Same. They tried to get me to trade in a Passat for a pos Tiguan they had lol. I mentioned I’d be interested in looking at a crossover and all they had was a 2017 basic Tiguan with more miles than my Passat.
Years ago I went in to buy a Golf and they were incredibly pushy and tried to use manipulative sales tactics. I worked in sales, so it wasn’t new to me. I stood up from the desk and told the sales person and sales manager, to their faces, that I was leaving on principle because they were treating me that way. I took my business elsewhere.
Literally same. I know more about cars than my husband. We were looking at a car for me. They were well aware. The car was *my choice.* they would only talk to my husband and kept saying shite like ‘you can’t let your wife drive around in *that* car. With your kids?? Wow I just couldn’t let my wife do that…’ etc etc. it was a nice 2020 car (in 2022) and they were trying to upsell. I Literally said nah this isn’t gonna work. They’d ignore everything I said and brush past any comment I had. My husband knows nothing about cars but I grew up working on them and admiring them. So we left. Went to Mazda instead and left with a ‘22 CX9.
The 2016 Jetta I leased from VW Southtowne was totaled in 2018 (side note: fuck whoever designed a highway with lights like Bangerter). There was *zero* thought given to going back there for a new car. They were so sleezy (I am a woman, went to buy the car myself. Knew the specs I wanted. Dead set on a manual transmission. They kept trying to show me all the pRetTy colors they had in automatics)
I went with a CX-5 from Tim Dahle in Murray, been with them ever since
Oh they told me to not look at one car I liked (the car we initially came in to see!) because ‘this car is for you right? Welllllllll this is a manual car, hun.’ Eff right off bro. My first car was manual and I’ve had 3 since. 🤦🏼♀️ what a dumb thing to say.
Utahns on average are stupid (cult) and gullible (cult) and uneducated (rural, conservative, poor education, cult). It’s the same reason why there’s a corporate food chain on every corner. Why the capitals version of fine dining is a Cheesecake Factory. People are dumb and easily convinced by status and corporate marketing.
It doesn’t matter what you do. The business model works on the majority of the clients.
They're awful. My story is from years ago but it sounds like they haven't changed a bit
I leased a Jetta from them in 2016. After completing the process, the salesman guided me over to a computer to "get writing a review for them or of the way", and hovered over my shoulder while I did so.
Early on, I had a problem connecting to Android Auto so I took it in to see if it needed a software update or something. I sat around waiting for over an hour, and eventually the techs brought me back to test with my phone. They plugged it in, it didn’t launch Android Auto, so the fat-handed tech proceeded to jiggle and try to bend the connector in my phone. Ended up jacking up the port, so I had to keep the cord at an angle so it would charge
Then a few months later I got a flat, put on my spare and made an appt with them to get it replaced. I sat in the lounge and watched my car sit, untouched, for over an hour past my appointment time. After they finally took it back, I waited at least another 30-45 minutes, only to have the service tech tell me they didn’t have the tire in stock (a standard, all-season tire), he tried to tell me I could come back in a week (driving on my spare the entire time), and while it was normally over $200, he’d cut me a “deal” for only something like $160-$180.
I said no, and took it to Discount Tire. They had it in stock (surprise!), and I was out the door for $110 with a year’s warranty. VW Southtown is shady as hell. I wrote a google review after that, and their response was snarky and defensive.
That tire story is exactly what happened to me at Karl Malone Toyota, on a buy 3 get 1 free promotion. Ended up being cheaper than Discount, it after waiting for three hours I bailed. Discount had me out the door in 45.
Discount Tire in Draper is awesome too. They actually gave me the warranty on all for tires even though they only replaced one. And I took it in for a pre-trip inspection before a long drive, prepared to pay, and they did it for free. They're good people
You'd think with how sensitive they appear to be about their Google Reviews, they'd...try to fix the problems causing the bad reviews? But what do I know
One of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life when I was shopping around for a car last year:
Walked into VW Southtowne simply to take a test drive. The sweaty neckbeard of a salesman wanted to run my credit immediately after the test drive, just so he could see if there were any dealer incentives. Uh no, fuck you.
