I was driving a short distance from my house (2 miles) when I noticed my car not driving normally. I had driven it the 3 previous days with no problem. I finished my errand, then proceeded to head home. It was noticeably getting worse. I smelled something at a stoplight, not sure if it was my car, or car alongside of me. I saw a light had come on, on my dashboard (ck. Engine?) and looked at the gauges, everything was normal. I decided to head home first to have my neighbor follow me up to repair shop. Parked in driveway, went inside my home to call her, looked out my open front door about 5 minutes later where I saw smoke and smelled it. Ran out, my auto was seriously smoking heavy brown smoke, ran next door to call 911, and auto burst into flames and caught house on fire also. I am now in a hotel because of major fire and smoke damage.

- Costa Mesa, CA, USA

Our 2004 VW Touareg V-8 has the following problems despite five trips to the dealer: I) hesitation during acceleration; II) pulls hard to the right; and III) shifts roughly at low speeds. Past problems include: Iv) the latch on the rear door broke, such that it came crashing down on my wife's head; V) the rear seat belt latch wouldn't work; vi) the car shuddered badly when you tried to make a turn at low speeds (e.g., while parking) and vii) the flat tire indicator went on even though the tire was neither flat nor low. We have an arbitration scheduled for 11/9/05 under California's lemon law.

- Los Angeles, CA, USA

While driving vehicle hesitated. Consumer pressed down on the accelerator pedal and vehicle moved intermittently on its own. SRS light appeared on the dashboard and remained on. Consumer drove vehicle to the dealer for inspection, and mechanic placed the vehicle on a diagnostic machine. The mechanic determined that the sensor shaft for transmission and engine needed to be replaced. This problem was a design flaw defect. Consumer informed the mechanic this problem was not acceptable and had not been resolved.

- West Palm Beach, FL, USA

When making right or left turns the vehicle's engine hesitated. The consumer was concerned that the failure would result in an accident.

- Zanesville, OH, USA

When trying to accelerate on occasion the car will stall and the accelerator will not produce any action. I was in an intersection trying to merge into traffic and got into the intersection and tried to accelerate and could not. Very scary. The car has done it repeatedly under less threatening circumstances.

- Lexington, KY, USA

2004 VW Touareg V8. These vehicles exhibits frequent but inconsistent delay in throttle response. This issue arises most often in heavy traffic when the driver comes to a rolling stop. When shifting inputs from the brake to the throttle the vehicle will frequently exhibit a 1-2 second delay before there is any response from the engine. This has two dangerous consequences. First, the driver may increase the throttle pressure waiting for a response, then getting more then expected acceleration when the engine finally responds. Second, the driver could be left sitting in an oncoming lane waiting for the engine to respond and take the vehicle safely across the intersection. I have reported this to two different VW dealers, one of which turned the complaint to VW. There has been no action taken, or further response from VW.

- Powell, OH, USA