general problems of the 2007 Volkswagen GTI

There were no specific events leading to the failure, only time. The high mounted 3rd brakelight on my 2007 vw Gti is failing. It's full of condensation, and that's causing the bulbs inside it to fail. When I went to replace them, the owners manual informed me that only the dealer could do so. Upon taking it to the dealer, they informed me that they would have the car several days as they had to dismount several body panels, cut them open, then replace the bulbs and glue everything back together. I was also warned to essentially expect body damage, and that the bill for all this would be substantial. All this to replace a bulb? that's insane, and I felt like that was a poor enough result that most people would deal with the safety issues instead of replacing it.

Rear high mounted stop lamp assembly failed( led's burned out) due to moisture getting in. When asked about replacing the lamp, vw's response is that the old spoiler containing the stop lamp has to be cut off of the hatch. This is a violation of fmvss 108 which requires that replacing the bulbs be simple and require only common tools. The car is less than a year old and they want me to pay 700 dollars to replace a brake lamp.

The 3rd brake like on my 2007 Volkswagen Gti formed condensation and had to be replaced at the dealer by cutting off the spoiler since it was not removable from the outside surface. The process outlined by vw warns of possible body damage during this process, which I also found after the repair. This part is not user serviceable, and is very costly if it has to be done outside of warranty.