1. oil was leaking and we repaired it in a local garage. A day later we noticed the oil sludge problem - which told us oil something, stop engine. We called the VW dealer in hartford, ct, and they suggested to bring the car in immediately otherwise it will impact the engine. We immediately took and droped it at the VW dealer and they called us next day telling the oil is not getting into the engine. Everything is blocked. They suggested to repair it otherwise the engine will be dead. We asked them to repair and paid close to $1800. They have replaced bunch of pipes, and parts but labor cost was lot more than parts. But I learned on the internet, that this is an existing problem and VW is aware of it. I read thru few forums on the net, and they all suggested, if I do not have all the oil change receipts, they will not cover the repair charges. But I am surprised, that VW dealer never mentioned about the existing problem, I had to learn thru internet. 2. check engine sign comes all the time on my dashboard, first time I took it, they repaired (same dealer) fixing and replacing small parts and again most of it is labor charges and less parts. We paid about $2000. All these repairs happened within couple of months of each other. Again 10 days later, the check engine sign comes and they repaired again few things and charged about $500. A week later the check engiine sign comes again. We call the dealer and he says bring it in. I am sick and tired of taking this car every week to the dealer and paying them lot of money every time I take it. My car is 2002 VW Passat 1.8T. I heard there are lot of known problem with this model and dealer never mentioned to us once.

- Simsbury, CT, USA

I have a 2002 Volkswagen Passat gls 1.8T whose engined has stalled on 3 different ocasions while operating the vehicle at high speeds on an interstate highway. VW dealers have attempted to fix the problem on 3 different ocasions and I am not satisfied that the problem has been permanently resolved. The problem has been diagnosed as an ignition coil failure which causes one cylinder to shut-down during the engine operation. This happens randomly due to a faulty original equipment part. On two of these ocasions the car has lost power and shut down while operaring the vehicle on I-95. On the second ocasion I was being tailgated by a tractor trailer which almost overrun me after the sudden loss of speed. I had to veer out of the highway crossing several lanes to get out of the truck's way at the springfield interchange in northern Virginia. VW has not responded to my letters or requests to permanently fix this problem. I would like you to force them to recall all 1.8T engine-equipped vehicles with this known problem (see New York times auto section Feb 2/2003) before there are incidents of this failure where there are fatalities.

- Glen Allen, VA, USA