VW Golf VI: reliability issues ? real or not ?

[rayw]

elepheno
you can turn off the Bixenon headlight unit
DRL should be just the LED light only

[elephino]

elepheno
you can turn off the Bixenon headlight unit
DRL should be just the LED light only

Quite true...on the newer bi-xenons. On the original ones, no LEDs.

[sbowden]

Shout out loud if you're happy with your VW!!

Some really good comments in this thread...I have just read it all the way through.

I bought my 09 Mk VI golf dsg 118TSI when it had 9000klm, it now has 52,000. Have had the window button support plate replaced (goes under the actual button, sits inside the door...$3 part). Other than that, some clutch shudders, which disappeared after driving it "as a manual" for a couple of short trips. This was a tip from a forum member.

so I've done 43,000 problem free kays.

I've carried masses of concrete tiles, roofing tiles, and bricks in it. I've fitted a lawnmower, whipper snipper, hedgetrimmer, blower-vac, petrol cans and a passenger in it, all at once of course!

I've taken my wife, my mate and his wife, plus one other lady, all of us in our ball gowns and suits, out on the town. And I often travel hundreds of kays with bikes on the roof, golf clubs and other stuff cramming the boot and seats, and still get amaaaazing economy, handling and pleasurable driving.

I understand some folk have had less than pleasant experiences with their 118TSI's.... but not me. I love it. And based on what I think of the car, I will buy another VW when the time comes. Who cares what other people say about their car in various surveys? It's what I think about my car that matters.

As one earlier poster to this thread said, people who are happy with their car are generally too busy to tell anyone... people who aren't happy seem to have all day to tell everyone!

I'm not suggesting that folk with bad experiences don't share them....they should. And VW should take note, and if necessary, take action.

But more of us happy VW drivers should post here, because diligent folk do research before they buy, and our forum needs to be a positive influence on prospective buyers. Let's grow the family!

[Brendan_A]

Great post Sbowden! I'm another happy 118tsi owner

[AdamD]

As one earlier poster to this thread said, people who are happy with their car are generally too busy to tell anyone... people who aren't happy seem to have all day to tell everyone!

I'm not suggesting that folk with bad experiences don't share them....they should. And VW should take note, and if necessary, take action.

But more of us happy VW drivers should post here, because diligent folk do research before they buy, and our forum needs to be a positive influence on prospective buyers. Let's grow the family!

Do you know about this thread? If you're happy with your Golf, post in it and revive it.

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/forums/f112/ive-had-no-issues-thread-69908.html

[walbjj]

i cant post in that thread, cos i have had issues, but they have been resolved. but in saying that, im happy with my gti

[sbowden]

Do you know about this thread? If you're happy with your Golf, post in it and revive it.

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/foru...ead-69908.html

Thanks Adam, no I didn't know about this thread, and will track it down. UPDATE: Posted to thread as suggested, cheers.

I think I would post positive comments in both, though.

If a person doing research on what car to buy runs a Google search (for example) "Holden Astra AH reliability problems", they will get predominately the negative... see below a tiny selection from an actual search. So it's good to balance that in our threads...

User #105208 10895 posts
Eman
Whirlpool Forums Addict
Avoid at all costs. They are European making them expensive to service, and the timing belt needs to be changed every 60,000km (pretty expensive). They tend to die after about 120,000km....

Look at anything japanese.

reference: whrl.pl/RcBPnp
posted 2011-Jan-12, 10am AEST
User #25848 3434 posts
paul09
Whirlpool Forums Addict
Considering you took out a loan to buy, you should probably look at toyota corolla/camry, honda civic/accord etc etc...as these will be cheap to service and run and shouldn't die on you half way through the loan repayments

reference: whrl.pl/RcBPpW
posted 2011-Jan-12, 10am AEST
User #81636 5473 posts
Glynn J.
IT Domain Australia
Merchant
Avoid all the Opel based holdens at all costs

(e.g Vectra, Barina, Astra)

They all develop wiring problems, timing belts need to be changed at 60,000k, engines are fairly unreliable (my company barina has gone through 3 heads, 2 snapped timing belts, 3 gearboxes and has had the wiring overhauled twice due to burning out)

[Finance_Analyst]

Nonetheless, all the evidence so far cannot deny that Audi/VW have their fair share of reliability issues. So too BMW and Mercedes to a lesser extent (except for their ML range)

I do not buy into the argument "people who are happy with their cars don't write or sing praises etc etc". Lexus and Honda are always top of the charts in US and UK so the evidence is overwhelming and they have been on top for decades. While so far, I am a happy VW owner with no issues, you are all kidding yourselves if you think you can hide behind the VW and Audi reliability problems. It is there and cannot be denied by anyone, merely defended with little or no substance (GTIs are probably the most reliable as they have been proven, hence why I bought one).

This issue which has been circulated on this forum in a vicious circular motion (no pun intended) must be like the equivalent of the Roswell incident and all of you in the VW defensive camp must also work for the US Government, behind closed doors and covering up the so called existence of extra terrestrials beings and UFOs and destroying the X Files and Fox Mulder

[Candyman]

I'd have to say none of the Lexus owners I know locally give a **** about their car and they have all had various problems requiring a dealer visit. Sheesh, Lexus even had a class action lawsuit against them for two faults.

JD Power surveys are notoriously unreliable and flakey. Read into the process and brief used, almost laughable.

VW, all of them including the GTI, have reliability issues. You are fooling yourself if you think otherwise

[AdamD]

I do not buy into the argument "people who are happy with their cars don't write or sing praises etc etc".

