Executive 2.0 TDI BlueMotion Technology 140 4dr Estate

Nice to drive but spends too much time being mended

We owned a 2 litre petrol saloon, followed by a 2 litre diesel estate, both bought new. The saloon was great so another seemed obvious. The estate was troublesome but we were assured that all of those problems had been resolved so we bought another estate in 2012, mainly because we couldn't be bothered to look around at other possible contenders. What a mistake that was.

The car broke down less than two weeks after it was delivered and had to be towed away. This was the day before we were due to leave for a 1200 mile trip. They were supposed to provide a replacement of similar quality etc. they sent us a beaten up Golf. A few weeks later we drove to Portugal and the irritating rattle we had noticed from day 1 became so noisy that we actually thought something was going to fall off. After three spells in the garage with usual denials, they did fix it (3 months later). I don't know what it was but it took them 3 or 4 days to do it. They said that they had to remove all of the front of the car plus the seats and goodness knows what else.

There were a succession of problems over the first 18 months culminating in a very unpleasant grinding noise, again, a few days before we were due to leave on a long trip. This required a new clutch, gearbox bell housing and various gearbox bits. "Never seen anything like it before," they exclaimed. It was fixed hours before we were due to leave after a series of threats to life and limb.

It is now coming to the end of its 3 year warranty and we don't think we could afford to keep it as the repair bills are likely to be considerable.

There are good things about this car but the poor mechanical build quality badly lets it down. There is quite a lot of gadgetry, most of it, solutions looking for a problem. The car would be better with less of it. They need to get back to basics and start building good quality cars again.

Most of the problems we have had we were told were unique to this car. On later visits we have been told that several others have since been seen with similar problems.

Would I ever buy another VW? Nope.

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