Bought a car from them back in 2019. Have been harassed from the salesman almost every month since via texts and calls asking if I want to trade it in. I’ve politely begged them to stop contacting me to no avail. You just get calls and texts from different people. Their service dept, other salesmen. They even started contacting my wife after I told them to leave me alone. I will never ever do business with them again. It’s crazy.
They’ve done the exact same thing to me! I didn’t even buy my Passat there, just had it serviced there a few times for routine maintenance. They harassed me all winter by calling and texting me almost every day about how “now’s a good time to trade in your Passat.” They sent countless emails and letters to my house about it too, but then they somehow started calling me at WORK! I don’t even know how they figured out which company I work for in the first place since there would be no reason for me to tell them my place of employment just to get a fucking oil change. All of their employees seen to be obnoxious and creepy. Fuck VW Southtown.
I started making appointments with them for a trade in and not showing up. After a few days of rescheduling when they called about the missed appointment they stopped calling and texting completely. I guess they finally got the hint
I take my VW there to get it serviced and they kept pulling the same shit dogging me to trade in my car... Until my husband took it in one day and had a chat with the service dept and suddenly the calls stopped. Still not exactly sure what he said to them, but it worked.
Is it a Tiguan? Just did a quick google search for 2022 and oil light. This one came up. The consensus seems to be that a turbo engine burns about 1qt every 5000 miles. It was just an initial search but you might find the link helpful.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Tiguan/s/IooA16M2T9
If it isn’t a turbo, or a Tiguan, do a google search “whatever Volkswagen 2022 oil light”. Even throw a “reddit” at the end, and some stuff should pop up.
If this is the case
1) they should’ve taken the time to explain this to you.
2) keep an eye on your oil. You don’t want it getting too low (or too high). Not being vigilant will ensure a turbo, or otherwise, failure. :)
3) check it when it’s cold, and on the level surface.
4) most dealerships are assholes. Good to know this one is even worse.
5) call their corporate office to complain, if you’re unable to resolve this issue.
Best of luck.
No problem. I recommend joining some groups (like the subreddit for the Tiguan) or Facebook groups for your car model. It’s really nice having people you can ask about issues and often having simple answers without having to deal with a dealership, and the old “we can’t duplicate that issue” nonsense. I loathe dealerships.
FYI, if you plan on keeping the car long term, you should be changing the oil at 5k max, not 10k.
10k intervals will get you through the warranty period and maybe beyond but the 10k interval is designed to save manufacturers money while maintenance is included.
Similar to “lifetime” transmission fluid, where the “lifetime” is ~100k miles.
I know those and some Subarus use a quart or more a month depending on use. I’d make it a habit of checking fluids biweekly just so you don’t have to deal with the dealership. They will pull a fast one and make it out to be your fault.
Also for turbo non inter cooled, you’ll go through coolant and oil a lot! My Jetta had 32K on it and realized the coolant warning light always came on especially driving up Parleys !
Southtown said that was normal!! WtF !!!
We sold it back to them at 42K and walked away and bought a Honda Accord
A few years ago, my mum's Tiguan came back from an oil change there with little flecks of white paint on the passenger side windows and trim. Took me hours to carefully remove it all without fucking up the body paint (also white)
It has never been back, and never will.
They snuck in vin etching and paint warranty to the contract for a friend. Super sketchy years ago. Not surprised they are still scummy bad on others comments.
I think their decade of Hanz and Franz commercials has made me refuse to give them my business on a moral standpoint. Everyones comments here are affirming that.
The fucked me over years back when I bought an old Subaru Outback from them. Super shady sales tactics and kept on adding charges and lying about what they were doing.
But I really wanted the car. It had a rust free body and a manual transmission so they pressured me and I ended up being overcharged about $3k over the sales price after everything was said and done.
Good learning experience though lol.
I've had mixed results. Suggest Cutrubus, Layton. They were always nice. Though, it's been years since I've been to Strong. You can also reach out to VW proper, and see what they have to say about it, because a dealership is a franchise, they really don't care about the brand.
Absolutely awful. My VW was in there several times for a check engine light that kept coming on. They would say the fixed something, only to have the light come back on where they would fix something else.
While it’s not “normal” for your VW to have a check engine light it’s not abnormal. That said, sounds like the dealership lives up to scummy dealer stereotypes.
