Complaint Review: Volkswagen VW of America

Why I will never own a VW again.

Part 1 :

I went to a local dealership that I knew well and thought I could trust to purchase a VW Tiguan. The sleezy finance person pulled the worst type of bait and switch and ended up leasing me a car I didn't even want with the worst possible terms. He gave me less then 70% of the real KBB value for my trade in and wrote the worst contract possible. I signed it, so it was my fault for thinking I could trust this company that I knew. I wont mention their name because they admitted guilt and gave me some money back after I complained 100 times but still doesn't change how VW & their dealers do business.

Part 2 :

However, a year later, the 2015 VW Tiguan was being driven by my wife. The breaks completly failed and thankfully she was driving very slowly in a parking lot. She drove it into a tree in order to stop in because there was zero response form the breaks.

There were witnesses in the car to what happened and no matter how many many time she hit the brakes, flat to the floor, it just rolled forward. 

We immediatly contacted VW, who refused to look at it and said we have to get it repaired by the insurance company before they would investigate. This made no sense because how could they see the problem, after it was repairs. I fought with them and after 20 phone calls with supervisors and maangement I agreed to take it to get repaired.

I then called them and he told me to drive the car 30 miles to a dealership and they would be waiting with a loaner car and mine would be inspected. I arrived at the dealership and they knew nothing about it and had no loaners. They also told me, exactly what I suspected, that they couldn't do anything anyway because it's been repaired.

Back and forth with VW did nothing and their attitude was basically that it's fixed now, so you're good. They refused to do anything else, or even appologize for screwing me around with taking this to a dealership that they hadn't even spoken to.

My wife is terrified of the car and doesn't even drive it. We literally have a $299 a month leased car sitting in a garage. I can't get rid of it because how badly I was screwed over by the dealership and it has no resale value because everyone has figured out that it's a really shitty car. 

So bottom line

• Terrible / borderline criminal dealers.
• Downright dangerous vehicles with major mechanical flaws
• Terrible VW backup or support after a serious accident involving their defective vehicle
• VW management purposfully made me repair evidence, so they could avoid responscibilty without even inspecting the vehicle.

VW... Never again!