THIS REALLY IS A SHED (VW Passat 1.9 SE TDI PD Saloon)

Member Name: playmate

Product:	VW Passat 1.9 SE TDI PD Saloon
Date:	11/11/08 (861 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none

Disadvantages: the whole car

I am writing this review to warn any potential buyers of the VW Passat not to bother, as there is so many design faults that it really shouldn't have been put into production. I am not going to go into all the high tech spec, I am just going to highlight the problems that we have had with ours.

~~~~Handbrake gets stuck on~~~~

We were out driving one day when we had parked up, after doing what we had to, we started up the car and went to pull away, but before we could do that we had to let off the electric handbrake which is located to the right of the steering wheel. When we pressed it, it wouldn't move and there was a warning message on the dash indicating a handbrake malfunction. We didn't know what to do and didn't have any tools to sort this even if we did know what to do. We ended up having to call the AA who came out and really didn't know either as they had never herd of this fault before, there was however a really strange high pitched sound coming from the engine bay too when the handbrake was stuck on. As a last resort the AA mechanic decided to disconnect the battery for 5 minutes then reconnect again, and miraculously it worked. Now very where we go we have to have a 12 mm spanner handy just incase it happens again. No word of an exaggeration this has happened at least once every week since we have had the car.

~~~~Handbrake wont go on~~~~

This is basically the same but just the opposite, this happened just last Saturday. When we had come home from getting shopping at Asda we parked the car to get the shopping out and it wouldn't go on. It didn't matter how many times we tried to push the button it wouldn't go back on. We ended up having to leave it in gear and then quickly run to the house and back again in case it decided to roll backwards into another parked car. The only thing with this is that you cant do anything to get it back on you just have to wait for it to do it it's self. Again this has happened at least once a week too.

~~~~Sensors on the door stopped working~~~~

This was the first problem that we had with the car. We went out one morning to find that the car wouldn't start and upon a large scale investigation we found out that the battery was flat, the cause? The sensors on the door stopped working so the car didn't know when the door was open or closed, this meant that the interior light stayed on the whole time. This has now happened at least 3 times before it was taken back to the garage for investigation.

~~~~Boot keeps opening automatically~~~~

The newest problem is that the boot keeps opening up for no reason, we went to put the car away tonight and as we went to lock it the boot just opened on its own. It stay shut when you lock the car, but if the car is open the boot will just fly open, luckily it has not happened yet when we have been driving, but I bet you it will do it soon enough.

~~~~~ The Garages report~~~~

The car is still under the manufacturers warranty as it was only bought in the end of 2006. When we took it to the garage for the first three faults the garage did all the investigations that they could do but said unless it happened when it was there they couldn't tell what was happening to it. Just like sods law every time that we had gotten the car back within an hour the fault has happened again.

We are getting rid of the car when our new car is ready, and I tell you it wont be before time. I would never advise anyone to get one of these as its not worth the money it took them to build it. This is a real shame though as Volkswagens are normally very reliable cars but not this one. Stay away from it unless you like hassle in your life.

Summary: nothing ever works and no faults can be found

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