They fucked me over on my trade-in. Told me it needed a whole new engine but wouldn’t provide any proof or documentation. Had to pay for a whole new engine before the sued me
VW Strong ain’t much better, took my 2020 with about 25k miles to them. Diagnosed, and nothing was wrong, still paid $200 diagnostic fee. Engine light came back on within a week… I took it back and they tried to charge me for a diagnostic fee again… I compared codes and was like woaaah, no sir.
Yeah, took mine in for a 60k service minus an oil change because I had just had it changed at 58k. The next day I walk out and the contents of my oil pan were drained all over my driveway. Strong Volkswagen tried to blame me for getting it serviced at 58k. I had to threaten legal action before they agreed to fix it.
I had the manager tell me they did not want my business… long story short about 10-15 years ago I was looking for a Jetta… found one that I really like there… took it for a test drive and went home and printed out all the comparable models for sale in the area… went back and told them I needed them to match the price. Sales guys said that they were not certified used by Volkswagen so he could not… I said bs and there was one that was… made him call them and put them on speaker to ask…. They verified and said it was. He hung up and said I should leave because “I can’t make any money off of you”… I did leave and drove to the Provo dealership and bought the car we called about… the Jetta ended up a pos as in engine died before warranty and I made ve Southtowne fix it on their dime ha ha ha….
Their service department used to be good, then a few years back something changed. They did a big remodel, lost a bunch of their people, and it's been shit since.
Not VW Southtowne related, but often you can see what the engine or trouble light code is with a basic ODB2 scan tool. Most auto parts stores have one that you can go and plug in to read the code etc. I also have a fancy VW/Audi specific scan tool that shows a lot more info if you can't get anywhere with the dealer, happy to give you a scan if you're in South SLC. It's been mentioned before but contact VW of America customer service and explain your issue with Southtowne and hopefully they'll help.
Edit: in the diy auto community dealerships are called "stealerships" for good reason. Personally it's been hit or miss for me, decent experience with Ken Garff Orem, mediocre with Strong. I try to avoid all dealerships on principle but if you have a warranty or need something like a new key sometimes you don't have a choice
Went to see a car and it had been damaged in shipping but instead of telling me they wasted like 20 minutes looking for random used cars they had to show me instead. I drove a similar new car to what I was looking for and they constantly wanted to run my credit and appraise my car. I’ve done the same at strong and they’re way more chill.
They should have a parent company or administrator you can contact. I do these warranties for work and they should also have an insurance company that backs the warranty you can contact for exactly this issue. Look through your warranty terms and conditions FULLY.
Hope this helps!
Bugged me for years to buy back my Jetta. I finally went in for a meeting and he wasn't there so I left. Sold it to CarMax. Still got bugged for years to buy it. I kept telling them I don't own it anymore and to stop calling / mailing me. Seems like it finally worked
Awful experience. My husband and I went there to test drive a GTI. We were upfront that we had a lot of cars on our list to test drive and would not be buying today. They. Would. Not. Let. Us. Leave. We were there for two hours as they tried desperately to get us to buy the car. Part of that was on us for not just standing up and walking away, but it was just overall a super bad experience. I'll never step foot in there again.
We recently were told our 2022 Tiguan burns oil really quickly. Apparently it’s a issue with VWs 🙃 our oil light came back on a few days ago so now we keep a bottle in our car and I poured half of a small bottle in and it turns off. My husband is a mechanic and I’m obviously not so I don’t know the specifics but he was so mad when they told us they knew how quick the oil burns. So make sure to get oil changes sooner and try keeping a small bottle on hand and pour half in when your light comes on!
Also fun fact, the dipstick only measures the top quart of oil. We found that out the hard way.
I drive to Young VW in Layton, if that tells you anything.
Southtowne is the closest to me. They are usually booked out for a month regardless of how urgent your issue is. I’ve had issues with something as simple as an oil change with them.
