My daughter bought her first car in late June from a reputable dealer. A 2002 Jetta with 69K, beautiful car, ran perfect. While in college in another state the auto transmission would not engage in reverse unless the car was warmed up for 10 to 15 minutes. This started with 77K on the car. She drove the car home, 8 hr. drive, and had me deal with it. VW dealer say transmission fluid burnt with metal shavings, needs a new trasmission for 5K. This is a sealed transmission which my local mechanic will not touch, we live in the sticks, and closest VW dealer is over an hour away. A transmission that you can't sevice should not go bad with such low miles.

Started having a shifting problem (rough) and progressively became worse. Intermittent at first then within 6 months, became a full time problem. Transmission (tiptronic 5 speed) would hang for a few seconds then bang into the next gear. Same on downshift and would strain the seat belts at times. Now the transmission will cause the engine to rev to 6800 rpm and shift from 1st to 5th, and from 5th to 2nd on downshift. Top end of engine rebuilt 2 years ago due to the timing belt broke @ 75mph, had to replace 19 of the 20 valves and do extensive head work. ($3900.00) Had a VW dealer in Escondido Ca check it and wanted $4600.00+ to make it right. Drove it a few more days and had a few more estimates from $1500.00 to $3500.00 . Found a shop in Poway Ca for about $1800.00 to replace the "valve body". Valve body comes with the solenoids (7) that control any and all shifting up or down, in auto or manual mode. I'm taking it there ! They were honest, didn't charge for the check, didn't shoot me a line of crap about other problems, just told me what the cause was and what the cure was.

( Steve @ Poway Transmissions)