On Saturday Jan 10, 2014, while cruising at approx 45 mph driving straight, on a dry and clear day, the ecp dash light came on with no warning and the power of the car diminished significantly slowing down immediately and acceleration was extremely slow making it unable to maintain traffic-flow speed and driving uphills was even worse, slowing down and not able to maintain speed until over the hill.(Virginia hilly roads). I took car to the local VW dealer, terry VW lynchburg, va who told me that the 2 timing chains and all associated parts would need to be replaced with an estimate of $3536. I mentioned to them about the issue relating to the 3.6 engine in this make/model/year having a repeated problem with the oil pump bolt that holds these together working loose and that VW had recognized this issue and replaced the "oil pump bolt" with a new model bolt on the assembly line after this same issue had occurred repeatedly with other owners of this same 3.6 engine. Same issue recorded multiple times in vwvortex.com, passatworld.com, carcomplaints.com, volkswagendefect.com, arfc.org, and others. I contacted VW of America who denied this problem existed and that they would not assist in the repair whatsoever. Since this is not an isolated issue and VW is not ignorant of it, and it causes the car to slow down immediately without notice, this could have been a serious issue had I been on a hi-speed highway and/or in congested traffic, VW needs to recall these vehicles with this engine and replace these items as this is not a normal failure item on most vehicles with is low of mileage.

- Lynchburg, VA, USA

My car was burnt on highway week ago. All my families were on the car that time. I called the police office, the policemen and firemen arrived and put out the fire in 10 mins. 2 days later, after we checked the car with the investigators from the fire dept., they found that there are 2 holes on the engine, the oil sprayed out and touched the high temperature area inside the car so the fire happened!

- Taipei, TN, USA

My VW Passat 2007 stalls and/or does not start. It has stalled while driving on the freeway and then sometimes does not start at all. Sometimes if tried after a while it may start. I'm told it is a high pressure fuel valve problem that is part of a recall but my VIN does not qualify for that.

- Plano, TX, USA

Engine lost power and began misfiring. Engine light came on. Dealer tells me two days later there is carbon build up and needs manual decarb. Cost is 1K. Engine has run on premium fuel and has regular maintenance. This is a hazardous condition for a very low mileage vehicle.

- Happy Valley, OR, USA

Oil bolt failure on 3.6L engine resulting in complete mechanical failure of engine. Cost of repair is approximately $6000 which is not coverd by any warranty. I understand this is a known defect in this engine which VW did not recall, but recognized by making made spec changes in 08.

- Spokane, WA, USA

We purchased our 2007 Passat 3.6L 4-motion wagon and had issues with the airbags from day 1 (literally), and had the dealership replace the sensors under both seats within the first three days. Within a month, we began having issues with the tire pressure monitoring system. New tires fixed the TPMS issue for about a week, then we began having issues again. A year after we bought the car, my wife had an accident (rear-ended someone), and the airbag did not deploy. We had to have the entire front-end repaired - $10,237 worth of repairs. After the repairs were completed, there was so much external noise than there was before the accident. Over the next 8 months, we began having issues with the check engine light coming on (and staying on). When the car shut off one day, right in the middle of (busy) traffic, I took it back to the repair shop to have them look at it. They took our 2007 Passat to the VW dealership, which made a blanket statement that none of the existing issues were related to the wreck. Therefore, the repair shop would not do anything more to fix the car, and since the car was no longer under warranty, the dealership would not cover the repairs either. On October 29, 2012, 14 months after the accident, the check engine light came on again, as it had many times before. However, on October 30, 2012, the engine died completely. We've since discovered that the bearings are completely gone and were told it will cost us $7,000 to replace the engine. But that still doesn't include repairs to the previously existing issues with the tpsm or the airbag.

- Winston-Salem, NC, USA

Driving home while stopped at a traffic light my car felt like it jerked forward though my foot was on the brake. I stopped my car briefly to get dinner, took a phone call and decided to leave. I put my car in drive and it would not travel forward. I put it in reverse and it would not respond. I looked at the display which indicated I should depress the brake pedal, I did. The message disappeared but the car would still not travel. I checked the parking brake button, it was on. I depressed that but it would not turn off. Everytime I put the car in drive the same depress the brake message. I called the dealership. It was suggested I keep trying to disengage the parking brake. "the car thinks the parking brake is on" I have never used the parking brake on this car. It came out of the showroom. Finally the brake disengaged. My second stop resulted into the same scenario. My fear is that this happen while I am driving. I am taking my car into the dealership in a few hours if it will move in. This car has been ideal up to this event.

- Allen, TX, USA

Over the last few months, starting in March, we have had increasing problems with our 2007 vs Passat wagon. When stopped at a stop light, or stalled in heavy traffic, the engine suddenly just cuts out and dies. The car will restart again, but this can happen repeatedly. Also, while driving, the car will suddenly begin to lose power and start to de-accelerate for a few seconds before pressure on the gas pedal reconnects to the engine. It's terrifying. We have taken the car in to numerous service providers (all authorized VW) and they are unable to detect a problem on the VW plug in computer analyzer or see anything wrong on visual inspection.

- New York, NY, USA