It seems that Volkswagen has some things to set straight with its cars in certain markets. After recent recalls over issues with DSG transmissions in China, Japan, there have been reports about engine problems in Australia.
According to a report from the Newcastle Herald, Many Aussie owners of VWs spoke out this week, claiming they had problems similar to those believed to have caused the 2011 death of Melissa Ryan, a 32-year-old owner of a Golf equipped with a manual transmission.
She reportedly experienced sudden deceleration while driving on Melbourne’s Monash Freeway, at which point she was rear-ended by a truck. The driver of the big rig claims to have seen her brake lights working prior to the accident, but he did not see them light up just before it happened – this would suggest that she did not use the brakes.
A coronial investigation (autopsy) recently sparked outrage in Australia, as at least 15 owners of an assortment of VW models also reported having experienced similar issues themselves, said the Australian daily newspaper. The German company’s official side of the story is that cars go into limp mode all the time, especially diesels whose injectors seem to have a fairly high rate of failures on specific car models.
I can totally relate to this, as a content owner of a 2002 Ford Mondeo TDCI myself. I also had the same problem: under hard acceleration, a light would start flashing and the car would go into limp mode. However, in my case, it was all the more frightening because if you kept your foot planted on the throttle, the car would just die completely, taking the lights and (hydraulic) power steering with it. The Mondeo is listed along with the Mercedes ML350 as having similar problems, according to Fairfax.
By Andrei Nedelea
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