When transmission oil is cold, everything drives perfectly. As soon as the temperature gauge rises just like any car should, not overheating just to normal warm running temperature. Then the symptoms start showing up. The automatic transmission starts having hard time shifting into gear. The valves get sticky and that delays them to shift properly on time. That causes it to bang into gear or even missing the gear completely as you drive.

A theory to the cause of this problem, could either be missing oil caused by a leaking transmission or really old burnt oil that accumulated in the valve body, like a sort of gunk that cause the valves to be sticky. My solution. I haven't done it yet, but I'm hoping to take the body valve out, clean it as best as possible, maybe order a fix/cleaning kit online, buy new transmission oil and change the transmission filter as well. Hopefully that will fix it.

I love the tip tronic gear shifter. But after using it for less than a year, somehow, it wouldn't go back to automatic anymore. One would think this system was built to be used a lot. VW of Katy TX, (not where we bought the car) was generous enough to fix the stuck it when it was still under warranty.

Over 3 years and maybe 50k miles later, there has been leaking stains in our garage, and we noticed that the gear shifts were VERY ROUGH. Actually, SCARY ROUGH. It's in the shop today, and I'll find out what the problem is. If this would cost me an arm and a leg, I'll be really pissed.

...update, I'm pissed! It's a $4 to 5K expense to fix this $7K (KBB) car! The transmission is busted on the 3rd gear and the mechanic said it's what he expected from this make-year-model.

I WOULD NEVER BUY NOR RECOMMEND A VOLKSWAGEN AGAIN!!!