Consumer Complaint Detail

VOLKSWAGEN / PASSAT / 2003

Recalls
0 Injured
Investigations
0 Death
Complaints
No Fire
Components - Details
NHTSA Complaint Number: 004091611 Incident Date: Oct, 23 2004
Consumer's City: SKOKIE Consumer's State: IL
Vehicle Transmission Type: AUTO Manufacturers Name: Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.
Model Name: PASSAT Model Year: 2003
Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No Component's Description: Fuel system, gasoline:delivery:fuel pump
Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No Persons Injured: 0
Vehicle's VIN#: Date added to File: May, 23 2021
Date Complaint Received: Jan, 11 2007 Complaint Type: IVOQ
Incident Reported To Police: No Purchase Date: Jun, 17 2004
Was Original Owner: No Anti-lock Brakes: Yes
Number of Cylinders: 4 Date of Manufacturer: -
Was Vehicle Towed: - Description of the Complaints: Relative to nhtsa recall 06v017000, my 2003 volkswagen 1.8t passat, which i purchased as a certified used vehicle with 25k miles, experienced what later was determined to be a fuel-pump failure at approximately 29k miles. this incident occurred in october 2004, while i was traveling at highway speed on a rural interstate following a weekend trip to a neighboring state. i had been using the cruise control to travel at the 65 mph speed limit, and had accelerated to pass a semi-tractor-trailer. having passed the truck, the cruise control did not kick back in as usual when i took my foot off the accelerator but, rather, the car lost power suddenly and completely. i was able to navigate to the side shoulder without property damage or injury, where i arranged for towing to the nearest town with a vw dealer (the tow-truck driver sent to retrieve me nearly was side-swiped/killed by a passing semi while loading my vehicle onto his flatbed, however). it being a sunday, my trip was disrupted and i was forced to stay overnight in the dealer locale until the problem could be addressed the following day. because a new fuel pump was not in stock and could not be delivered for another 2 days, i returned home in a rental car and arranged to have my car transported to my local dealership once the repair was completed, which turned out to be some 9 days later. expenses of the disruption were reimbursed completely by vw of america. i became aware of the subsequent recall only recently via an internet website on vw passat mechanical problems. i have not been contacted by vw about the recall, but i presume that it was because my defective fuel pump had been replaced before the recall action was initiated. *jb