After getting wires regrounded at the mechanic, the car continues to malfunction. The wiper blades turn on, the entire dash blinks, the seat moves back and forth, resetting repeatedly. If seat is disconnected for safety, the seatbelt does not register as secured. Eventually doors stop functioning, have completely lost lock function, tried replacing battery and sending to mechanic specialist. Still the car malfunctions at random.

- Austin, TX, USA

Power sliding doors actuate on own, without warning, both open and close with no regard to humans or object in the path. Door handles chrome delamination causing severe cuts. Power third row seating motor/frame failure causing seats mounting points to be unsecured. Dealer and VW of America unwilling to correct safety issues without large financial compensation.

- Bakersfield, CA, USA

The contact owns a 2009 Volkswagen Routan. While the vehicle was parked with the key in the ignition, the rear door opened and would not close. The contact turned the vehicle off and restarted it; the door then closed. She stated that once a child's hands got caught in the rear door. The vehicle was taken to two authorized dealers seven times; once the dealer vacuumed the channels where the pulleys were located. The doors hesitated after but did not stay open. The vehicle was taken to a local mechanic for brake issues as the brakes were grinding and was informed that the rear drums and rotors needed to be replaced. The transmission hesitated and the seams were separating on the rear portion of the front seats. The vehicle had not been repaired. There were five recalls for the vehicle but the repairs had not been performed. The VIN was unavailable. The failure mileage was approximately 5,000 and the current mileage was 26,000.

- Orlando, FL, USA

I have had my Volkswagen Routan for about a year and a half. In that time the transmission has gone out twice now. The first time was at 6K miles and it was at the dealer for 2 months before it was fixed. There was every excuse in the book, first they didn't have a tech qualified to fix it so they had to wait on an out of state tech to come in. Parts were backordered and when they came in the "fix" didn't work so they had to order a new transmission. Now at 15K miles I started having more problems with the transmission and the rear power folding seat was broken. I reluctantly took it back to the dealer but was assured that they would be able to fix it in a short amount of time. That was a month ago, and it is still not fixed, they are waiting on parts to come in. Volkswagen's customer care is no help, they say they are working on it but the only thing they have done so far is apologize.

- Millersburg, OH, USA

I have a 2009 Volkswagen Routan. The third row is a bench seat, which has latch compatibility in one place. The owner's manual states that a child safety seat (booster or infant seat) can be installed using the latch system in the center seat of the third row. When a booster seat or an infant seat are, in fact, installed in this third row, the child is actually positioned in between the outboard seat and the center seat, due to the position of the latch "bars", and the child's head is in between the center and outboard headrest, and is not protected by either headrest. This also means that neither the center seatbelt or outboard seatbelt fits across my child as it should - it is not across his shoulder. I took the car to our local VW and they told me to call Volkswagen directly; when I did, I was put in touch with a member of the safety team who completely dismissed my concerns and told me that if my latch didn't seem to be in the correct positions, then I should just not use the latch. When I asked to speak to someone else that would take my concerns seriously (the child is not protected by the seatbelt or headrest when using the latch in the third row at all!!!), I was told there was no one else to speak to an that all the Routans were made that way as a "convenience" for folding down the seats.

- Mahomet, IL, USA

I am writing you due to an incident that happened to my child concerning the VW routon minivan. We were looking at one on display at hickam air force base this past Saturday, the 4th of July., 2009. The back hatch was open and my 7 year old found buttons that powered the last row of seats. These buttons lifted the seats up and down. To my horror I all of sudden heard my 3 year old screaming. He was standing in the car directly in front of the last row of seats with his foot lodged in between the seat and the floor. The power lift was still running and smashing his foot. There was no sensor that stopped the power seat. I feel this could be very dangerous. What would happen if a child's head got lodged in this mechanism. Luckily my child had crock shoes on and was able to pull his foot out of his shoe but there was quite an indentation mark from where the seat was pushing on his foot. The doors in minivans have sensors--I believe these power lift back row seats should have some sort of sensor. I would hate to have a child get killed by this.

- Honolulu, HI, USA