I don't normally write mid and long-term reports about cars any more these days, but this story is so good I just had to share it. Actually, the car in question is my girlfriend's 2010 Jetta TDI, fully loaded model. I recommended this car to her because she is a therapist who works with autistic children and families and needs to drive lots of miles to see her patients. She put 60,000 miles on her Infiniti G37 in only two years, and was so upset with the fuel prices and the high mileage that she wanted something different. Thus, I recommended the Jetta TDI as probably the best option for her, and we loaded it with navigation, sunroof, and every conceivable option available on the car.
In terms of the raison d'etre for this car, the gas mileage, it has been phenomenal. She has been getting well over 400 miles to every tank of gas, sometimes close to 500, and it is truly spectacular to see the mileage build up. In addition, this is one of the first application to a low-price product of a dual-clutch transmission, and after driving the car myself, I must say that Volkswagen's dual-clutch transmission technology is fantastic and it really brings shifting to a new level. I will be reporting more about DCT transmissions in another blog.
As far as the reliability of the car, it is unfortunately another story. I am going to be brief, but here's what has happened. In the first 10,000 miles of the car's life it needed to have the navigation system replaced because there was something faulty with the overall system, and that was a significant repair. The master brake cylinder failed and needed to be replaced, as well, and also during the first 10,000 miles it needed to have a left rear body panel reattached because the body panel had actually come loose. Very uncharacteristic for Volkswagen; very shocking and not very reinforcing about build quality for Volkswagen products. Yet, because the car was working so well for her, we have stuck by it until the recent developments which were much more catastrophic.
At about 15,000 miles, about a month ago, my girlfriend lost her second key to her Jetta TDI and we ordered another one from the dealer. Here begins a saga that can only be described as truly unbelievable. Over the period of the next three weeks, Volkswagen delivered and was unable to program four separate keys for the car. Every time they ordered a key, they were not able to program the key to work with the anti-theft and existing key in the vehicle. Two of the keys that they ordered were actually the wrong keys (they were for Passats), and the other two would simply not coordinate. I could not understand why this continued to happen, but after four attempts to unsuccessfully be able to provide a spare key for the vehicle, Volkswagen was obviously out of compliance with the law and we requested that the dealership make every effort to solve the problem. Volkswagen then requested that we bring the car in again and they would attempt to resolve the problem.
I need to say at this point that when the other keys were acquired for the vehicle by Volkswagen, he car was dropped off every time, necessitating a service and a loaner car while they attempted to code the new key for the car, always unsuccessfully. Finally, as I indicated, after four unsuccessful attempts, Volkswagen brought the car in and the service manager from the Volkswagen dealership called me to report a truly amazing piece of information. He stated that this car was built on the second from the last day of the 2009 production run, and therefore it had parts from the 2009 and 2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. He said that the anti-theft systems were 2009, and the rest of the car and its parts were 2010, and thus the parts were having trouble communicating electronically, and in fact it was unlikely that the key could ever be replaced simply by ordering a new key and re-coding all of the keys to the car. Truly an amazing statement to hear from a dealership. In any event, he stated that the only option would be for Volkswagen to get all new anti-theft and locking componentry for the car, all of which would be new 2010 spec componentry, and in this way all of the vehicle's electronic systems could be integrated and speak to each other.
After dropping my sandwich on the floor and throwing my potato chips across the room, I truly had to stop and think about what Volkswagen had just said and what it meant and what they had done. In addition to violating the law, they have provided the most coarse example of how car manufacturing dealerships really work relative to these kinds of developments. As of this writing, the car is still at Volkswagen, and they have not completed installing the new parts.
As a post-script, I would like to add that I still believe in general that the Jetta TDI is a great car, and was a wonderful choice for my girlfriend, but the experience we have had is certainly going to change our thinking about VW products.
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