Our 2011 Volkswagen Routan that has had no issues until now and currently at 91000 kilometres on the odometer the instrument cluster lit up like a Christmas tree with all warning lights on while driving down a very busy freeway in Calgary Alberta Canada, and my RPMs are at 0 on the tachometer! I veer over through heavy traffic on the three lane to park on the shoulder of the road. I turn on my hazard lights, and try to restart the Routan. No ignition at all, and I cannot get my Routan out of park???

I can turn on all power to the vehicle like climate control fan, radio, hazard lights, but absolutely no power to the starter, and shifter is locked in park with no chance of release.

The worst part of this mishap today was that I had just picked it up from a Volkswagen dealer 15 minutes earlier having the ignition module ( WYN module) replaced for a cost of $547 supposedly to fix this issue as it had happened while driving out of a parking lot 3 weeks earlier. After having it towed back to that Volkswagen store they are telling me now that the alternator and battery are shot! I don’t think so as I had power to the hazards for over an hour and a half waiting for roadside service, and the fan on the climate control blowing. And, the van only has 91,000 kilometres on it!

The store says it will be another $1047 to replace the battery and alternator now!! Forget that! I’m towing it 232 kilometres to Lethbridge where we live, and I will have the technicians in Lethbridge to figure out what the problem is. Obviously it is a real issue that Volkswagen had better figure out! They seem to be so embarrassed about building a van with Chrysler that they are leaving Routan customers without support to have this Volkswagen maintained properly at their stores.

The Star Mobile scanner that this store has for reading codes at this Vdub store in Calgary was broken down, so it took them longer than anticipated to get my Routan back on the road, and then when I return to Calgary to retrieve it, this happens all over again as I’m driving down a busy freeway, and now to know that it’s going to possibly be another $1047 to replace the alternator and the battery? I don’t think so Tim... I think your guessing, and pissing my money away on things that probably don’t need to be replaced to correct this issue!

NOT HAPPY!! I should have taken my glorified Dodge Caravan to a Chrysler store... it probably would have been repaired properly the first time!

Bought the van because we had been looking at buying a Caravan and the Routan was $10,000.00 less. It had everything my wife and I wanted. Over time I realized the vehicle had major issue. One of which was a shifting issue. The vehicle would shake itself to death before shifting out of overdrive. It was even worst when the ECO button was pushed. We took it to Strong VW in SLC and they could not repeat the issue. I think we took it there 5 times at 60 mile drive one way each time. After the warranty went out the shifter stopped downshifting making it hard to traverse down hills.

Yesterday my wife was driving 60 mph and the vehicle just shutdown. She had no power to the breaks or steering and freaked out. she go to the side of the road and put the vehicle in park. Call me and I came out to find out what I happened. Turns out I don't know. I tried everything. Had the vehicle towed to my house and how it sits in my front yard. I would take it to the dealer but the vehicle will not shift our of park. The little shift release button is not showing and it make me feel like it thinks that the vehicle is still in drive. Ugh, the worst decision I have ever made. Never buy a VW Routan.

I've only driven Volkswagens my entire life and I have never had so many expensive issues with a car. Volkswagen is a great brand and you pay more money for the quality and dependability but with the Routan it has been a mess from the beginning. We owned our Routan less than a year when the transmission went out. The check engine light will not go off and since it wont go off my remote start wont work. The engine thermostat is bad , the CO2 sensors are all showing they are bad, something kept draining our battery and it took us $200 to find wires that were crossed, the starter started hard starting so we replaced the fuel injector for a whopping $600 and that still didnt fix the problem so our mechanic looked up what might fix it and has found that Routans computers falsely relay to the starter that there is an issue. So now we are waiting for a part that bypasses the computer to let the car start normally. The other day when I was driving it just shut off and I had to drift out of an intersection to the side of the road and restart it. I feel like I am holding my breath wondering what will happen next. I have loved Volkswagens but this has me seriously considering whether I will ever buy one again. I'm deeply disappointed that they came out with such a crappy car.

While driving Mini-Van engine shuts off (in intersection) lucky to clear road. The warnings on dashboard was

blank then after a few seconds they came on and car started and drove OK for a few days. After several days

it happened again at the same intersection. Repeat restart. Next time I was going approx. 60MPH and engine

shut-off, no power steering and NO BRAKES. Not just power brakes but NONE at all, coasted to stop, it was

night time and head-lights stayed on but radio and warning lights went OFF. I tryed to turn key to OFF but

could not remove key, then radio and warning lights came on engine started and I drove to mechanic....it have been there 2 weeks trying to find problems. This is a very very dangerist situation when fixed I will never buy another Canadian built Chrysler VW again.

Bought 2011 VW Routan S in 10//2014, with roughly 40K miles on it. 7/2016 at approximately 77,000 miles the vehicle began shutting off while I was operating it, all of the dash alert icons began flashing on and off, the headlight flashed on and off, the door locks clicked wildly, then the power steering went out and the car shut down while I was going 55 mph. I let it sit for a minute, assessed what I could, found nothing and started the car again, it turned over and I drove it as the electrical system continued to go haywire, it shut down once more on that 5 mile drive home. When I started it the next morning, it was fine, nothing appeared to be wrong, battery was tested, fuses looked fine, I was given the okay by my mechanic! I thought it was just a fluke....thought.

The vehicle drove fine for a week, then it happened again. I was traveling on a rural highway at 50 mph at the electrical system again went haywire, steering went out, car shut off, I managed to get it to the shoulder safely, I shut it off and got out, called for help. As I stood there, with the keys in my hand, the headlights flashed and blinked at random, I could hear the door locking and unlocking by themselves, this went on for 20 minutes, my help arrived. Remote wouldn't work to unlock doors, we used manual key, we checked fuses which appeared to be fine and ultimately removed and replaced the positive side of the battery, which allowed us to turn the car on and get it home, it bugged out all the way there. At this point I took it to the dealership, under Mopar Max Care warranty, the closest VW dealership that would take my car this month is 70 miles away in another state. We dropped the car off and it's been there almost 7 days, they cannot replicate the problem. I am not surprised by this, I drove the car for an entire week to work, nearly 400 miles and it seemed fine before it happened again.

I plan to pick up this POS, and take the back roads home, crossing my fingers I will make it okay. I am not comfortable putting my family in this vehicle, the fact that the dealership has found nothing wrong with it, or cannot replicate the problem isn't enough insurance for me to put my kids or myself in a potential death trap, this can is a ticking time bomb. I will getting rid of it, since the dealership claims there is nothing wrong, I am sure they will have no problem with me trading it in and for something that operates and is safe. I don't recommend anyone buy one of these, I wish I had read up on them more before choosing this vehicle, my story is that of many other 2011 VW Routan owners on the web. My Mopar Maxcare warranty coverage will prove to be worthless, because no problems were detected, the labor, diagnostics and my rental car will likely not be covered, I'll shell out a ballpark: $800 out of my own pocket to have the POS returned to me in the condition I dropped it off with. Expletives.