It's how they take care of it and keep their traps shut. They add warranty extensions left and right to make the customer happy. A happy customer isn't on the interwebs bitching about how much money they forked out on their stupid [insert brand here]. The also don't allow customers free access to TSB's and recall information like other manufacturers. So when no one but hte dealers know about the problem, it's easier to keep it quiet. 
In reply to Bobzilla:
That's funny. One of my best friends has been a service and parts manager for two different Honda dealers for over 20 years, and he just told me that he's never heard of what you wrote above. And since when is keeping your customers happy a bad thing?
Is this that argument you were looking for yesterday? 
In reply to Swank Force One:
No. Well it shouldn't be. I know better than to debate anything with Bob, especially when it involves Honda/GM/Kia/or Hyundai.
ProDarwin wrote:Contradiction wrote: Let’s face it, if you want to buy a GTI you want one because you are an ENTHUSIAST and you want driving to be a FUN experience.What about non-GTIs? They suffer from similar reliablity problems and are hardly ENTHUSIAST vehicles. I had a Jetta rental last week in CA and the only thing remotely exciting about the experience was the adrenaline rush of trying to back out of a parking spot without being able to see what was behind me at all.
That's part of the problem with VW as a company now honestly. They've had the good fortune of having a strong enthusiast following and a loyal non-enthusiast fan base because of the general superior quality that the interiors and features vs. comparable domestics in the marketplace in the past and good fuel economy in the TDIs and the base model 2.0 motors in the past.
When they started to try and lower the price point of the cars starting with the MKV and on they made a big mistake IMO. A jetta was a good car for a non-enthusiast in the past because it just had better quality then a Taurus, or an Impala, or a Seabring, etc. When they tried to drive down the price point of golfs and jettas to get them into that sub $20K market value they took away what was one of the strongest assets of the brand. If I want a Plain Jane crappy silver metal flake ABS hard plastic interior I can get that anywhere.
They'd be better off focusing on bringing quality back to the whole VW lineup instead of cheapening them down reach a lower price point. I wouldn't call the MK4 exactly a "golden era" of VW from a performance or a reliability standpoint, but stop and think about what kind of motor options you could get and how much more "enthusiast friendly" that generation was. You could get a 2.0 and have your average "hairdresser car" , a TDI if you really wanted fuel economy, or pick your preference for a 1.8T or VR6 for performance. And you could still get a base model jetta or golf with a 1.8T as well, thus getting a more enthusiast orientated car without the premium model and a still respectable interior. It wasn't as good as the GTI or the GLI of course, but it was still fun to drive and had VW quality.
I'm disappointed to see the new "one size fits all" motor choices and downgrading interiors so much that the GTI or GLI are the only ones that uphold the kind of quality VW owners expect. If they push it further and loose the enthusiast base they are going to be in trouble. Just look at Honda now. Yeah there's an Si still and they did a great thing with the S2000 but after they killed off the prelude and the Integra/RSX Honda stopped being a company that catered to enthusiasts.
At this point I'm kind of at a cross roads as a VW owner myself. I love my 02 Jetta VR6 5 spd wagon, but it has 178K on it. In the next 2-3 years I have to decide what I'm going to replace it with. It sure as hell won't be a base model Jetta. I have my eyes on the MKVI TDI Sportwagens, but I need to do a lot more research on these cars and TDI ownership in general. I'm not going to take a blind leap of faith into one even if I like the brand.
so now they have an electronic differential (finally something that resembles a LSD on a "performance" FWD car) on the car but you can't turn off the traction/stability control. It still wastes your brakes no matter what you do. wtf are they doing, lmao.
if you want to buy a GTI you want one because you are an ENTHUSIAST
What kind of an enthusiast buys a GTI? A VW enthusiast? The 80s are over.
After the MK2, maybe even during, there has always been MULTIPLE superior alternatives for "enthusiasts" unless you mean by that someone who is a make-fan and VW club member. Right now you have WRX, Fiesta ST, Focus ST, Mazdaspeed 3 to start without thinking about it. That's not including RWD cars like the FRS and Miata.
But the "interior" and all the 10k hid mods and bags available to put on there.
bravenrace wrote: In reply to Bobzilla: That's funny. One of my best friends has been a service and parts manager for two different Honda dealers for over 20 years, and he just told me that he's never heard of what you wrote above. And since when is keeping your customers happy a bad thing?
Then he doesn't write much service.
In reply to Bobzilla:
Biggest Honda dealer in the area, dude. But you may be right about him not writing a lot of service, since Honda's don't need it all that often!
Wow, there is alot of angst about VW here. I've had 5 and still have 2 ('02 Jetta 1.8T bought in '01 ~130K miles and '09 TDI sportwagen ~ 92K miles). I have designs an another 
, but I'll let some future drive provide the data needed for a decision. I also have some Nissans and a Mini. Of the lot, I'd opine that the Nissans seem to have been the most trouble free, but who wants a CVT these days . Ok, to each his own, nevermind the CVT quip.
I am surprised at how many people actually take their cars to the dealer (VW or other) for service. I thank VW for teaching me long ago that servicing my own cars, no matter the manufacturer, was the best prescription for automotive sanity and satisfaction.
I'd suggest that over the course of time, no manufacturer keeps consistent quality, that cars are designed to be built once but not really maintained, and that the mechanic who works on your car should be the one who cares the most about the quality of the work. You should drive whatever satisfies your soul that your wallet can afford. Having more cars than you need so you can take your time doing your own repairs is another sanity retention technique.
Just because a manufacturer made a good/bad car last year, doesn't mean their product will be the same this year. Management changes, employees change, and suppliers change. People on assembly lines have good and bad days. You really have no way of knowing for sure exactly how reliable a new car will be, just some past indicators that are old news and marketing fluff meant to manipulate you (this post included).
You buy what you like and you get rid of it when you've had enough or something better comes along. Just be curious enough to drive other cars and let your own experience dictate whether the GTI is what will scratch your particular itch.
i just went through the process of pulling a dead 1.8t out of a new beetle. Berk vw, berk them and their kind.
I think that it's intentional. I think they could easily engineer these stupid things not to break and they know that if they did, people would just drive them forever and not buy a new one or have to spend money on repairs. So they engineer failures into them. I mean honestly, they can't make a door handle? They can't engineer out a fill in the blank, habitual vw failure? I don't believe it.
In reply to carbon:
Why would they do that when their competition doesn't, at least not to the same extent? Everything is engineering with an expected life. I guess the question is, what is that expected life for any given part? I'd say not long enough if it ends up giving the company a reputation for poor reliability, because when that happens they lose sales to competitors.
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