New VW Reliability?

BriceJohnson · **Joined:** Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:33 am **Posts:** 2230

My wife's mini has been fairly reliable, save the chunk that broke off of the flywheel. . .

To be fair, thats the only problem its had, although its a 2006 (so they had had since '02 to work the bugs out).

The fact that Flow sucks so bad doesn't help though. They demolished one of my wife's wheels running it through the car wash (despite being told not to wash it). They refinished the wheel, but still. . .

the VW dealer in Durham does indeed suck. My brother had many horrible experiences with them and his Jetta. It was a nice car, when it was running right. Even more disturbing to me is that this was NOT the turbo motor (it was the supposedly old reliable VR6). 3 mass air flow sensor replacements though is not what I would call reliable. The amazing thing to me was the claim that the MAFS is NOT covered under powertrain warranty.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:31 pm

BriceJohnson wrote:

the VW dealer in Durham does indeed suck. My brother had many horrible experiences with them and his Jetta. It was a nice car, when it was running right. Even more disturbing to me is that this was NOT the turbo motor (it was the supposedly old reliable VR6). 3 mass air flow sensor replacements though is not what I would call reliable. The amazing thing to me was the claim that the MAFS is NOT covered under powertrain warranty.

That is my point about the BMWs. They are great until they need to be fixed. And they don't sell too many BMW parts at AutoZone.

Powertrain warranties seem to exclude lots of stuff so I'm not surprised.

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

Vincent Keene wrote:

That is my point about the BMWs. They are great until they need to be fixed. And they don't sell too many BMW parts at AutoZone.

Just to clear up one misconception -- I've been getting great deals on BMW stuff from the local Advance Auto. They have been cheaper than Worldpac 9 times out of 10 these days.

Keith Quistorff · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 3:53 pm

Vincent Keene wrote:

That is my point about the BMWs. They are great until they need to be fixed. And they don't sell too many BMW parts at AutoZone.

Based on personal experience with the four BMWs I've owned over the past decade, I don't think BMWs are any more expensive or difficult to maintain or fix than most other brands, as long as you're mechanically inclined enough to work on your car yourself. Having post-warranty services and/or repairs done by a BMW dealership, however, is a different story - they hit your for $100+ just to run a diagnostic scan before they even talk about repair costs, and the "book hours" they charge, along with their hourly rates, are ridiculous.

RobLupella · **Posted:** Fri Nov 20, 2009 5:45 pm

Vincent Keene wrote:

RobLupella wrote:

My first car was a 1969 Beetle which was actually very reliable.

Lucky for you it didn't even have a CEL huh?

It didn't even have a cigarette lighter, or a radio, or A/C. Heck the windshield washers were "powered" by air from the spare tire.

The heater worked though...

Pete Guthrie · **Posted:** Fri Nov 27, 2009 7:02 pm

my fathers first car was a bug. though how do all those golfs go rallying in sandblast and make it through? good service i guess. fast little things yes. durable... maybe not. bmw is good though. we like ours. my mothers car, 200k miles plus, mainly original parts .. 1992 bmw 525i sedan stick shift.my fathers bug had a switch on the floor, to go to the reserve fuel tank.. to go up the road a ways till the next fill station. No gas gauge, only a dipstick.. early bugs had no turn signals either.. only flip up stalks.. pulled down by rope i think... 1100cc bug was first post war i believe.

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