Simon Legree

I had the same experience with Mercedes. Finally gave up on them. The maintenance cost was almost the same as a light aircraft !

dbd33

This little plane belongs to a mate of mine. It costs less to own than my Beetle. Each trip to the VW dealer costs around $800 even if all they do is change routine service items and reset the warning lights.

acer rose

There's your problem - you're supposed to service a car more than once

We've had no problems with German-built German VWs but they were all older vehicles that didn't get dealer serviced and only we have only owned one in North America.

scaria197

Get a Toyota Rav4..the new ones are pretty nice. If you are down to two..stick with the Santa Fe. We had a VW Routan as a rental and it broke down.

-scaria197

calgarylady

I love suv's but had to be realistic cos my 3 kids all use car seats ( 5, 2,& 6months) so we decided on a Toyota seanna Ce which is a 7 seater van . So you make your choice based on your need.

Mizz Teapot

Thanks guys for all your input . Still haven't decided yet. We looked at the Dodge Grand Caravan over weekend as well (it's true, they are about $10 000 cheaper than the VW Routan). Dodge give us a 5 year warranty, VW just 3 years.

We only have 2 kids, but I'm thinking into the future when family come visit and kids want to bring friends along. This will be our only car, so we must make sure.

Ben W Bell

As others have said, stay away from the Routan. It is indeed built by Chrysler for VW, VW has nothing to do with it other than sales. Oh, and they've stopped making it due to appalling sales, should tell you something.

Cyan

It's all subjective I suppose. I'm the owner of an 07 Passat and it's the best vehicle I've driven to date. Yes, the synthetic oil changes are 100 dollars a shot, but at a service interval of 16,000 km it works out even with cars that need servicing each 5 - 8,000 kms. It takes premium fuel only but that's a small annual expense compared to the driving pleasure derived from the 2.0 turbo engine.

The standard VW warranty is pretty good too - 80,000 km or 4 years. No car is perfect, and I've had minor items repaired under warranty - obviously at no expense to me, but that's what warranties are for.

Oakvillian

And SUVs are somehow not? Given the two choices, I'd take the Routan, but I wouldn't have narrowed my choice to these two - an SUV would never have been in the running as being unnecessary and pointless.

danfolkestone

I can't speak for the Santa Fe, but I have a Hyundai Tucson, and have had no problems in its first seven months. I know various people with VWs, one of whom swears by them but the others have been less than impressed. Apparently it can take quite some time to get parts shipped over from Germany. I gather that Hynundai keep a good stock of spare parts in North America, avoiding the same delays.

dbd33

I don't know where VW sources lightbulbs but I find one breaks every month or so, I order a new one as soon as I notice that one is broken and find that a second one has usually broken by the time the first one arrives. The headlight bulbs are $70.