This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
The contact owns a 2009 Volkswagen Routan. While the vehicle was parked with the key in the ignition, the rear door opened and would not close. The contact turned the vehicle off and restarted it; the door then closed. She stated that once a child's hands got caught in the rear door. The vehicle was taken to two authorized dealers seven times; once the dealer vacuumed the channels where the pulleys were located. The doors hesitated after but did not stay open. The vehicle was taken to a local mechanic for brake issues as the brakes were grinding and was informed that the rear drums and rotors needed to be replaced. The transmission hesitated and the seams were separating on the rear portion of the front seats. The vehicle had not been repaired. There were five recalls for the vehicle but the repairs had not been performed. The VIN was unavailable. The failure mileage was approximately 5,000 and the current mileage was 26,000.
On Monday, October 4th, 2010, I pulled into my driveway and placed the 2009 Volkswagen Routan in park. The engine was still running while I finished up a phone call through the bluetooth and proceeded to listen to the radio while cleaning out the van. I walked around the exterior of the vehicle leaning in to clean the interior of the car. I needed to go inside the house, so, standing outside driver's side of the van I reached across the seat to turn off the engine and remove the keys. As soon as I did this, the van jolted backward and continued to travel down my driveway. My upper body was still inside the car. I tried to depress the emergency brake with my right hand while I held tightly onto the steering wheel with my left. I wasn't able to stop the car but I was able to turn the wheel so that the van crashed into a tree on my property, instead of going into the street. When the van hit the tree, the force threw me out of the vehicle and onto the driveway. I was taken to the hospital by my husband where the found that I had broken 2 ribs, sprained my left shoulder and sustained extensive soft tissue damage. I also suffered several cuts and scrapes and numerous bruises. At this point in time, nothing has been done to correct the failure.
I have had my Volkswagen Routan for about a year and a half. In that time the transmission has gone out twice now. The first time was at 6K miles and it was at the dealer for 2 months before it was fixed. There was every excuse in the book, first they didn't have a tech qualified to fix it so they had to wait on an out of state tech to come in. Parts were backordered and when they came in the "fix" didn't work so they had to order a new transmission. Now at 15K miles I started having more problems with the transmission and the rear power folding seat was broken. I reluctantly took it back to the dealer but was assured that they would be able to fix it in a short amount of time. That was a month ago, and it is still not fixed, they are waiting on parts to come in. Volkswagen's customer care is no help, they say they are working on it but the only thing they have done so far is apologize.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Orlando, FL, USA