I wonder if runner was yellow checkered Crown Vic. It is NYC, not exactly the center of motoring.

you really need to learn better english, Borat.

Yeah yeah yeah, same song and dance. This time next year it will get the “least reliable compact” honor (? if you can call it that) and Stefan will say “This is a great way to end the model year for the new Golf in America. We are excited for the arrival of the 7th gen Golf, which won’t be in VW showrooms for 4 more years”

Uh, were there any other candidates, or did the VW win by virtue of having rented the most square footage?

Yeah, JohnnyC, Most awards are bought anyway, I mean, the Malibu and Aura won in consecutive years.

the new car’s merits were obviously enough to win over the panel of journalists from 25 countries.
We all know most jounalists make about $20K a year and can be bought with a sixer of 20 Oz Pabst.

Clearly all but A4 are non-VW drivers. The reliability may have suffered years ago but now are fairing quite well. They are as reliable as the rest and have an ever increasing resale value. If you want to bash companies for reliability go after the bottom 3. Hummer, Mercedes, and Land Rover. Those, in the 2008 consumer reports, were rated the 3 least reliable car companies sold in America. VW/Audi wasn’t even in the bottom 10 yet every article VW/Audi article posted on here has people bashing them for their reliability yet continue to outsell their competition, have higher residual values, and higher driver satisfaction. It must have been BMW, or Mercedes, or GM, that saw an increase in sales of 8% last year…Wait, those all saw a decrease in sales.

Thanks though…

the “World Car of the Year !” addition to every commercial will help sell some extra Golfs , maybe that’s how they plant to get bigger than Toyota.

*plan instead of plant

@ TornadoGTI – I’m a VW driver myself, very well said! I know exactly what you mean though, whenever I bring up the new Diesel Jetta, it’s like my dad can’t conceive the posibility that it’s more fuel efficient and actually has less harmfull emisions than gasoline lol

Below is JD Powers dependability rating. Overall Dependability: Taken from the Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS), which looks at owner-reported problems in the first 3 years of new-vehicle ownership, this score is based on problems that have caused a complete breakdown or malfunction of any component, feature, or item (i.e., components that stop working or trim pieces that break or come loose).

Buick
Jaguar
Lexus
Toyota
Mercury
Infiniti
Acura
Lincoln
Cadillac
Honda
Porsche
Audi
Ford
Hyundai
Subaru
Chrysler
BMW
GMC
Mercedes-Benz
Chevrolet
Mitsubishi
Volvo
Nissan
Dodge
MINI
Saturn
Kia
Jeep
Pontiac
HUMMER
Scion
SAAB
Mazda
Isuzu
Land Rover
Volkswagen
Suzuki

Love the look of the new Golf and can absolutely see myself getting one to replace my six-year-old MINI, but the reliability issue is a full stopper. My wife won’t hear of getting a VW. She has a couple of friends / VW owners that have been brought literally to tears by terrible, awful, criminal VW build quality. It’s one of the few brands completely barred from our house.

Diverter valve
front differential
starter motor
water pump
PVC valve
throttle control
A/C coolant pressure
rear brake rotors glazing
windshield wiper fluid pump

This is a summary of the problems my brother had with his 05 New Beetle and his 2007 Passat. The Beetle was traded in, he got so sick of it being in the shop. His Passat went through a similar cycle until he ditched it for a Honda CRV — which has not seen the dealership again since it was bought in early 2008, and most likely won’t until the scheduled 33k maintenance.

I would be concerned about VW support if there was a problem. View my VW experience at: http://www.reesphotos.com/VW/
John Rees

Borat – I referenced consumer reports, not JDPA, and needless to say, as an owner of a 2006 VW GTI, my car has been quite reliable. It has its little quirks but has never left me stranded or even given me the feeling of not performaning when I need it to.
02WRXPSM – I have heard of all of those being issues on VW’s in the past but after almost 60k miles, have not encountered one of them.

