Volkswagen Passat air conditioner quit working. I took it to the dealer, where all the service has been performed since the car was new. They call and tell me that the compressor has gone bad, and when it failed it contaminated the whole air conditioning system, which include the evaporator, compressor and fluid and that they all need to be replaced and system needs to be flushed. Our car has about 43000 miles and has been "in service" for 4 years and 3 months, which is three months out of warranty. The dealer said they have been doing a lot of these repairs. I think it is way to early for these components to fail. My truck is 10 years older and still has all the original air conditioning parts and work perfectly. I think they need to recall these compressors and take care of this problem.

- Overland Park, KS, USA

A/C was not cooling as normal then the A/C was not cooling at all. The day the A/C system failed I was driving on the highway at the speed of 70 miles per hour and it was raining heavily. All windows to the vehicle fogged to the point where I had no visibility. I pulled over to the emergency lane. I had to wait for the storm to pass to open my windows and be able to see through all windows. I drove the car home and made an appointment with a VW service shop the next day. The shop checked the A/C system for refrigerant and found that it was contaminated. They vacuum/drained the system, refilled it with new refrigerant, and replaced the temperature sensor for the A/C system. The A/C was working as normal for two months then without warning my A/C system was not cooling at all. I took it back the next day to VW service. They found that the A/C compressor shaft was seized to the compressor housing. To repair it they had to replace the compressor, expansion valve, and condenser. They also cleaned to A/C lines, vacuumed the system and refilled it with refrigerant after putting all the parts together.I was without a vehicle for a week. Till this day my A/C system is not working properly. For example, I drive the car one day, the A/C works and normal, and the next day it does not cool at all. It works at random times. To add, the same time my A/C was broken my air bag warning light came on. VW checked it and found that the front passenger side igniter had too much resistance. To fix it they removed the front passenger seat and bypassed the front passenger side airbag plug. Then they checked the seat harness and reinstalled the seat. My air bag warning light is on again. Moreover, the sunvisors lights didn't work, shift knob was corroded, the rubber seal to the satellite antenna rotted away, and both tail lights on the interior started to burn and look melted. All was replaced under warranty. Good for that because I couldn't have been able to pay for all the repair costs.

- Hialeah, FL, USA

We had few failures on VW 2007 Passat wagon; first was a recall on one of the software parts (approx 28 000 miles); then ac pipe system recall; then we had an oil leak (37 000 miles-no damage or warnings prior to that)-dealership fixed it without much explanation; laud noise from the engine- gasket on one of the vales in the engine failed (45 000 miles)-no prior warnings-fixed without much explanation from the dealership except that if we keep driving? car will use more gas then usual...

- Schertz, TX, USA