We are the original owners. The car has been shifting rough and we were out of town for a wedding (late June), closed on a house and moved, (early July) and a family reunion (late July) so didn't have a chance to get it into the dealer until early April 2011. My wife had forgotten the 7 year part but remembered the 100K mi. part of the warranty extension. Onboard computer indicates Valve Body needs replacing. Dealer Est. $2,100. Mfgr Warranty was extended to 7 yr/100K mi last Fall, but the car has gone out of warranty as of 7/11/2011 (7 yrs from date of purchase). VW of America offered a coupon for $750 towards purchase of a new VW.... not likely. Reading postings, this is not uncommon and many have had to replace or rebuild their transmissions. Looks like we will have AAMCO do the work but won't know the final price until they tear it down and inspect. Very disappointed that VW didn't offer to help with repair costs. Will save receipts in case there's a lawsuit as this problem is pretty common.

Volkswagon has destroyed any honesty or credibility by lying to its customers. They are attempting to create an illusion of honesty by saying they will cover the cost of defective valve body assemblies for 2004 volkswagon beetles. There is a big difference between saying you'll fix a defect and actually doing it. The truth is, they will not repair anything, unless people coordinate a legal action against them. Consumers of this automobile have inherited the worst of lemons. The 2004 beetle is one of the most expensive cars to buy only because the repairs and parts will double the overall cost of the vehicle itself. By the time an owner pays this car off he or she will have paid 2 times for the car. From what I've been learning the defects and costs are not only isolated to the beetles, but to most of the Volkswagon fleet. I would be happy to learn that they had gone out of business. Not because they had defective parts or products, but because they tried to cover their liability for the defective valve body assembly with a flimsy extended warranty letter that lied to its customers and gave them false hope that Volkswagon would help its customers pay for the cost of its shoddy engineering flaw.

It's a shame that Volkswagon continues to flourish by taking advantage of its customers. In truth, should Volkwagon keep stealing from the American people? Shouldn't they be held accountable for thier product? Shouldn't the attributes of Honesty and Integrity be rewarded instead of Dishonesty? I hope these thoughts haven't fallen short of the truth.

The car went into "limp mode" about 12 miles from home. It dropped into first gear and limped home at 15 mph. Next morning it performed normally. That night started into town, it dumped again down to limp mode, then refused to move at all. Had to dolly it home. Dollied it to dealer a week later. They did the computer scan and said it was the "valve body" on the transmission. Wanted $1700 to replace it. Dollied it back home. Tried to get someone to look at it for a second opinion. No one would touch it. A German in the German Air Force who worked for VW in Germany agreed to work on it. Scan he did indicated "valve body", so he removed that and we tried to order one from the same dealer. The dealer now tells us the part is not available and a new valve body won't fix it anyway. That tells us they have other beetles with the same problem and they couldn't fix those either. Talked to VW of America several times. They were not helpful at all and basically would not cooperate in any way. Not under warranty and they won't do anything. We have since learned that it has a unique transmission used only during 2004 and almost everyone who has a beetle with that transmission has had the same problem. Can't get parts. No one will work on it. VW of America is aware of these problems and make no effort to help. We would like to find out how to start a class action lawsuit! Basically, we have a $16,000 piece of junk that we drove for about a year and it is now completely worthless!