We bought this 2010 Jetta SE from a liquidator. Never thought to check the power door locks. The next day I learned that the fob will not unlock the trunk. Discovered that one night later, when checking whether I had locked it, I tried the driver's door, it opened and the alarm went off. On further examination, I discovered that the fob activates the alarm system successfully, and sometimes locks the driver's side rear door. Neither of the passenger side doors lock with the fob, or with the master switch in the driver's door armrest, or the individual lock switches on those two doors. Using the key in the driver's exterior door handle will lock and unlock both the driver's side doors, but not the passenger side doors.

I have tested all the fuses in the two fuse panels indicated in the owner's manual (rather disappointed that those listings don't explain all the fuses present) and all are fine. My Chilton's repair manual's electrical diagrams indicate three fuse panels: A, B, and C - which raises the question, where is the third fuse panel? That panel doesn't provide much useful information for diagnosing or repairing the power locks, etc. but states that the typical recourse is to have a VW dealer's factory scan tool used to diagnose the problems. This is crazy expensive. The problems seem to be very common, and VW should be ashamed of themselves for not issuing a factory recall to repair all affected vehicles.

Unfortunately, VW seems to have fallen into the same trap that BMW and Mercedes have in over-computerizing basic electrical solenoid functions - perhaps motivated by trying to be too cute in automatically locking and unlocking doors in the event of a crash. If such fancy electronic requirements are the result of vehicle safety government mandates, then the case seems clear for NHSTA to force VW to make repairs.

My driver's side door started sounding off the alarm. I would hit the button to lock it, so it would set the alarm but not lock the door (which I didn't know at the time). I would hit the unlock button, open it and alarm would sound. That is when I realized the door was not locking. I can manually lock and set alarm. Who knows how long that will last. The cost to repair is $600 which is absolutely ridiculous. So if all my doors do this I am potentially going to spend $2400?!? Hell no. I was told it is it's an internal electrical failure and that the parts department keeps them in stock. They keep them in stock because it's a common problem with VW. Sounds like a recall needs to be made since they 1) keep this in stock and 2) have been well aware of the problem for years. Also, could be very dangerous if someone were in the car and could not get unlocked. I doubt a recall would ever occur since they are on the hook for the emissions settlement.....