Volkswagen not so reliable?

We had a toyota for 5 years, a 2008 Auris, we put 60k on it, apart from once, it didnt miss a beat and Toyota sorted it no quibble, no fuss, they were brilliant.

Whilst the car was bullet proof, it was cheap inside in terms of plastics.

We now have a VW, again owned from new, so far the VW is 15 months old, has about 11k on the clock and again, hasnt missed a beat, the interior is of a much higher standard to the Toyota, the only thing I'll say here is that the VW is a commercial vehicle (Amarok) but I would have suspected that the non-commercial variants would be even more plush.

I think unless *A* car is a dud from new, which does happen, as long as you service it, apply a little mechanical sympathy and common sense, then there's no reason your car wont just keep going.
 
To be fair I've had my astra 08 plate since 6 months old and I've replaced the clutch (probably the same with any car), also had to replace the ignition coil pack twice. Little problems with wipers knocking but no major engine problems.

It's so tempting to get a diesel engine, due to the mpg. But from what I've seen a lot more seems to go wrong with them and also more expensive to buy and repair.
For example, if my astra was diesel I would have had to replace the flywheel as well as the clutch, adding a lot to the cost.

Does it just even itself out anyway? I.e. What you save on fuel you spend out elsewhere?
 
Solus said:
To be fair I've had my astra 08 plate since 6 months old and I've replaced the clutch (probably the same with any car), also had to replace the ignition coil pack twice. Little problems with wipers knocking but no major engine problems.

It's so tempting to get a diesel engine, due to the mpg. But from what I've seen a lot more seems to go wrong with them and also more expensive to buy and repair.
For example, if my astra was diesel I would have had to replace the flywheel as well as the clutch, adding a lot to the cost.

Does it just even itself out anyway? I.e. What you save on fuel you spend out elsewhere?
Click to expand...

Not worth having a diesel unless you do starship mileage. Even then these days I don't think a diesel warrants the cost of repairs. I'll be going turbocharged petrol next time, drove a 2 litre vag petrol the other day and it was (despite being nothing amazing engine wise) a lot nicer than my dag dag.
 
OracIe said:
We had a toyota for 5 years, a 2008 Auris, we put 60k on it, apart from once, it didnt miss a beat and Toyota sorted it no quibble, no fuss, they were brilliant.

Whilst the car was bullet proof, it was cheap inside in terms of plastics.

We now have a VW, again owned from new, so far the VW is 15 months old, has about 11k on the clock and again, hasnt missed a beat, the interior is of a much higher standard to the Toyota, the only thing I'll say here is that the VW is a commercial vehicle (Amarok) but I would have suspected that the non-commercial variants would be even more plush.

I think unless *A* car is a dud from new, which does happen, as long as you service it, apply a little mechanical sympathy and common sense, then there's no reason your car wont just keep going.
Click to expand...

The whole keep your "car serviced regularly" doesn't apply universally, sure 'most' engines in general, those that arent technically very complicated will generally go onto do high miles, that includes French cars, go to Africa and see how long those old 504's lasted, the problem lies in other secondary parts, you can keep your car serviced regularly but that wont stop electrical gremlins, suspensions problems etc. There is no substitute for poor quality parts or design. Sadly certain companies do skimp on those.

Exactly, tbh perceived quality is such a stupid thing to pay for. I've driven loads of new-ish VAG's ( New Golf, New Octy, new A3), and they don't offer anything new or better than a 15 year old car, nor do they require less maintenance.

Worse, I think they drive utterly terrible even compared to some bland cars from the late 90's.

I don't think they are built to last 500.000+ km like some older cars, hell I even trust an old PSA car more than a VAG...
Click to expand...

Pretty much my same experience, I hate having to drive them and shudder at the thought of owning one. Still not as bad as Vauxhall's. :D
 
Peugeot stopped making good cars (imo) after the 306 era. Mine was fantastically reliable and wanted nothign apart from clean oil and filters. I did 100k in that and in that time it cost me only servicing items.
 
VWs so called reliability was a marketing gimmick and lots of people fell for it.
They are not reliable, a French car is just as reliable.
 
French cars can be just as reliable mechanically, their achilles heel has always been electrical issues, also there not as well built as a VW, although they do have better body protection.
 
Firestar_3x said:
Don't agree, how many older Lagunas or Meganes do you see on the road vs Golfs and Passats?

The answer is a LOT less, reason being the French stuff falls apart and the German cars do not.
Click to expand...

That may be so in the UK, but over here, over here this is the top 10 new cars sold:

1. Renault Clio
2. Volkswagen Golf
3. Peugeot 308
4. Volkswagen Polo
5. Volkswagen Up!
6. Kia Picanto
7. Ford Fiesta
8. Peugeot 108
9. Renault Captur
10. Volkswagen Passat
Click to expand...

The Frenchies are just as common as the jerry's.

EDIT:

In terms of absolute numers, out of 8 million cars:
847 k VW's,
218k Audi
199k Seat
92k Skoda
vs

633 k Renaults

vs

629 k Peugeots
342 k Citroen

VAG may be the biggest group, but they certainly don't outnumber the Frenchies.

The UK is a bit of an odd market anyhow, used car prices are silly low over there, here people tend to keep older cars driving and they keep more value. In the UK the average age is 7.8 years iirc, over here the average age was 9.9 years, in 2010 ( can't find newer numbers, but the average age of scrapped cars also increased since then, so logically the age of cars too).
 
Last edited:
Not talking about new cars sold, i'm talking about whats left running around on the roads after they get to 6+ years.