All of the “perceived” reliability issues aside, people continue to eat up VW’s all over the world, their sales figures are concrete evidence of this. They show no signs of slowing down and because of this, their cars only continually get better.
German cars as a whole are not very reliable, save for Porsche, and people will still always desire them as the epitome of automotive perfection. Sorry guys, not too many people lining up for the Asians like they are for the Germans.

After my VW, which is my first non-american car, I couldn’t imagine owning anything BUT German cars. They have this unexplainable thing about them that keeps people buying them, regardless of their service history.

To each their own is an easy way to sum it up. It just happens that more people “when choosing their own” choose German and VW in particular.

And also, nice to note. My fiance has a 2007 Subaru Legacy, which i suggested she get, and has had an A/C Condensor go out, cracked windsheild due to the windsheild de-icer, and window seals leaking from day one (frameless windows are nice…NOT). The way they fixed the window de-icer issue…disconnect it. AWESOME. Oh, and even though her car is FAR more reliable than mine, she still asks to drive mine to work on a daily basis. Wierd…

TornadoGTI = Need More Oil for VW

sharpie – if you are referring to the fact that VW’s take oil, then let me point out that that is a common trait among turbocharged engines, not just VW’s.

Also wanted to ask, just food for though, how reliable are Lambos and Ferraris/Maseratis? Not very, at all.

Your Comments really should apply to the other 7 million buyers in 2008. Enough said. There is a reason they are the 2nd biggest car company in the world. Unless you drive a Toyota (boring) or Lexus (tolerable at best) then you can’t really say much, can you?
VW Auto Group is far better than any car company in the world. Take your pick. Seat, Skoda, VW, Audi, Lambo, Bentley, Bugatti, and sort-of Porsche.

VWs have really weird problems, like windows falling into the doors….but i own a 01 Jetta with over 100,000 miles on it and i have only put about 200$ into it…. Its not completely reliable but it is more reliable than my parents CR-V witch has pretty much needed a new suspension and a rear axle… and everyone who gets in my car absolutely loves the interior, no other compact car can compete with it…My next car is most certainly going to be another Volkswagen.

Gr8 choice

VW>Honda

those VW cars in the JD Powers study are Mexican built VWs or European ?

Tornado, johnrees congrats your VW is reliable ones. According to JD Powers research it does not happen to often. Actually, it is not US problem only. In Germany VW is not all that well ranked, nor the rest of Europe. Those cars look good and interiors are the best in class, but durability is not something VW associated with. The stablemate Skoda, made of the same parts, is a different story, but lucky us – we don’t get Skodas.

When you put out as many cars as VW, you are bound to have some issues. They produce A LOT of cars.

VR6VW – they do have some wierd issues. My rear window wiper has a mind of its own upon startup, sometimes it just goes by itself. Other than that, which I can certainly live with by turning the wiper on and off again, my car has been great. Nothing that is going to leave me on the side of the road. Which i have never really seen in a VW.

scratchy – I am not sure which ones they are talking about in the JD power studys. I do know that the GTI is built in Germany (actaully final assembly point was Austria) but the majority of VW’s are built in Mexico.

Passats are made in Germany as well. I believe that European quality is higher then Mexican, but there is not statistics to back up my believes. Also, VW group manufacture/sells a lot of cars, not VW. The group holdings are Skoda, Audi, Seat, as well as specialty brands Lambo, Bently and Bugatti. Also, VW assembled in few Latin American countries for a number of years, hence large volume.

“best in class interiors” .. thanks for a good laugh. All theirs cars for save the Passat make me gag a little when I sit inside. The interiors are almost as boring and horrible as GM, and about as efficient as a mule saddle. And VW quality is a concern. Congrats on your decent car GTI, but thats not the case for everyone.

I was considering getting a 08 Rabbit, the test drive was bad. Interior was bad, performance was bad. I lurked a Rabbit owners forum for a while…many issues being reported. Anything from poorly sealed power window controls that would short during rain/snow, to seat fabrics wearing out at less than 30k miles. That is unacceptable. I have a 7 year old Daewoo that is holding up better.

