In October 2016 – like the owner of a 2015 VW Golf who made this video, and Melissa Ryan in Australia in 2011 – I had a 'catastrophic transmission failure' and a complete loss of power in my two week old 2017 VW Golf SportWagan, after an uneventful round trip to Arkansas. The car had 1,000 miles on it when this occurred. It was a terrifying experience, and could have easily resulted in the loss of my life on that toll road where average speed is 60-70 miles per hour. I was in an inside lane in busy (but not rush hour) traffic on an Austin, TX toll road about 3:30 in the afternoon, and I slightly applied my brakes when seeing a potential slowdown ahead. When I tried to accelerate again, the car would not respond to the gas pedal, the RPMs moved into the red zone, the motor was racing and making a loud high pitched sound, and the car slowed to 15 miles per hour despite frantic pumping on the gas pedal. I could have easily been killed in that situation, being on a busy toll road in a car whose transmission had 'lost consciousness'. Cars began to slam on their brakes, honking while swerving around me. I finally made it to the shoulder at 15 miles per hour and then rolled to the exit ramp. I coasted into a parking lot and turned off the engine. After sitting for 10 minutes or so, I turned it on and it appeared to be normal. I cautiously made my way home on the side streets. The VW dealership has had my car for a couple of weeks now and said today to come get it - that they cannot replicate my transmission failure, and that they have determined that "the car works as it is designed to work". They said that I could contact Customer Care, and I am in the process of doing that. I had hoped that I would not be required to reclaim my vehicle, but I am scheduled to do that today. I have seen many online statements that VW Customer Care is not helpful in situations such as this, when the dealership has not been able to replicate this one-time catastrophic failure - and thus I am not hopeful of the outcome. This model has a DSG transmission, which has apparently had problems off and on for several years and resulted in a global recall of thousands of VWs in years past. I bought this car because I needed something easier to handle and less expensive than the one I was driving. But I will never trust this car again, having come so close to a critical accident in which I could have lost my life. If I had not bought this car on credit, less than a month ago, I would park it in the VW parking lot and walk away. But I have worked hard for good credit and cannot afford to be saddled with such a payment default.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
In October 2016 – like the owner of a 2015 VW Golf who made this video, and Melissa Ryan in Australia in 2011 – I had a 'catastrophic transmission failure' and a complete loss of power in my two week old 2017 VW Golf SportWagan, after an uneventful round trip to Arkansas. The car had 1,000 miles on it when this occurred. It was a terrifying experience, and could have easily resulted in the loss of my life on that toll road where average speed is 60-70 miles per hour. I was in an inside lane in busy (but not rush hour) traffic on an Austin, TX toll road about 3:30 in the afternoon, and I slightly applied my brakes when seeing a potential slowdown ahead. When I tried to accelerate again, the car would not respond to the gas pedal, the RPMs moved into the red zone, the motor was racing and making a loud high pitched sound, and the car slowed to 15 miles per hour despite frantic pumping on the gas pedal. I could have easily been killed in that situation, being on a busy toll road in a car whose transmission had 'lost consciousness'. Cars began to slam on their brakes, honking while swerving around me. I finally made it to the shoulder at 15 miles per hour and then rolled to the exit ramp. I coasted into a parking lot and turned off the engine. After sitting for 10 minutes or so, I turned it on and it appeared to be normal. I cautiously made my way home on the side streets. The VW dealership has had my car for a couple of weeks now and said today to come get it - that they cannot replicate my transmission failure, and that they have determined that "the car works as it is designed to work". They said that I could contact Customer Care, and I am in the process of doing that. I had hoped that I would not be required to reclaim my vehicle, but I am scheduled to do that today. I have seen many online statements that VW Customer Care is not helpful in situations such as this, when the dealership has not been able to replicate this one-time catastrophic failure - and thus I am not hopeful of the outcome. This model has a DSG transmission, which has apparently had problems off and on for several years and resulted in a global recall of thousands of VWs in years past. I bought this car because I needed something easier to handle and less expensive than the one I was driving. But I will never trust this car again, having come so close to a critical accident in which I could have lost my life. If I had not bought this car on credit, less than a month ago, I would park it in the VW parking lot and walk away. But I have worked hard for good credit and cannot afford to be saddled with such a payment default.
- mnaustin, Austin, TX, US