You see a lot less French tin floating around, i actually can't remember the last time i spotted any Laguna driving around yet i see Passats of the same vintage ALL the time.
 
Firestar_3x said:
Not talking about new cars sold, i'm talking about whats left running around on the roads after they get to 6+ years.

You see a lot less French tin floating around, i actually can't remember the last time i spotted any Laguna driving around yet i see Passats of the same vintage ALL the time.
Click to expand...

I may have edited my post later, but this was in 2011 over here:

http://www.bovagrai.info/auto/2011/1.7.html

Over here Laguna's, even the first model, are still very common. As are 406's/407's, C5's. They ( All the Frenchies) are in no way outnumbered by Passats. Passat may be the most popular, but that's more down to marketing (idiots going for perceived quality, I mean who pays a premium for such a bland, underpowered and underspecced car ? Most old Passats are **** poverty spec, while most Frenchies are filled with far more toys because more value for money) than anything else, if you add 406/407, C5, Xantia and Laguna, they by far outnumber the ammount of passats.
 
Last edited:
The reason why you see more Passat's is because they sold more then Laguna's, the Laguna's only sold well in the first gen, after that the moustache model and all they sold pretty poorly. Still the Passat of that era was much better built then a Laguna mind and I would take a shot that they were fair bit more reliable too.
 
Ive had 3 new cars in my lifetime, the 1st was a Focus ST3, next was a Honda Accord dtec and the current one is a Audi A4 Avnt diesel.

My focus was ragged every day for 3 years and 93k miles, and mechanically it was fantastic, the accord covered 75k miles and only had a DPF fail, the audi has been the least reliable, but only niggly things, where the Audi has excelled is the dealer, when things went wrong, they bent over backwards to get things put right. Whereas the focus had 1 minor thing go wrong, which was the washer jet cover falling off, it was such a ballache to get sorted by ford,so much so that i'll never have a new ford again.

Honda was actually a better built car than the A4 and better to drive, but sadly Honda are planning to dump the Accord model in Europe.

The major problem is really diesels, the old fella rebuilds engines, and no one marque is any more reliable than the other, people keep the german stuff running for longer as the parts are cheaper compared to a Jap diesel, and theres more VAG used car parts about aswell. The old fella makes a good living out of repairing Toyota 2.0 d-4d engines, but that could be because theres a load of them kicking around the west midlands as its the taxi car of choice still.

I think in 10 years time, petrols and diesels, will be equally as unreliable!
 
lemonade said:
The reason why you see more Passat's is because they sold more then Laguna's, the Laguna's only sold well in the first gen, after that the moustache model and all they sold pretty poorly.
Click to expand...

Would be interesting to see some sales figures, got me looking about other French VS German models, the 206 sold better than the Golf yet i see very very few 206's on the road but loads of Golfs of this vintage.

2003
Peugeot 206
82,667
Volkswagen Golf
69,784

2004
Peugeot 206
86,605
Volkswagen Golf
67,226

2005
Peugeot 206
67,450
Volkswagen Golf
67,749
 
wohoo said:
Ive had 3 new cars in my lifetime, the 1st was a Focus ST3, next was a Honda Accord dtec and the current one is a Audi A4 Avnt diesel.

My focus was ragged every day for 3 years and 93k miles, and mechanically it was fantastic, the accord covered 75k miles and only had a DPF fail, the audi has been the least reliable, but only niggly things, where the Audi has excelled is the dealer, when things went wrong, they bent over backwards to get things put right. Whereas the focus had 1 minor thing go wrong, which was the washer jet cover falling off, it was such a ballache to get sorted by ford,so much so that i'll never have a new ford again.

Honda was actually a better built car than the A4 and better to drive, but sadly Honda are planning to dump the Accord model in Europe.

The major problem is really diesels, the old fella rebuilds engines, and no one marque is any more reliable than the other, people keep the german stuff running for longer as the parts are cheaper compared to a Jap diesel, and theres more VAG used car parts about aswell. The old fella makes a good living out of repairing Toyota 2.0 d-4d engines, but that could be because theres a load of them kicking around the west midlands as its the taxi car of choice still.

I think in 10 years time, petrols and diesels, will be equally as unreliable!
Click to expand...

The Accord has already been discontinued in Europe, so unfortunately we won't be getting a 9th gen any time soon.

Dealer service is very subjective, its all down to the franchise and branch, my local Audi dealer for example is awful, whereas the one you used gave you a good service. The only consistent dealer service you will get is from Lexus.

Would be interesting to see some sales figures, got me looking about other French VS German models, the 206 sold better than the Golf yet i see very very few 206's on the road but loads of Golfs of this vintage.

2003
Peugeot 206
82,667
Volkswagen Golf
69,784

2004
Peugeot 206
86,605
Volkswagen Golf
67,226

2005
Peugeot 206
67,450
Volkswagen Golf
67,749
Click to expand...

I still see loads of 206's around, don't see as much 406's which were a big seller in their day.

I think also people are more likely to scrap a 206 when something expensive needs doing as opposed to a Golf, as a german product is seen to have more worth to it so people will keep them on the road.
 
Last edited:
matthab said:
I own the twincharged 1.4, i bought it knowing its potential problems. So far however its been an absolute hoot to own. I will say however everything around it seems to break. So far for me:

*Aircon Pump failure.
*Aircon Seals failed.
*DSG Clutch failure.
*Water pump failure.
*Wheel bearing.

All paid for by the warranty :D
Click to expand...

That's awful...:eek:

How old and how many miles?
 
Would anyone buy a 13 plate Vw affected by the emissions scandal?

I'm tempted but a bit apprehensive
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom