Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Passat and quality mirage

At work yesterday i passed by my bosses car and noticed the parking lights on. Mentioned it to him and he asked me if i would shut them off in his Passat. He's got leather and all the goodies. I opened the door, shut off the lights and closed it. Then it came to mind- what a quality sound. real solid. Then passed experience came to mind of my leased Jetta of two years ago. One nagging problem after another. I started thinking that the quality of a car is sometimes deceiving. Not to say the Passat isn't a good car, it probably is. But it's about 30 grand. I wondered if it has the Jetta reputation. I kwow when he bought it the A/C wasn't working and some other problem.
So, i'm happy with my Contour and it's been great. the only problem so far is the nasty recalls wasting time.
My next car has to have the entertainment of a Contour and the quality materials of a Passat or similar car.

My father has always said you can tell the quality of a car by how the door feels (how it closes, specifically). VWs are not bad cars at all, they're simply Audis with different emblems.

Oh and next time put this in Off Topic.

the jetta and golf are made in mexico while the passat and van are made in germany. that explains why jettas and golfs have many quality issues while the passat doesnt. read that in consumer reports.

i owned 3 vdubs in past yrs...two gti's and a 91 passat gl....all were basically great cars extremely fun to drive but i got tired of the repairs needed and goofy plastic parts breaking or melting

i bought the contour because of how german it felt or how much it reminded me of my vw's

im hoping the quality of vw has improved over the yrs as im thinking that i will be trying them again once its time to buy another car...i was a ford man and a cub fan but i cant take the poor poor dealer service anymore

My friend has a Golf and stuff was breaking rather early, and the guys at the dealership were dicks. But again, it was built in Mexico )vs Germany).

Our family car is an 01' Passat, and I have had no problems. It drives like a dream, and as the closing of the door indicated, it is a real solid car. I wish Ford could learn from the craftsmanship that was put into the Passat.

My favorite door closing sound is the 1970 Buick I have. Very solid...

But I was very impressed when I test drove a VW VR6...from what I could tell, very well built...

Do not blame quality in a country or its people but rather in the manufacturer. Most of all vw parts are build in Germany and the cars are put together in mexico. the ones to blame are VW executives for cutting production cost. I spend a summer in that plant in mexico (intership) and I know of a lot of things they do to save money etc. Ultimately the custumer is the one who suffers.
Same happened with Ford,GM etc. In order to save money they will sacrifice Quality.
I know of at least 50 factories in Mexico that build parts for European and American manufactures that way this Corporation save money cause that way they do not have to deal with the Union,law suit and high labor costs.
with a 2 hours pay you can pay a week pay in other countries like Mexico. You do the math how much is that in savings
Just my 2 cents!

I always wondered why people think VW's have such wonderful quality? At the same time, I wonder why they assume that the cars built in Mexico are of inferior quality? For the most part quality is inversely proportional to cost. Any manufacturer can build a quality vehicle, but can they produce it at the 'best' assembly line speed? Probably not, so they skimp. Further more, if the VW Puebla plant produces shoddy work, it is because that is what VW allows. It has nothing to do with the plant being in Mexico. More than anything they allow lower quality to go out the door because of the markets the units were destined for.
As for the 'wonderful' VW quality, here is an example of a VW Passat Lemon (read JonnyX's post). And it was built in Germany!

As for blind brand loyalty, can anyone explain that to me?

VWs are just flashy but not well built from my experience. My mom's 1998 passat wagon is falling apart. I went home to see my parents a couple weekends ago and the rear driver's side door is sitting there with no interior panel on it. I asked her what that was about and she said that she took it into the dealer (I can't actually remember what the original problem was) but they told her they didn't know how to fix and left the panel off and said if it happened to get fixed somewhere else they wouldn't be upset. So the door doesn't open, there is no window switch hooked up and it looks horrible. On the upside there is much more room in the back seat...
They have had non stop problems with that car, there are a bunch of things either broken or breaking on it. It has been way less reliable than my dad's 99 contour sport. Plus it is slow (1.8T with 5spd atx) and sort of embarrassing to drive since it's a baby blue station wagon.

/VW Rant

-CtrAltDel