Volkswagen Recalls Nearly 800,000 Cars

Return of The Jetta

The Force be with you. Always.

-e

And here we see the renowned German build quality.

Oooooh! Burn!

-e

These cars aren't built in Germany but in Mexico, that's why

Don't blame the Mexicans. Volkswagons have always had electrical problems.

That is sort of strange why VW, Mercedes and Audi seem to have a greater problem with electrical than other cars, even GM. Why is that? VW buys the electrical from outside sources...so in reality, it is not VW but the vendors it chooses that have problems, right? They need to change vendors or be more rigorous with their requirements.

I have a 97 Golf (Mexico) and a 99 Passat(Germany) which have been fairly trouble free, neither is affected by this recall.

Even Toyota has had recalls lately. Cars are getting to complicated.

Bet you've never owned an MG. Electrical system by Lucas, Prince of Darkness:

Lucas -- inventor of the first intermittent wiper.

Lucas -- inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.

The three-position Lucas switch -- DIM, FLICKER and OFF.

The other three switch settings -- SMOKE, SMOLDER and IGNITE.

The original anti-theft devices -- Lucas Electric products.

"I've had a Lucas pacemaker for years and have never experienced any prob...."

If Lucas made guns, wars would not start either.

Did you hear about the Lucas-powered torpedo? It sank.

It's not true that Lucas, in 1947, tried to get Parliament to repeal Ohm's Law. They withdrew their efforts when they met too much resistance.

Did you hear the one about the guy that peeked into a Land Rover and asked the owner, "How can you tell one switch from another at night, since they all look the same?" He replied, "It doesn't matter which one you use, nothing happens anyway!"

Back in the '70s Lucas decided to diversify its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product they offered which didn't suck.

Quality Assurance phoned and advised the Engineering guy that they had trouble with his design shorting out. So he made the wires longer.

Why do the English drink warm beer? Lucas makes refrigerators, too.

Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. Joseph Lucas invented the short circuit.

Recommended procedure before taking on a repair of Lucas equipment: check the position of the stars, kill a chicken and walk three times sunwise around your car chanting: "Oh mighty Prince of Darkness protect your unworthy servant."

Lucas' builds AC circuits into every car: On, Off, Both.

Lucas Motto: "Get Home Before Dark."

-e

If proof were ever needed that you owned an MG..............

Yep. And one more for the road:

A Lucas R&D tech was overheard one day complaining to no one in particular, "No matter how much I cut the wires, they're still too short!"

-e

as mexican i can say that the reason is not because they are built in here. just that everything has something that dont work as it should, in this case the problem is a swich, not the construction.

Really? Mine says "Hecho a mano en USSR."

-e

This is Hitler's Curse. For those of you who did not know, Volkswagon means 'folks wagon'.

This was a conceptual brainchild of Hitler, who thought everyone should have their own cheap car for under $1000. Workers would contribute weekly earnings towards it, and after they paid a certain percentage of the total, a factory would start building one. Hundreds of thousands of workers bought in to this.

Of course, none were ever delivered. The 'Folks Wagon' factories were quickly converted for mass production of armoured Eurasian occupation vehicles.

Just an FYI...Volkswagen means "people's car", not "folks wagen".

For the last few years VW/Audi has not followed the cheap car model you describe, nor does it have anything to do with "Hitler" these days...no more than Mitsubishi has to do with the Zeros that bombed Peal Harbor.

How about BMW? They made airplane engines for the world also.

VW is a company like any other trying to make money.

The questions is why have they typically has poor quality electrical parts.

Is it just coincidence? Why can't they seem to solve it?

The British forces took over the VW factories to try and generate income for Germany after the war. The point about German manufacturing is there quality control is second to none - usually!

As a volkswagen technician, I have to deal with this recall everyday. And it's not the brake lights themselves, it's the brake light switch that goes on the brake pedal. The current switch recall N4, is the 4th or 5fh recall for a new and redesigned brake switch. I just don't know why they can't get a 4-pin mechanical contact switch right. The recall only takes about 4 minutes to do so it's not too big of a hassle to the customers.

mike

Who is the manufacturer of the brake switch?

I suspect Cherry made the switch for the trunk of my 99 Passat.

"The current switch recall N4, is the 4th or 5fh recall for a new and redesigned brake switch."

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Perhaps they're mounting it on the wrong pedal?

-e

A friend has a Jetta affected by this recall.

Recapping his problems: Brake Switch (twice), Door open micro switch, door unlock actuator, electronic dash display and the electronic (center) controls for the emergency lights and other control switches and lastly the door window raise/lower attachments (plastic) broke.

It all because the Germans still dislike you Americans, In the UK we don't have so many specific problems all cars have equal amounts of problems. It is because we pay willingly for over priced rubbish we always have done. Take Micro Soft you pay half what we have to your cars are alot cheaper as well. (in every way).

VW are not any worse than any other car company. I worked for a german owned electronics company that sold Audio Video equipment, it was awful, I was their repair agent for ten years they had most stuff made in Taiwan, China, it was cheap and nasty. I had to often spend many hours putting right fundermental errors.

The Germans were very good at over complex engineering, their roads are better than most but they pay a fortune to keep then upto standard. We just pay a fortune to have roads at all. If Britain still ruled the world we would just have started on the first part of the first freeway section after the two thousand public enquirey failed to prevent it being built. The cost over run would be twenty times first guess, and we would be just be getting over our tenth strike, for longer tea breaks.

Our cars would run for ever on a new synthetic fuel, but they would fall apart with rust after a year and a day. The one thing the Japanese tought us was quality matters. Our best cars come out of the Nissan factory and go for export. We can't afford them. Blair and Brown are bleading us to death.

"It all because the Germans still dislike you Americans"

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Brainwave, you are your own punishment.

-e

We will trade you Blair for Bush!

It ain't all that good over here, brother!

You know what they say, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence...until you look up close!