Seriously? How many threads in this forum are dedicated to issues - and how to resolve them - versus the absence of same? Half(*) the members on a car forum join up because they have a problem with their car and are seeking a resolution. I'm happy to write about how pleased I am with my car and its reliability, but I'm very much in the minority in terms of owners overall.

Lexus and Honda are always top of the charts in US and UK so the evidence is overwhelming and they have been on top for decades. While so far, I am a happy VW owner with no issues, you are all kidding yourselves if you think you can hide behind the VW and Audi reliability problems.

I was previously a Honda owner (four in a row), and was involved in the local Honda community and online scene. Trust me when I say that Honda owners do complain about reliability issues, and faults with certain models are very much commonplace - just as is the case with VW and other marques.

The more the average consumer spends on a purchase, the more reliable they expect it to be. People do spend reasonable money on VWs and Audis, and if something does go wrong, then it's likely they'll be more disappointed than if they'd spent less and expected problems. It's not a (necessarily) rational viewpoint, but whoever suggested consumers are always rational? Car purchasing decisions can be very emotional.

(*) 74% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

[Finance_Analyst]

Nonetheless, Lexus are more expensive than VWs, so too are Porsches. Using that line of thought, Lexus and Porsche owners expect even more from their cars yet always have less complaints/reliability issues than VW/Audi? Massive disconnect here.... VW and Audi are amongst the worse for reliability for German cars so there is no escaping that. The evidence here and everywhere cannot be disproven.

Are you are also denying the existence of UFOs and also believe the whole Roswell affair????

[SChan]

With lot of enthusiasm & trust in VW I bought my first VW Golf GTi.

Following are the issues:

1. The day (early April 2012) I took it out of the showroom, I could hear rattling noise from the driver side pillar. This rattle, after few days started coming from the passenger side pillar too! The dealer has looked at this 2 times but NO resolution!

2. Whistle noise from the engine bay. I was told that the water pump has broken. This happened just after 1.5 weeks at around 1000kms – this was fixed by the dealer after one month wait as the part had to be ordered. This problem came back just after a week of fixing it & the dealer is looking at it now!

3. Squint images when R gear is engaged. When R gear is engaged the RVC did not respond – this has happened only once within the first couple of weeks of buying the car – dealer looked at this but could not find any thing!

It is very disheartening. I dont think i am buying a VW again or even recommending it to others!

I waited for this car for almost 9 months. I previously thought it’s worth the wait but not anymore after experiencing these issues with a brand new car! From the day I bought it, it has been to the dealership for related warranty issues at least 5 times – this is not good!. When you spend that much money you expect the car to do well but unfortunately that is not the case with VW in my experience.

I am a very disappointed customer.

[AdamD]

Nonetheless, Lexus are more expensive than VWs, so too are Porsches. Using that line of thought, Lexus and Porsche owners expect even more from their cars yet always have less complaints/reliability issues than VW/Audi? Massive disconnect here.... VW and Audi are amongst the worse for reliability for German cars so there is no escaping that. The evidence here and everywhere cannot be disproven.

You're making assessments about reliability based on surveys that are themselves open to varying amounts of error and bias. Many factors come into play when you're assessing the reliability of a manufacturer in general, and drawing sweeping conclusions based solely on reliability surveys is ill advised. Brand allegiances, demographics of average owners, size of the market overall, vehicle segments... these all can affect how well (or poorly) a manufacturer performs in a survey.

I'm not suggesting that VW reliability is better than Lexus, or any other manufacturer for that matter - I'll openly admit that certain models do suffer from some potentially serious reliability issues. But what I am suggesting is that this is a more common occurrence than you might expect - whether it's VW, Audi, Porsche or most other marques. Even Lexus isn't immune, although there's no doubting they've got a great handle on quality control and engineered redundancy. Full credit to them. There's still no way I'd buy one based on perceptions of their reliability alone.

[AdamD]

The day (early April 2012) I took it out of the showroom, I could hear rattling noise from the driver side pillar. This rattle, after few days started coming from the passenger side pillar too! The dealer has looked at this 2 times but NO resolution!

Might that be this problem:

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/forums/f112/b-pillar-clicking-ticking-door-rubber-seal-creaking-squeaking-41289.html

Squint images when R gear is engaged. When R gear is engaged the RVC did not respond – this has happened only once within the first couple of weeks of buying the car – dealer looked at this but could not find any thing!

Can you be more specific about this (possibly post in the appropriate thread if there is one)? What is a squint image? If the RVC subsystem (head unit, camera controller) hasn't booted/initialised by the time you put the car into reverse, it's possible the image won't be displayed on the screen. I've had this problem twice in my two years of ownership; in both cases, switching the car off and on fixed it.

[Ozram]

With lot of enthusiasm & trust in VW I bought my first VW Golf GTi.

It is very disheartening. I dont think i am buying a VW again or even recommending it to others!

I waited for this car for almost 9 months. I previously thought it’s worth the wait but not anymore after experiencing these issues with a brand new car! From the day I bought it, it has been to the dealership for related warranty issues at least 5 times – this is not good!. When you spend that much money you expect the car to do well but unfortunately that is not the case with VW in my experience.

I am a very disappointed customer.

So, two noises and a reverse camera image that failed to come up on the screen once are the sum of your complaints?

Hardly life threatening or what anybody would class as major problems are they? I mean, if your engine blew up or your gearbox was full of neutrals and your car had spent half its life at the dealership I could understand.

So you wouldn't buy another one or recommend them to anyone because of a squeak? Unbelievable! Sounds like you need to buy a Rolls Royce, or a pushbike. I can't decide which would give you less opportunity to whinge.