200k report 2018 Tiguan

[RBT]

They can.

But there's also plenty of 7 year old and / or 150,000 mile cars out there that haven't had an engine disabling or limp mode event ever occur.

So I'm having a little trouble being overly impressed with the reliability of OP's car. Maybe your standards are different, though.

Respectfully, my standards for maintenance and reliability are pretty stringent. (When my 94 BMW is serviced at the local dealer - it has 200k - they park it in the corner of the indoor car reception area, with cones around it. My other two vehicles, both trucks, are similarly clean.). But I Understand your point and it has merit. But having taken half a dozen vehicles into the high mileage category (250k plus) when you are past 100k there is no question that you are at greater risk for what I call a stranding failure. It’s just the reality of owning an older vehicle. It doesn’t happen all the time but in my experience it is a real risk. There are a few vehicles, like our Toyota trucks, where I think the risk is lower, but even there all of those vehicles have required repairs over 100k. (A lot of Toyota owners simply ignore worn suspensions and noisy pulleys but they will wear out and fail too.). But a lot of people don’t want to drive a PreRunner, 4Runner or a Corolla.

If you have spent time in Europe you will see many VW taxis and related brands like Skoda with very high kms. But generally speaking my experience is that Europeans, particularly the German, take proactive maintenance more seriously and I do think that European cars are less tolerant of owners ignoring maintenance and needed overhaul and I think that contributes to the perception that they are unreliable because candidly a lot of Americans are clueless when it comes to maintenance. As I said originally, for the first 100k I think you will find that most new cars are pretty reliable today.

Have a good day.

 

[skyactiv]

The 2013 GTI I bought new and sold to my middle brother has over 200k on it. He is a WM pharmacy manager and uses it as his work car. It hasn’t been trouble free but still has the the original turbo.

 

[RBT]

The 2013 GTI I bought new and sold to my middle brother has over 200k on it. He is a WM pharmacy manager and uses it as his work car. It hasn’t been trouble free but still has the the original turbo.

Anyone who says a car has been completely trouble free at 200k is either ignoring maintenance or overhaul items, or simply lying. That’s the reality.

 

[andrew_j]

Impressive, but at the same time, 7 years/200K is almost 30K/yr.
Cars that accrue a lot of miles in a short amount of time tend to be less problematic.

Agreed , curious how the 200k-250k range goes.

 

[edyvw]

Maybe it's just me, but #1 and #2 seem like kind of a big deal? A water leak into the cabin just 4 months into ownership? Could have wreaked all kinds of havoc - mold, electrical issues, etc.

And limp home mode with a $1k+ fix at 151k? Depending on where that happens (like out of town or on a road trip), that's a major problem in my book.

Overall, not bad, I guess? Depends on what you are comparing to.

Yeah, totally different from Sienna sunroof issues that have price tag between $5,500-6000.
Limp mode can be for various reasons. It is ECU way to protect engine and ALL manufacturers have that, including Toyota.

 

[edyvw]

Anyone who says a car has been completely trouble free at 200k is either ignoring maintenance or overhaul items, or simply lying. That’s the reality.

^ This.
VW in general has better suspension than Asian counterparts. When someone says car has 200, 250k and they never had a problem, I don’t want to get into that car.

 

[edyvw]

Yeah Toyota isn’t impressing me lately either. Seems every month there is a group of recalls into the hundreds of thousands from an array of auto makers. The push for meeting efficiency standards has engines and transmissions pushing the limits

Different manufacturers have different standards when it comes to when to throw limp mode. For example, BMW will throw CEL for smallest issues, so driver DOES NOT ignore issues, not because it can’t run next 50k like that. O2 will throw CEL for smallest discrepancy between units.
VW for example didn’t have failing 8 speed Aisin transmissions. They are programmed differently than Toyota. Toyota on other hand? Oh boy…

 

[trd1zz]

Yeah, totally different from Sienna sunroof issues that have price tag between $5,500-6000.
Limp mode can be for various reasons. It is ECU way to protect engine and ALL manufacturers have that, including Toyota.

