2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDi: Service..kind of

Yeap, MkIVs and MkVs use two sets of rear pads for every one set of fronts, typically.

Also, another story of VW service. I've tried every dealer's service center in my area and I've just ended up giving up on every single one of them...I do my own maintenance for the most part; if I ever need anything major I guess I'll have to find an independent shop. The incompetence in a VW service bay is shocking.

VW of Santa Monica = FAIL

That kind of service is similar to Mazda Service in my city.

I hope they clean house when they read this.

Ridiculous. And I was under the impression that VW Santa Monica was one of the few good VW dealers in...well, the world. I had forgotten about them overfilling your oil the last time.

Mike-
I will always cherish my local small town garage where the owner, who I deal with directly, is a car nut like me and will return my car from his care only when everything exceeds his and my criteria.
Remember... dealer shops (not just VW) are profit centers staffed by chimps. Good reporting keep up the fine work.
-Carbuncle

that's too bad. sh!tty service departments always seem to be one of those things that always complicate the lives of those of us who otherwise love our VW's. I suppose I'm lucky that my dept. is mostly competent and charges very fair prices.

There aren't enough VW dealers in my area to guarantee any real competition for service customers. That seems to breed arrogance.

You expect better service from a company founded by Hitler?

He just went there

What I don't get - how has this become a national plague on VW dealers' service departments? They are FAMOUS coast to coast for terrible service...how does this happen?

Now that the ignorance level on the blog has gone through the roof by mikeolan's comment...I have the same problem with my local VW/Audi dealership. It is the only one in the area and as result the service is consistently subpar at best. My favorite experience was the service department disconnecting the air conditioner after a simple oil change...that was excellent.

What was the $500 charge for?

The horror stories that I heard and read about the Louisville VW dealers knocked the GTI out of consideration.

Seriously this is madness. Is there any other place you guys can go to? A trusted local independent shop maybe?

Why does this kind of service take more than an hour and (to repeat afty) what's up with the $500?

The oil comes in a 1L bottle...the motor holds 4L of oil...COME ON!

Awesome... simply awesome. I have to agree with every complaint that has been said. Here's a question, do they ever keep recall items at the dealership? Or common parts? It's always one visit to diagnose and one to repair, if I'm lucky. Fail fail fail...

In a way I wish automotive companies had more control over their dealer networks.

The next oil change should be on them, especially if they want to keep your business.

This is all sadly ironic. We own a 2003 VW Passat and have had this same thing happen for the past 2 years at the VW service counter. They repeatedly overfilled it and switched between synthetic and reg oil. When I called them out they claimed that non synthetic is ok in the 1.8 and explained that they confused the service of the VW with the Audi A6 since there both black. Now that the Passat has 100k on it its having all these issues, which could have been caused by this neglect. They won't do anything about it either. We have 8 cars that run the spectrum from a Taurus to a Subaru wrx and a town car. I was considering the Jetta to replace my Fusion, but I think I'll go a diff route untill VW gets their act together.

While my local VW service department isn't exactly *terrible*, they do tend to show their incompetence from time to time. I will say, however, that I know from personal experience that they utilize the online feedback forms that VW sends out after a service.

I once gave them a fairly scathing review, and upon my next service, the TECH (not the advisor or manager) whipped out a print out of my last feedback form and asked (very professionally, I might add) for some further explanation on my shorthand descriptions and how he might do better.

It was a bit of a nice surprise, but it didn't help the fact that I still had to CONVINCE them that my DSG's Mechatronic unit was bad.

I love VW cars, and will probably continue to own them for the foreseeable future, but once the warranty runs out, I will be running to an independant shop (Swift Motorsports in Norwich, CT) for all my major service needs.

Hey you should be glad yours was overfilled! One of the people on the other site i use now had the opposite experience! The dealership FORGOT to add oil back to the car! Long story short, he ended up getting an entirely new 1.8T engine because the old one was shot!

Story Starts here:
http://newbeetle.org/forums/518331-post119.html

Continues here:
Here:http://newbeetle.org/forums/518356-post124.html

and eventually he got a new 1.8T.

That would qualify as great service at Gossett VW in Memphis. It's bad enough that VWs are so unreliable, then they have to compound the problem with terrible service. That's too bad because I love so many other things about my GTI. Think anyone from VW reads these?

Hey Volkswagen Santa Monica, you just got your customer service ass whupped, and i noticed all the way from Toronto, Canada. Fix your sh*t.

my vw dealers not that bad. though I only used them for the 1st oil change.

for the 2nd (10k service) they wanted ~150 bucks for an oil change and tire rotation.

did it myself. Did find out its easy to overfill the 2.5 engine.

vw says it takes 6.8 quarts to fill the thing up.

pour in 6, seemed a bit low. figured manual was right, added 3/4 of a bottle, way over shot.

drained some to get it back to normal.

Figure to get it to max full, will only take about 6.25 quarts of oil.

Abm, your 6 year old Passat has 100k miles and you're complaining that poor dealer service over the years has caused things to begin to go wrong? Come on now, when a car is pushing 100k+ stuff breaks, that's just how it is. Please provide an example of a repair that you think was the result of years of mediocre service and not simply 100k miles of wear and tear.

