2001 VW Golf tdi, 9 years old with 173,000 miles. Driver seat mount (welded to slider) broke and now the seat tilt toward the rear on it's rear pivot point. This metal bracket is about 1/8" thick. This is very serious and can be dangerous if it occurs while driving. I spoke with VW customer care and the reply is; car is beyond warranty and therefore can't help with repair cost, take the car to the dealer and they will diagnose the problem and repair at my cost.

- East Hartford, CT, USA

2. driver's seat lock mechanism (forward & aft motion) failed to engage 1. driver attempted to move the seat forward to use the car for an errand, and the seat would not lock in place. Any pressure on brake pedal resulted in the seat moving back, putting the foot controls out of reach. Driver is 5' 3" tall. 3. local dealer looked at the car, determined that "dust and debris" jammed the under-seat mechanism. Tech cleaned and lubed the piston mechanism, resulting in a temporary fix. "if it ever fails again, " the service manager said, "we might have to replace the part." It should never have failed at all! this is a design defect that should be 100% fail-safe. The dealer/manufacturer should replace such defective units for free. Instead, the dealer said the part is out of warranty, and thus charged $90+tax to repair a safety defect. Outrageous! the problem really stemmed from the original lubricant gelling in the "piston in barrel" mechanism, preventing the piston from engaging the central seat lock rail. The consumer has no easy way to un-jam the complex mechanism. If this had jammed while the car was in motion, on a highway, the driver would have lost control and likely been injured or killed. Luckily not in this case. The design is defective when it results in even one failure. No other manufacturer uses such a complex, vulnerable seat lock mechanism that is prone to failure. They all use a simple system of levers, metal rods and springs to accomplish a reliable seat lock. Please ask VW to recall cars with such piston in sleeve systems to insure 100% reliability...before someone gets killed.

- San Francisco, CA, USA