Never owned a Sienna. But if I did, and it's sunroof leaked water into my new car's interior 4 months after I bought it (like OP's VW), I wouldn't necessarily be happy with the reliability.

And of course, all manufacturers CAN throw you into limp mode. But if my car actually DID throw me into limp mode when it was only 5-7 years old with 150k miles, and the reason was due to failure of a completely non-maintenance item such as a wiring harness (like OP's VW), again, I wouldn't necessarily be happy with the reliability.

Everyone's different though. Depending on what else you've owned and how much trouble it's given you, maybe you would be happy with the reliability despite these 2 issues.

 

[edyvw]

Never owned a Sienna. But if I did, and it's sunroof leaked water into my new car's interior 4 months after I bought it (like OP's VW), I wouldn't necessarily be happy with the reliability.

And of course, all manufacturers CAN throw you into limp mode. But if my car actually DID throw me into limp mode when it was only 5-7 years old with 150k miles, and the reason was due to failure of a completely non-maintenance item such as a wiring harness (like OP's VW), again, I wouldn't necessarily be happy with the reliability.

Everyone's different though. Depending on what else you've owned and how much trouble it's given you, maybe you would be happy with the reliability despite these 2 issues.

Sienna is junk, period. Leaking sunroof or not.

I don't think you understand what limp mode is. It is protection. I had limp mode in Sienna, in Land Cruiser Prado (multiple times), in Honda Pilot (oil pressure sensor, twice) and BMW (well on track, bcs. oil temperature hit 300f), and some other vehicles. Limp mode is there so you DON'T end up stuck on the road, but to get you where you need to get without damage to whatever system is affected. System can be affected for numerous reasons, and not necessarily bcs. quality of part. Wiring harness can cause all kind of issues across the systems. All new cars are like Christmas lights, everything is in the line. One failing system can wreak havoc on a completely unrelated system.

I know that in the Toyota world, vibrating brakes are normal and not considered an issue, leaking struts are "a Toyota thing," but the mental pretzel some people have over these topics, where they show insecurity about their own choices, is astonishing.
We should bet which appliance vehicle that is here "go to" car, can do 7-8 track days a year like let's say, @TiGeo VW SportWagon, which somehow can be daily, run track, and still live well beyond 100k. Kind of like my BMW.

 

[RBT]

Never owned a Sienna. But if I did, and it's sunroof leaked water into my new car's interior 4 months after I bought it (like OP's VW), I wouldn't necessarily be happy with the reliability.

And of course, all manufacturers CAN throw you into limp mode. But if my car actually DID throw me into limp mode when it was only 5-7 years old with 150k miles, and the reason was due to failure of a completely non-maintenance item such as a wiring harness (like OP's VW), again, I wouldn't necessarily be happy with the reliability.

Everyone's different though. Depending on what else you've owned and how much trouble it's given you, maybe you would be happy with the reliability despite these 2 issues.

I don’t think it is a question of being happy about limp mode - your point is fair. It’s just that after driving many cars for almost four decades of driving, and taking more than a couple to 250k, it has been my experience that once you get north 100k it is normal for cars to need repairs and overhaul, irrespective of brand. I actually like Toyota a lot, to use a brand that is often called reliable, but I also think the owner demographic is tolerant of things that would not fly with a BMW owner (eg brake shimmy) and they ignore a lot of repairs and overhaul that I don’t as an enthusiast. So while our toyotas have been very good trucks, I also cannot say that in relation to other vehicles we have owned -Ram, BMW, Honda, Chevrolet, Subaru etc. - that Toyota has been great and the others sub par, if that makes sense. They can all have issues and the better ones tend to be the models that have been out a few years and that have proven drivetrains, irrespective of brand. Have a nice day. TGIF.