Cheers

Unfortunately, I have had the same experience as most commenters on this blog. Used to own an '86 GTI (one of the original pocket rockets) and '97 Audi A4 and loved them both. Can't say the same for the VW/Audi service dept. in our area dealer because of their arrogance and incompetence prompting me to look for a good independent mechanic. Although I would have considered another VW or Audi to purchase recently, my hesitation with the maintenance/service greatly influenced mu decision to consider other brands (finally went for a BMW 135i).

Aside from the horrible dealer experience how is it even remotely acceptable that a new car needs brakes at 15,ooo miles?????? And dont give me that "Edmunds treats its cars roughly" crap. A couple of the supercars over the years have needed them but most of the regular cars have done much better. I really wanted to like the VW, but forget it. If this is the case of "superior" German engineering then I will get a Focus........buy the way how about a long term wrap up on the Focus?

I own a 2006 TDI. As recommended by people on TDIclub.com, I have never taken my car to the dealer for service. I either do it myself (oil changes, air filter and fuel filter changes on this car are very easy), or use a TDI mechanic recommended on the site (just got my timing belt changed at 90K, and saved about $400 from the stealership price). If you're in the market for a new TDI, be aware that the "free service" deal is a nullity. By the way, I've had 100K trouble free miles with my car.

Bodyblue, Do you live in a major metro area like LA? All 15,000 miles are not equal.

I've never driven in LA stop-and-go, but I've got years of experience in Chicago traffic, which is right there with LA's, and I can tell you that you spend a lot of time hitting the brakes.

Except for warranty service, I have never used dealerships for routine service, for any of the VWs, Audis, or BMWs I have owned. Warranty service is an exercise in frustration, my very competent independent mechanic's service is always thorough and friendly and well handled.

My 2006 Jetta TDI last month had its 90,000 mile service, and I asked the mechanic to pay attention especially to rear brake pads because of comments here. Both front and rear pads are fine, still the factory original.

I have never owned a car of any make that did not need pads, and possibly rotors, anywhere between 40k and 75k miles, so how the A5 Jetta has kept its pads going is a wonderment to me, since I do a lot of mountain driving.

I can see 25-30,000 miles for a car driven aggressively in traffic (even though it drives me crazy to see people abuse cars like that...jackrabbit starts then jam on the brakes at the next light) but any less than that means something is wrong somewhere. If a car that is driven well cannot get 35,000 plus miles from its brakes means poor materials in pads. If, as a driver your cars cant get more than 15,000 on a set means you abuse your rides.

My VW dealer seems fine although they told me that I had to have my 08 Jetta (2.0T) serviced at 15k. The maintenance book says 10k then 20 so I'll listen to the book and not the dealer. It's the extra as well as "levels" service that they try to sell that really bothers me. I always tell them only to do what is required in the manual. I don't think they like to hear that.

More and more we're seeing cars wear out brake pads A) very unevenly...rear brakes are going much quicker than fronts and B) more quickly in general.

This can be attributed to a few things: Pad material-- people who buy family sedans don't want loud brakes. quiet brakes wear out faster. Electronic brake bias-- the rears are now doing more of the braking work, but mfgs are still using smaller, thinner rotors in the back and smaller pads. That means quicker wear.

There are other factors, I'm sure, but these are what I'm thinking apply in this case.
-MM

My MS3 will need new front pads at 50K and I flog the daylights out of it. Ditto for my Club Sport.

@bankerdanny
The majority of our problems with the passat have been oil seal related as its had 2 sets of seals in the past year b/c they didn't set them correctly the first time. This is all in addition to having to deal with the oil sludge issue. My point is that when you have the dealer pick up the car and service it every 5,000 miles (around 6 months) you shouldn't have to deal with this especially when you purchased the auto for your ageing mother that lives in a rural area brand new. Her car before this was a Benz 190 which made it to 250k without any of these issues and I think this is because that dealer was much more observant as we can go through its 10 years of service records and see that a total of 5 technici and used the same oil each and every service.

I refuse to buy another Audi because the only dealership nearby my house was so terrible.

I got overcharged for lousy service that sounds just like Mike's VW.

I'm assuming Edmunds keeps going to these dealerships to illuminate to the readers about how awful their service really is.

As for the comments about how quickly the rear brakes went out, 15k is very very worrying. My GTI ate its front pads and rotors just shy of 20,000 miles, but that was my fault for asking far too much of them at a track day. My rear pads got replaced around 45k and the rear rotors are still original, and that's with five track days on it.

All my experiences with service at Santa Monica dealerships (VW, Jeep, BMW) strongly suggests that they can suck a watermelon through a garden hose.

now, that was funny.

Little bit late but I suggest everyone burned by a VW dealership email a link of this page to VWoA.

My second Volkswagen since 2003 and I shudder when I have to think of VW Service. Refusing problems exist and try to weasel out of it, then you call VWoA and get told "dealerships are franchises so we don't have any control over them....."

Wake up VWoA......your franchises are the face of your whole brand here. You have nice new showrooms, great products, but have the absolute worst after sales service.

The thing is VW now basically has you pay for your first 3 years of maintenance with the dealers when you buy the car, so they're forcing this interaction.

That said, my experience with VW dealers varies greatly. I've had some treat me like garbage, I've had others treat me exceptionally and even remember my name.