One hot August morning, after a great night at the fair visiting grandpa and a great monster truck show, headed home on the 405 freeway in the carpool lane. Singing away with my 9 yr. old (gotta love Kid's Bop), and suddenly I realize that the accelerator is not accelerating!! I had about 45 seconds from that realization to steer my vehicle into the miniscule center divider shoulder, thankfully, that part of the carpool lane had a shoulder, just ahead there wasn't one. That's right, you guessed it, my fuel pump had gone out. Southern California residents know that the carpool lane is considered synonymous by many drivers as the "faster than fast" lane. That was indeed the case as my child and I sat in my car, in the sweltering 87 degree heat, listening to drivers honk, with no AC for fear of draining battery, waiting for a tow. Dealer checked out the car and said fuel pump had failed, wasn't in stock and vehicle would be in shop for several days.

My old 2004 Jetta had a myriad of electrical idiosyncrasies, that I lived with ( phantom wipers in 80 degree blue sky days, a clock that never did keep time, radio's blown each time the car lost full power, sunroof opening and closing sporadically), but nothing life threateningly, dangerous like this. After I had the vehicle towed to my VW dealer, I walked across the road to a competing dealer and started looking for a new vehicle. No more VWs for me, I don't feel safe in this vehicle.