Consumer Complaint Detail

VOLKSWAGEN / JETTA / 1997

Recalls
0 Injured
Investigations
0 Death
Complaints
No Fire
Components - Details
NHTSA Complaint Number: 004284825 Incident Date: Jun, 14 2004
Consumer's City: WESTFORD Consumer's State: MA
Vehicle Transmission Type: MAN Manufacturers Name: Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.
Model Name: JETTA Model Year: 1997
Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No Component's Description: Electrical system:ignition
Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No Persons Injured: 0
Vehicle's VIN#: Date added to File: May, 25 2021
Date Complaint Received: Jun, 15 2004 Complaint Type: IVOQ
Incident Reported To Police: No Purchase Date: Aug, 07 2001
Was Original Owner: No Anti-lock Brakes: Yes
Number of Cylinders: 4 Date of Manufacturer: -
Was Vehicle Towed: - Description of the Complaints: On several different occasions now my 1997 volkswagen jetta gl has failed to start.because this has happened at night and almost always away from home this has been a potentially dangerous situation. there is never any warning that this is going to happen. the car may be working fine and then the next time it is time to start it, it simply won't start. we have had to have the car towed several times now. once out of a parking garage -at 5:00 pm during rush hour. once i was by myselfon a sunday in a town i was not familiar with at a not very nice gas station getting gas when the car failed to start. i was there several hours before i could get in contact with family members to come and rescue me. each time we have taken the car to a volkswagen dearlership and had it "fixed". my question is how many times do we have to have it fixed???? i have gone on various sites and the comment is that the 1997 jetta has starting problems. if this is so then doesn't this mean that the starter or the wiring is defective. granted the car probably won't blow up because of this but a car should be reliable enough just to start - shouldn't it? we have had the car four years now and have had repeated failures. sometimes it would start eventually but we have had 3 different occasions when it would not start and it went in for repairs. twice ( two different dealerships) we were told it was a bad starter and it was supposedly replaced. the combined cost - $1100.00. the third time we protested and demanded that it be fixed - that time - $150.00. now we are up against a fourth trip to a dealership. i am 56 years old and have had many different cars - old & new, but never have i had an experience like this!!! and i know i am not the only one!*ak