At 11:56 AM 10/9/2008, george jannini wrote...
>   It ain't opinion.  Data is gathered from annual questionnaires sent
>to CR readers.  We calls 'em like we sees 'em.

Self-selected responses are not statistically valid. No one is forced
to return a questionnaire, and people with problems or gripes are more
likely to respond. The dealer service experience will also sway the
results.

That means that if someone has multiple issues, they're more likely to
respond with all issues they may have. For example, if person A only
has an engine problem, and it is easily resolved by the dealer, they
may not bother to return the questionnaire. OTOH, if person B has
multiple problems, and dealer service is poor (as with many VW dealers,
in my experience), they are more likely to respond. The result can be
that vehicles with significant problems across-the-board can show a
worse rating in every category, even though actual number of problems
in any particular area are similar.

There are also things which aren't really engine problems - timing
belts have been mentioned for the 1.8t. The real issue is not the
timing belts, or the tensioners, but that VW's recommended maintenance
interval is unrealistic. For my 1.8t, VW says 105K miles for timing
belt replacement, even though it's widely known in the enthusiast
community that 60K is what's reasonable. There have been lots of
failures on cars between 60K and 105K. I'm not aware of any when
they're changed every 60K. But of course, if another manufacturer gives
a realistic maintenance interval, then the VW engine would look worse
for reliability when compared.