll be getting a new
> one in a couple weeks.
> 
> Thoughts:  City VW is thoroughly corrupt.   Sales, service and ownership
> are all suspect and customers are at risk of being taken advantage of.
>         VW repair service has been poor from the 3 dealerships I've been
> to.
>         My only corporate experience has been with the regional factory
> rep and VWoA, and I'm left to wonder just how far this ineptness goes.
>         I feel like I'm going out on a limb by getting another GLX;
> rolling the dice.  I love the car and have convinced myself it is a good
> design - I was just unlucky the first time around.  I also know of a
> great mechanic and I won't be too bummed when it's out of warranty.
>         I was lucky that the transmission posed a "safety risk".  I
> believe this is the only reason I was granted a repurchase.
> 
> Sorry this was so long.... I think it's therapy for me!
> 
> -Rob

Don't let this story scare you. I have never had a problem with
my two VW's.

Dave