Driving on a country road with my wife and 2 young daughters, the car suddenly began misfiring and lost power. I was able to coast it to the side of the road. California highway patrol showed up shortly after and stopped to make sure we were alright. Fortunately, we had a cellular signal and we were able to contact a tow service. Unfortunately, the vehicle had to be towed >100miles (for $700) to the dealership. They determined that there was a failure of the high pressure fuel pump. They are sending the fuel out to a lab first to verify that I didn't put biodiesel in it; I didn't. they estimate that I will be without my vehicle for 7-14 days, depending on how badly the debris is inside the fuel line and engine. The dealership does not have a loaner, VW doesn't offer a rental and I'm on the hook for the tow service. I will be out of pocket over $1000 when all is said and done, all because of a component(s) that clearly has design flaws or quality issues. Assuming, VW confirms they will pay for the repair...which I'm still waiting on....updated 09/22/15 updated 3/23/2016 updated 11/15/2017

- Walnut Creek, CA, USA

On November 19th at approximately 4:30 pm, as I was pulling into my garage, the car just accelerated uncontrollably and crashed into my husbands work bench which was against a concrete wall. Damaging front of car, windshield, workbench, steel storage cabinet, etc.

- Bonita Springs, FL, USA

On 11/9/14 the turbo failed on my 2013 VW Passat with the tdi diesel engine. VW knows they are having a serious issue with their turbos on the tdi engine (europe currently has a class action law suit against them). In August I received a letter in the mail from VW extending my warranty on the turbo to 10 years/120000 miles. They are simply waiting for the turbos to fail rather than replacing them on all 2012 & 2013 Passats. This is a serious safety concern, when the turbo fails you loose all engine power (ie. GM ignition recall). This is an extremely dangerous position for VW to put its customers in who don't have the knowledge of what to do in a situation when you loose engine power at highway speeds. Mine did just that, it failed on the highway resulting in no power. I would like to see VW recall these turbos and replace them in all the affected cars before it causes a fatality.

- Bristol , RI, USA

While starting from a stop sign, vehicle seemed to have low power. Vehicle would accelerate, but very slowly. A few miles later, I had to stop for another car that had stopped to turn left into a driveway. When I attempt to accelerate after that car had turned, I had no power (vehicle was still running). I was able to coast to the side of the road, but a vehicle coming up from behind me had to brake quickly to avoid hitting my car from behind. I had the car towed to the dealer, which confirmed a failure of the turbocharger system and then replaced the turbocharger under warranty. Replacement of turbocharger appears to have fixed the problem.

- Penn Yan, NY, USA

Turbocharger failed. Dealer is fixing under warranty. Dealer stated that there have been enough turbocharger failures on the diesel tdi that they are now stocking all turbo parts for repair.

- White Hall, MD, USA