Upon starting the engine in my 2008 VW Touareg as normal to leave, the engine turned over to start, but sounded like it was turning over longer than usual. I grabbed my key in the ignition to turn it off. A few seconds later, I hear a loud pop, from under the hood. A few puffs of white smoke emerge. I open the hood and see the intake manifold had exploded and was in pieces.

- Poway, CA, USA

April 21, 2008, my wife finished her job and called me that she will be home soon. Few minutes later I got the call from her telling me that something has happened to our 2008 VW Touareg that there was a big explosion and smoke was coming from under the hood. She was very disturbed not knowing what just had happened. I arrived at the scene and noticed that hood had some dents from the inside out. I lifted the hood and saw fuel intake manifold completely destroyed. My wife was shaking, people form work were asking what happened" I towed my car to VW service to find out what caused the explosion they could not pin point what really caused it. I searched the internet and find out that this is not the only time it has happened. When calling VW of Canada I was told, because the car has no warranty they can not do anything and I will have to pay for the repair out of my own pocket. My wife cried when I asked her to get her stuff from the vehicle, before it was towed away. I do not know how will I persuade her to drive this car again or even to buy another Volkswagen. We own a 2017 VW golf as well. Do I want to keep it? I do not think so. My fate in VW has diminished. I always told everybody that this is a car for people to enjoy. Was I wrong"

- Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, AZ, USA

Takata recall. It happened several months ago, when I felt my car is hard to accelerate during driving. So while I am driving on the highway, it cannot go beyond 35 mph, which is really dangerous. It felt like the fuel cannot be powered on. I took the car to a dealership. They first recommended changing the intake manifold, which was also recommended from dealer's body shop, where they had done some inspection a few days ago. After they changed the intake manifold, then they found the fuel pressure is low, and then they replaced the fuel pump. ( they didn't really detected the problem at that time from what they had said later, but they had to replace one item at a time to see if things could get better). After they replaced the fuel pump, then they found pressue did not get better, so they supposed the high pressure fuel pump was also broken. I had to follow their instruction to replace the high pressure fuel pump as well. I really feel this problem is very strange. But seems after replaceing high pressure fuel pump, the fuel pressure became normal.I did complain to the manufacture and they helped me a bit to verify that the dealer is not doing anything unprofessional doing the repair process. But in spite of the repair process, this fuel pump problem is worth to be considered a recall issue.

- West Lafayette, IN, USA

The contact owns a 2008 Volkswagen Touareg. When the contact's husband attempted to start the vehicle, it failed to start. The contact's husband proceeded to look under the hood to see if the battery needed a jump; however, nothing appeared abnormal. When another attempt to start the vehicle was made, the manifold exploded on top of the engine, which produced smoke and caused plastic pieces to fly everywhere. A piece of plastic struck the eye of the contact's husband. Medical attention was not needed. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where it was determined that the issue was common and the manifold needed to be replaced, including several other parts that were affected by the explosion. The contact was not able to recall the parts that needed replacing. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failures and informed the contact that there were no recalls regarding the failure. The VIN was unknown. The approximate failure mileage was 120,000.

- Nutley, NJ, USA

Went to start vehicle and the intake manifold exploded. Very scary.

- Yakima, WA, USA

The car started to smell like gas even after hours in the garage. We took it to a mechanic which they said that it can be a gas leak.

- Frisco, TX, USA