Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIR BAGS | |||
| 09/01/2011 | |||
| I own a 2002 vw beetle,the air bag light came on,and took it to the dealership and they want to charge around $600.00 dollars to get it fixed.i was doing some research on line about the airbag light coming on,and found out that alot of people who owned the same model year are having the same issue.i think this issue should be a recall since lots of other consumers are having exactly the same issue with the airbag like me. | |||
| 07/26/2007 | 69000 | ||
| I have a 2002 vw beetle. i had an airbag light come on 3 years ago. i had it fixed once. about 6 months later the light came back on and i was told that the propblem may continue. i did not have it fixed again. i am now reading that this is a common problem. why has this not been recalled? | |||
| 12/10/2010 | 65000 | ||
| Seat belt/air bag light came on. took to local, qualified mechanic. they said only vw dealer could fix and reset. dealer said it was lower seat belt harness ($380), but could be more (above $800) and the service writer encouraged us to do the more expensive work. told them to do the harness and see if light would go out, which it did. light came back on around 12/10/2010 at approximately 79,000 miles. just prior to this, we purchased another vw beetle, a 2003 convertible with 69,500 miles with the seat belt/airbag light on. seller said he could not get it fixed by his mechanic and had to have vw dealer repair it for around $380, maybe more. since he made other repairs, we let it go. now we have two to fix at the mercy of the vw dealer. my concerns are several: 1. this is a recurring problem for us and for numerous others (vw beetle forum) 2. the repairs can only be completed by a high cost vw dealer and the computer reset by them only 3. the materials appear to be deficient/defective and the engineering of the harness/wiring system substandard 4. repairs need to be made in the 60-85,000 mile range - a contrived maintenance/repair item that brings windfall revenue/profit to vw dealers in the $400-1,000 range per occurrence when many of the cars are worth only $4,000-7,000. 5. since it is a basic safety item and we don't know if the airbag system works or not, we are forced to repair this problem because it makes us appear as if we are negligent when in fact this problem should not exist and be covered by the manufacturer like emission systems to well past 100-150,000 miles. in summary, vw has colluded with its dealers to create this situation and allow this repair to emerge as a way to generate revenues and profits on cars that would normally not have a reason to be brought in to a vw dealer. it is non-competitive, fraudulent and unnecessary. | |||
| 10/10/2010 | 80000 | ||
| Vw dealer advises that airbag light indicates airbags are disabled and caused by a malfunction in the seatbelt latch assembly costing $386 to repair. vw dealer says this happens a lot. vw dealer said that airbags would not have deployed. vw dealer said that wiring inside the latch just breaks eventually. failure of safety equipment should be an automatic recall and manufacturers should be required to repair defects at their costs and not cost to the consumer. | |||
| 04/15/2009 | 90000 | 1 | |
| 2002 vw beetle. the airbag warning light is on. the diagnosis is that a wire to the driver's side seat belt latch is broken therefore relaying that the seat belt is not latched (false positive). when the air bag light is on the air bag function is disabled. the repair is not of a wire, but of the entire seat belt at $250+. at any time this is a lot but when out of a job may be impossible. as my college-age daughter is the one in the seat, i am left without much choice, but to pay for the repair. this is the third time the air bag light has gone on, all with different diagnosis. why is this not considered a safety issue? the topic is frequent on the web. *tr | |||
| 11/07/2008 | 55000 | 1 | |
| I own a 2002 beetle. it has 55,000 miles on it. two months ago the air bag light came on and won't go off. now, the turn signals won't work. to add to this once in awhile the sun roof will open on it's own!!! the dealer said it will cost about $650 to fix. this is not the first time with electrical problems with this car. the complete lighting system went out, the security door lock system stopped, the rear brake lights quit working, both windows have stopped going up and down. a couple of times the engine won't start and three times it will just shut down while driving. this car has a mind of it's own. luckily no one has been hurt yet. some of this has been recalled and some not. *tr | |||
| 06/18/2008 | 60000 | 1 | |
| For no apparent reason the airbag warning light in my daughter's 2002 new beetle lit up. after a costly ($315) diagnosis and repair it was discovered that there was resistance in the seat buckle. when i scheduled the diagnosis, the service desk person predicted that was the problem. that indicates that this is a common defect. she also said the airbags will not deploy if the light is on. which in its self is cause for concern . *tr | |||
| 11/28/2007 | 1 | ||
| Failure of the front crash sensor to triggered an air bag warning light. *tr | |||
| 04/10/2007 | 1 | ||
| Air bag light has been on for about 3 weeks. not sure what it means.*ak | |||
| 01/19/2006 | 96591 | 1 | 08/01/2001 |
| Dt*: the consumer stated the air bag light illuminated on a continuous basis. the dealership determined the switch in the seat belt needs to be replaced. if the switch is not replaced, the air bag may not deploy in a collision. *jb updates 3/3/2006 - *nm | |||
| AIR BAGS - FRONTAL | |||
| 04/23/2005 | 1 | ||
| Vehicle was on the road when all of a sudden the brakes did not operate when they were applied. as a result, vehicle hit a telephone pole. upon impact, air bags failed to deploy. *ak | |||
| AIR BAGS - SIDE/WINDOW | |||
| Passenger's side airbag deployed without hitting anything, causing consumer to hit another vehicle. driver's side airbag did mnot deploy after hitting vehicle. please add vin. *ak | |||
| 1 | |||
| Was driving 10 mph when another vehicle ran red light, the other vehicle hit the consumers vehicle on the drivers side, the drivers side air bag did not deploy resulting in inkury to the driver. nlm | |||