ie - I missed the hole in the valve cover when trying to pour oil in.
ie - see above, ended up with only 5qts getting into the engine
ie - ignored free window updates, tested pinch control on my skull many times.
ie - crap, left the sunroof open again during rainy season
ie - I don't know beans about engines so I combine known words in hopes to fool people. Also, the muffler bearings go bad all the time.
ie - first time I tried to do an oil change, I loosened up the wrong thing, VR6s are very complex. VW forgot to put the oil filter inside one of those metal cans. At least the oil filter comes with a black bracelet, I've collected 4 of them over the last 65,000 miles.
ie - I'm really into powershifting... see, you don't need to depress the clutch all the way.
ie - all the oil spills that I step in makes my foot sometimes slip off of that gas pedal.
ie - suspension rides smoother.
ie - really hard to clean the cat and dog hair/poop out. Also, cigarette burns are a problem. French fries leave stains.
ie - I have a lot of CD cases, coins, pens and countless other junk stuffed in every nook and crany of my car.
ie - Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns bested me in a weight lifting contest. And the gas door taunts me to this very day.
ie - so I screwed up the sunshade and of course did nothing about it, I kept on letting the sunroof motor force everything open and shut. On a side note, the sunroof pinch protection hurts my skull worse than the door window.
ie - they don't warrenty ciggerette burns in cloth seats and failed to address other areas I neglected. If this car was a child, the Department of Social Services would of taken it away.
ie - car can't handle my abuse.
I really begin to wonder when 1 person can have soo many problems with a car and everyone else has hardly any problems thier car. I accept that cars will have problems, there isn't any company that makes flawless cars. But when someone keeps having problems in a wide range of areas (body, electrical, motor, tranny, interior, ect ect ect), you start to wonder what the hell they are doing to the car on a daily basis. Abuse comes to mind.
By default, VWs are damn good cars. Honda are damn good cars, but I'd never buy one (and lets not touch on the massive amount of trannies Honda is swapping out these days). For every person you find who is unhappy about a VW, I can find a person unhappy about some Honda, Toyota, Chevy, Ford, ect ect ect.
Me, I will own nothing but VWs... wife and I just purchased a brand spanking new VW. Do I worry about getting some piece of crap? Nope. Do I worry about something breaking? Nope. What will I do if something goes wrong? Simple, fix it the right way the first time and not abuse the car to death in the first place.
I have seen your posts on the Honda NG already, so you should see that there are many posts about problems with Hondas as well. I am not saying Hondas are bad, but the nature of news groups is such that many people only post when they are having problems.
Go look now...I see big complaints about brakes on new Accords, comments about poor reliability of Odyssey vans, cars that won't start, etc...
I have a friend who will never drive anything but a Honda or Acura, but he says that their quality has also slipped in recent years.
I think that in general, cars have become VERY complex in recent years and there is simply more to break. I have read of many problems with VW's, but have been lucky so far. My 02 Jetta has 35,000 miles on it, and has been trouble free so far...so if you asked me, I would have good things to say.
Yes, you're right and I totally agree with you. But I stand by my statement about VWs. In the last 20 years I had only VWs, Rabbit, Jetta and Fox. And looking back I realize that I had a lot more break downs then a well built car (as VW pretends to be) should have. When I bought my first VW, back in NY, I never changed the oil in a small car before. Now, after many oil changes, one total engine overhaul, 4 engine head replacements, 2 engine head rebuilt, more than 6 drive axle refurbishings, and tons of other repairs, I believe that I can express an educated opinion about these cars. In 20 years and 4 cars I have only
2 visits to a licensed mechanic. I think that's not a bad resume. I remember my youth years when I was only into Fiat and Renault, they had pretty much the same break down record. And we all look down to these two european brands. I have doubts now that VW can be even equal to american cars quality which we all know how "good" it is. My experience with Honda is practically zero. Other than changing brake pads and shocks on my friends cars, I don't know much else. But my overall impression is that there are a lot less complaints about Hondas than VWs. I might be wrong, I didn't count actual postings but the impression is Honda's problems seem minor compared with VW. But again, I might be wrong, it's just my opinion.
Unfortunately you're right and 100% I agree with you. I look at my '87
1.8 Fox engine (so "simplex" now) and at a '03 Jetta engine and I get scared that maybe I won't have the possibilities to try to fix anything, so complex it looks.
I have read of many problems with VW's, but have been
My first break down came at 63,000 mi while doing around 80 in fast lane on 101 in Ventura, CA. I was just lucky that traffic behind me didn't piled up on my hood. Cold starting valve flooded the engine. So, good luck and keep your fingers crossed, I'm switching to Honda.
I really don't think that your experiences sound that bad...although the number of head replacements seems unusually high. I guess each of our opinions are shaped by our exeriences. Yours seem to have been bad, mine have not. I ran my
79 diesel up to 290,000 before parking it, and it never stranded me or broke down. I have a 91 Jetta with 148,000 miles on it, and 86 jetta with 125,000 and neither gave me any major engine troubles. If anything, I would have more complaints about non-engine issues than engine or transmission issues. My friend still drives a 92 GTI with 200,000+ miles, no engine problems...but did have an early issue with Cats not lasting. I guess I have been lucky.
I don't think you are wrong...in general, Hondas have been quite reliable and trouble free. Any car will have problems, but I think Hondas have to be on the low end of the scale.
GEtting stranded on a freeway must suck, but a car letting you down for the frist time at 63,000 miles sin't exactly horrible. For most people that is 5+ years of normal driving. If I can go that long between major problems, I figure I am doing pretty good.
I doubt you'll regret switching to Honda...they make a nice car.
When the engine spat all the water out I had to make the 10 mi to the asphalt on one gal. of water an old miner gave me. With stop'n go I made it to first gas where I filled all empty beer bottles I had, with water. The 200 mi to home took me more than 8 hours. The tow was prohibitive and it was weekend. Next morning at first crank the gasket popped. New gasket popped again. Head warped. Replaced head from junk yard. 30k later completely rebuilt the head. Car totaled around 230k. with engine running excellent. Last month I changed head on the Fox I have now. I bought the car used and discovered later that one plug was crooked. After 3-4 changes the thread was shaved. I had a complete head with only 50k on it ($32 junk yard). Not the Fox purrs like a kitten. the other head I changed was on an Audi 5000 of a friend.
It was horrible to see in your rearview traffic coming at you with 80 clix, while I was parked in the fast lane, and 101 between LA and Ventura is famous for rear ends. I was just lucky. That breakdown made me buy Bentley and Craftsman. The car was a little over 2 yrs old.
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