On 11/11/09, I parked my car on my apartment complex parking lot. I left my car in first gear as a safety measure. Next morning (11/12/09) I tried to start my car, but the car was locked in first gear even after pressing the pedal clutch. The car did not turn on but stalled and move slightly forward. Fortunately I had the hand break on. If I did not have the parking break on, I would have moved forward into a bush in front of my parking lot space. I turned off the car, switched to neutral gear and turn the car on. The car turned on and I thought I solved the problem. I put the car on reverse, to exit my parking lot space and again the car stalled and moved backwards. Fortunately there were no car or people behind me. At that point I realized that I could not engage the car into any gear and that the clutch was not functioning. My car is only 4 years old with only 46,000 miles and there is no reason why the clutch would fail so early in life. I read in many forums that the 05-06 VW Jetta has a defective clutch and it could be hazardous for people if the clutch fails while driving. My clutch did not give me any signal of wear and tear, no sounds or difficulty while driving, it was working very well one day and next day it broke down. When I took the car to the dealer, the service manager expected to be a small fix, since the clutch was normally operating on 11/11/09 and it suddenly failed on 11/12/09. After a review, the dealer is charging me $2200, because they need to replace the clutch, the flywheel and the pressure plate. It appears that a VW faulty product is the cause of the failure, but VW does not recognize their mistake.

- Columbia, SC, USA

2005 VW Jetta clutch failure at 26K miles. There is no wear and tear on the vehicle, but my clutch went out while driving down highway. With car disabled, this can cause an accident. VW won't cover this under warranty because they deem the clutch as a normal wear and tear item. I have read numerous discussion boards where people have had the same issue. It's time for a recall of these defective clutches. They are not going out because of normal wear and tear. Defective clutches were made and put in these cars and VW is making customers pay for their mistakes. If I had been in a remote location, I could've been stranded on the side of the road for hours and could've been struck by another vehicle. Also, with the clutch not working, if I had been driving fast, when I applied the breaks, it could've jerked to a halt and I could've lost control of vehicle. This is not acceptable.

- Duke, OK, USA

I have a 2005.5 VW Jetta tdi with a 5 speed manual. It has a sachs clutch. The clutch has been giving me issues for thousands of miles. It finally failed on my way home from work in rush hours traffic and disabled me. I was able to push it to the side of the road and avoid injury on I-96 in novi Michigan. This is a known issue bty the manufacturer, but they are not helping out the consumers. They have a tsb issued on Nov. 7, 2007 #03 07 01. What needs to be done to get VW to own up to the problem and help us out" it is going to cost me $3,000 for the repair not to mention I was lucky to avoid injury on a busy highway during rush hour. Perhaps the next person will not be so lucky"

- Charlotte, MI, USA

Thursday Aug 14, 2008 I was exiting off the highway rt 9 exit 5 in ct. The exit is at the top of a hill so I depressed the clutch and coasted to the bottom. My car is a 2005 new Jetta with 2.5L 5 cyl 5 speed manual. I have about 70,000 miles on the car and have never had any problems with the clutch or transmission. As I started coasting I shifted the car to second gear near the beginning of the exit but didn't release the clutch. I heard a load bang sound and the clutch engaged. The car immediately nose dived and the engine raced to redline. The clutch peddle was on the floorboard and was not functioning. I had to lockup the brakes to force the car out of gear and coasted to the stop sign at the bottom of the hill. I was lucky that no one was following me at the time as I would have rearended for sure. At the stop sign the clutch pedal came up off the floor at the clutch partially work so I drove the car to the commuter parking lot and left it to be towed to the dealer the next morning. Friday at the dealership they said they would fix it but they don't cover wear and tear on clutch parts. The bill would be about $2400 dollars. Because I had 70000 miles on the car I would have to see the parts before I could make that judgment as to wear and tear. So I told them to fix it but I want the parts. The final bill came to $2164.71 dollars. The pressure plate and flywheel showed no signs of abuse or burning. The clutch had plenty of pad left but was broken due to the force of engaging at 60 mile per hour in second gear. The mechanics reason for failure was "pressure plate blew out" and my boss a mechanical engineer said it look like a catastrophic failure not a wear issue. I don't know why VW get to wash their hands of this under a came of they don't cover clutch parts under warranty and why I have to pay for it. If this could happen on a highway it could also have happen at a stop light.

- Deep River, CT, USA

The contact owns a 2005 Volkswagen Jetta. While driving 5 mph, the gear would not change into second or third gear, and the clutch jammed into the floor. The contact was able to pull off the road and drive to the dealer. The dealer was unable to duplicate the failure and are charging $360 for the diagnostic. The contact refuses to pay for the diagnostic. In order to determine if the failure was caused by wear and tear or a manufacturer's defect, the contact was advised to have the vehicle diagnosed. The vehicle was under warranty, but it only covers the repair if the failure was due to a defect. The contact stated that the manufacturer would not admit that there was a defect. The contact will leave the vehicle at the dealer until they repair it for free. The current and failure mileages were 55,000.

- College Park, GA, USA