Like I said many times before, this bad rep is a bit unfair I feel. Especially because this notion of quality issue has only been encountered in the US for me. I’ve lived for many years in Europe where the general consensus is that VW’s one of the greatest brands for “regular” cars.

I mean, they used to have the most sold car in Europe for years and years with the Golf, only in the last 4-5 years did they loose that status to the Peugeot 207, which itself was dethroned by the Golf again in 2008. In addition, the most sold car in the world is the Golf with 25 million units. If quality was really an issue, and with how money-conscious people in Europe are, especially when it comes to cars and related costs, I would be surprised they would have been so highly regarded.

Which is why I feel part of the bad rep comes from the cars manufactured for the US market, sold cheaper, and made in Mexico, and part of it is just how expensive and annoying the VW dealers are in the states.

TornadoGTI +1!

We have owned a couple vw’s in the recent years, and one audi a6 that was a company car. we have never had a problem with vw’s, it is why I recently leased a new 2008 passat last year. before that, i leased the mkv jetta. I returned that jetta at the end of the lease like the day i first got it with no problems at all! Being happy with the jetta, i leased the passat. I now have put in about 11000+ miles on it in the last 9 or so months and it has been perfect. Every car manufacturer with at some point show some major defects with their cars. It happened with lexus and their ls460, nissans gtr, and so on. There are millions of people who buy vw’s, there are just a handful considering the amount sold that actually have major problems(which is normal for any car company). I like that the majority of people who have owned vw’s or audi’s post good experiences, and the most negative comments come from those who are biased to begin with and who just base their views on what crap they read on the internet!

I say, go buy a VW and then talk about it. I am a proud owner of my first VW and it won’t be my last purchase with the company. My only gripe is that they are getting too expensive. $40k for a Passat (CC) is a bit too much for the “peoples car” But in the $15k to $30K range, there is nothing better IMO. Above $30k I would look elsewhere but probably not too far as if I were spending that money I would buy an Audi.

VW has a terrible rep for reliability but that is in it’s past and smooth sailing ahead.

orangecones – What are you comparing the VW interior to? The Rabbit is the lowest car in VW’s lineup. I know they are slow and with hub-cabs, not too good looking, but as far as the interior goes (quality of material and fit/finish), what do you consider that is better inside?

Okay, so I tried to post a comment here last night but it decided not to work. Pretty lame since it was a long comment, but here’s the abridged version.

orangecones: I’ve sat in a few Pontiacs and Saturns and I can say that their interiors cannot compare to those from VW. However interior quality is a more subjective thing so I can’t say anymore than that except that I respectfully disagree with you.

As for trying to lurk around car forums to determine the reliability of a car, I don’t think there is a worse way to find out how reliable a car is than by doing that. More often than not, people will post about problems they are having with their cars so that other forum members may be able to help them out and prevent them from making an expensive trip to the dealership. People just don’t post about how well their car is running that day. They may post about how much they love their car, but people will most often go to ask for help with their car. Also, people who post in car forums are also more likely to be enthusiasts. This means their cars are pushed harder and modified, so of course they won’t be as reliable. So reading car forums with the intent of determining how reliable a car is would be a terrible idea because your findings will be skewed such that you will believe the car to be horribly unreliable. Even a quick look at a Honda Civic forum confirms this.

If you want to get a better gauge for reliability, look up long-term road tests or consumer reviews at Edmunds.com. Those cars are driven by real people doing ‘real people’ things. That would be much more accurate for determining reliability.

Lastly, I’m not sure how well those JDP ratings work. The complaints counted may be as frivolous as a little rattle here and there and may not actually be a crippling mechanical defect. While a rattle or a squeak isn’t a good thing by any means, they aren’t going to leave you stranded. So I’ll admit that VWs do have some issues with rattles, but my GTI doesn’t make nearly as much noise as my parents’ Subaru Forester.

never trust a company like JDP&A that has the majority of its funding from companies such as GM, you know they will obviously be biased towards which ever company supports them the most by paying them off. the companies who could care less about them, such as the ones who pay them little to nothing, happen to be the ones at the bottom of almost all of their lists….hmmmm….i smell something fishy!