general problems of the 2003 Volkswagen Passat

Teenage son lost control of the vehicle on the highway. Vehicle was then involved in a front impact collision at highway speeds with the side of a flatbed truck. Bumper, headlight assemblies pushed up into the engine compartment. Drivers side curtain airbags deployed. Neither driver side or passenger side front air bags deployed. Vehicle was declared a total loss.

Tl-the contact owns a 2003 Volkswagen Passat. The vehicle was diagnosed or repaired. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 15v483000 (air bags). However the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Ec.

We were just leaving our friends house it was approx. 6am in morning little cold out so I turned on the seat warmers which is always nice touch to warm you up on those cold mornings, anyhow about 4-5minutes after seat warmers were turned on passenger side where I was sitting got rather warm and then hot and then actually start smoking and flames came out there was fire right under my bottom. I freaked out jumped out of seat . . I was yelling fire fire fire you could smell plastic burning as it was smoking and burning. My boyfriend poured water on and smothered out the fire with his jacket I'm a bit leary of the car because I don't feel its safe. I had my boyfriend unplug harness under seat and now my air bag warning default light and bell stay on. I am shocked to see several other complaints regarding this issue and that vw people haven't addressed this. I feel this car is a death trap. Very unhappy with this vehicle.

I have an air bag failure which will prohibit me from passing the state safety inspection. The air bag repair is over $1000. Is there a waiver or a process to dispute this? are there resources to help consumers in these type of cases?.

I've spent over $8000 towards vw dealership attempts at fixing the horn, radio, homelink, climate control (a/c and heat) rear passenger side window, heated seats, dashboard panel lights, and defroster flap. Vw replaced abs and brake light module, but only fixed the horn. Vw stated they are not responsible even after I paid for them to fix the above problems and they are still unable to determine the cause of the problems. I request reimbursement from Volkswagen for the repair attempts and related expenses. Current vehicle mileage: 127,000.

The driver's side head airbag (air curtain) of a 2003 Volkswagen Passat w8 sedan deployed spontaneously while I was driving the car. . . A few minutes later, when the car was stopped, the steering wheel airbag deployed spontaneously. . . I suffered a permanent wrist injury and am suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. . . The incident, which happened during a test drive, was reported to the management of the vw dealership for which I was working and to vw of America by the management. . . I sent a detailed incident report to both vw of America and vw ag (germany) ceos. . . A vw customer service representative admonished me to not make a fuss about the incident, saying it was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence unlikely to happen again, and advised me that my letter to the vwoa ceo had been received but that he had not read it. . . The owner of the dealership advised me in a special meeting that he had been contacted by a vwoa management representative who was unhappy with the complaints I had made to the customer service representative about the lack of follow-up by vw and the means of alerting vw owners about the incident I was considering. . . I left the meeting believing my job and future in the car business, at least selling vw products, would be in jeopardy if I took any affirmative action such as filing this complaint. A promise that I would be informed by vwoa of the reason for the spontaneous deployment has not been fulfilled and I have not been contacted by any vw representative in almost four months. . . Recently, I was fired because of an incident, I consider, related directly to the incident. . . I am filing this report because I have just learned that another person has, reportedly, experienced the spontaneous deployment of an airbag in a vw car and I am now confident that what I experienced was not a freak occurrence.

Following is NHTSA complaint: make: Volkswagen model: Passat year : 2003 crash : no fire : no number of injuries: 1 odi id number: 10023337 date of failure: January 18, 2003 component: air bags details: the driver's side head airbag (air curtain) of a 2003 Volkswagen Passat w8 sedan deployed spontaneously while I was driving the car. A few minutes later, when the car was stopped, the steering wheel airbag deployed spontaneously. I suffered a permanent wrist injury and am suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. The incident, which happened during a test drive, was reported to the management of the vw dealership for which I was working and to vw of America by the management. I sent a detailed incident report to both vwoa and vwag (germany) ceo's. A vw customer service representative admonished me to not make a fuss about the incident, saying it was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence and advised me that my letter to the vwoa ceo had been received but that he had not read it. The owner of the dealership advised me in a special meeting that he had been contacted by a vwoa management representative who was unhappy with the complaints I had made to the customer service representative about the lack of follow-up by vw and the means of alerting vw owners about the incident I was considering. I left the meeting believing my job and future in the car business, at least selling vw products, would be in jeopardy if I took any affirmative action such as filing this complaint. A promise that I would be informed by vwoa of the reason for the spontaneous deployment has not been fulfilled and I have not been contacted by any vw representative in almost four months. Recently, I was fired because of an incident related directly to the incident. I am filing this report because I have just learned that another person has experienced the spontaneous deployment of an airbag in a vw car and I?m confident that what I experienced was not a freak occurrence.