Truly and utterly disappointed in my most loved car brand.

I have always been a die-hard VW girl. Never drove another brand other than my beloved VW as they were once, a long time ago, a very reliable and cost effective brand.

I cannot say the same anymore. I bought my 2.0L Tiguan Allspace brand new in August 2019, and have done all my services as per the usual service intervals. I had a service and maintenance plan on the vehicle. My warranty ended in August 2024, and now in November 2024, I have issues with my car randomly going into limp mode, and this too, on a road that is considered extremely high risk for hijackings.

When the problem first happened, I went in to the nearest dealership, and I was told that the thermostat and the water pump was a problem. It costed me over R20000 to fix this issue. It's now barely a month later and once again, my car goes into limp mode on the very same road, at quite a late hour. According to the dealership in question, nothing untoward was picked up during services. And based on my dashboard, there was absolutely no indication that something was wrong with my car. So the question the now comes up for me is: If the dealership had supposedly run diagnostics on my car at this last visit, and did their checks during all other services, and despite all theses checks, could not pick up any issues, how am I supposed to smell when there is a problem???

I have now once again contacted VW Customer Care and laid a complaint. Over R 20 000 spent, and the problem still persists??!!

This was supposed to be a safe car in my humble opinion. I feel completely deceived and disappointed in this brand. The customer care agent asked me what my expectations were in terms of outcome. Well, my answer to her was that given that not a single service revealed a problem whilst the car was under warranty and had a maintenance plan in place, and since I had no way of knowing that there was a problem via their fancy dashboard, well then, I am of the firm belief that there was an inherent problem, a problem that was there from the outset which their quality control failed to pick up. My expectation of the VW Team is to live up to their reputation of being a quality car provider, and to take my car, get it fully diagnosed, and make sure that all the necessary fixes are done at no cost to me.

Based on the service history of the car, I am now questioning as to weather a diagnostic was ever done on my car during the 5 year warranty period and during the time my maintenance plan was active.

Is this how VW now operates. Selling us a fairly high end vehicle, with a (not very cheap) service and maintenance plan, after which they only do the absolute BARE MINIMUM during the services. Why NOT DO COMPULSORY DIAGNOSTICS at set intervals too?

I AM SO DISAPPOINTED BY THIS EXPERIENCE WITH MY TIGUAN. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS CAR UNTIL IT STARTED TO GIBE ISSUES WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN PICKED UP A LONG TIME AGO, AND NOT PUT ME AT RISK, GIVEN THE ROADS I DRIVE ON.

I WAS PLANNING TO TRADE IN MY CAR IN JANUARY FOR ANOTHER VEHICLE. WELL, THAT PLAN HAS NOW CHANGED. FOR THE PRICE OF A FULLY SPEC-D 2.0L VW TIGUAN ALLSPACE that will most likely give me yhis type of nonsense again, I felt it was time to look at another brand that oozes safety. I am now seriously contemplating giving Volvo a chance.

But I am still waiting on the outcome of what VW will do with the Tiguan than now sits idly in my garage. I once drove this car with extrwme internal pride. Knew I had the best of the best for the price. I cannot say this anymore.