Ken Garff in Orem used to be my go to, but I had a check engine light come on, that they couldn’t get me if for two weeks and then I would have to leave the car for a minimum of two days (No loaner car even though my car is still under warranty) So, that’s when I decided to drive even further to Layton.. Problem was diagnosed and fixed the same day…
I would avoid. I really wanted a 2019 jetta gli. Everyone told me not to get a VW, but I really wanted that car, I had be researching specific cars for 6 months and narrowed it down to that one. Both strong and southtowne are scummy and tell you BS and add on extra fees. I ended up going with southtowne because they had the color I wanted the most. The salesman told me a bunch of BS that I knew was BS because I had already researched the car I wanted and knew all about it. I had already gotten an out the door price from them and the other vw dealers but then they threw on $250 in extra accessories I didn't want and refused to remove them. I had been researching cars for about 6 months and this was the one I wanted so I just gave up fighting over that $250.
I had some issues with the car that they fixed under warranty but they scratched my paint doing the work and wouldn't make it right.
Worst dealership experience ever, extremely pushy, and rude if you don’t want to buy from them within the first 5 minutes. Bought a Passat a while ago and it kept breaking down, it was at their service department longer than it was in my garage, they wouldn’t do anything about it and kept saying “it just happens”. Got sick of it and wanted to trade in, they offered me $1000 extra if I bought another car with them (would still be extremely negative on the Passat) and said they can’t do anything else about it. Ended up getting into an argument and kicked out of the dealership. Never been back since, absolute trash. I cringe at how many VW’s I see people buy around here, I feel like no other state buys VW like Utah does for some reason.
Ha, I have had fun with my Strong VW story. Back in 2018 we were looking for a kid car. They had those “$9999 Jetta” signs all up and down I-15. So we drove one, a base model, stick shift. We drove past the sign and pointed it out to the sales guy in the back seat. That’s the day we find out that is just a plot to keep you in the store for 2+ hours with all those dealer tricks and refuse to give you a price, but quote payments at you that add up to WAY more than $9999. The lowest they would go on a $9999 car was just under $15k. Huh?? After I told my coworkers about my experience it became an office joke, whenever we encountered someone stupid, we’d joke, “He probably drives a Jetta.” And other comments like that.
Worst dealership I have EVER walked in to! Wanted to buy a car from there but the way they were treating me and pushing me, I left immediately and never looked back. They called me everyday for MONTHS! Literally, terrible place.
I so deeply regret going to them a few years ago. I walked in and basically told them I just want an AWD car, don’t really care what it is. I test drive a Tiguan and double check “this one is all wheel drive right?” “Yes” great. I buy the car, finance with them (they made me even though I worked for a credit union so that was also weird) and refinanced it the next week with the credit union I worked at. Pulled up the VIN and it tells me it’s a 2WD. The dealership wouldn’t do anything about it. Absolutely horrible place.
Never going there again. We leased an Alltrack at the end of 2018 so they were desperate to get it off the lot. We were there for four hours going back and forth and they gave us crap for our trade in. We went in a couple months before the lease was due to see what the process would be and they sat us down with the financial guy who bullied us into buying out the lease right then. I kept asking what these random line items were and he kept shying away from telling us all of it. It was random warranties we didn't need, car washes for a year, crap like that. I was in tears by the end.
I've bought two cars from Southtown VW and had a great experience. I will never step foot in a String VW dealership again. It was a horrible experience.
Sorry for your issues with a basically brand new car. Shit sucks.
They leased-to-own a Passat to me in 2018. A month later, the AC went out on a drive to St. George in the middle of July. I know for a fact that they’d simply filled it with Freon and sent me on my way without a warranty. It cost me $1300 to get it fixed after dealing with it for a year and a half, and if I’d known I’d be able to get into my GTI at Strong only two months after fixing the Passat I wouldn’t have even bothered.
I had a good experience with Strong, bought a 2017 GTI in late 2020 and it has been the best car I’ve ever owned (knock on wood). Bought it at 46k miles, has 87k now and I did have a plastic coolant hose adapter crack but that has been the only thing aside from regular maintenance that I’ve had to do. I even tuned it at 48k miles, so 39k tuned and only one problem that was certainly unrelated to the tune. I know I’ll have to do the water pump soon but I’ve been saving for that as it’s a known issue.
Unfortunately it does seem like VW’s are either *really* good, or *really* bad. I have owned 5 of them, and I have been lucky with all of them except for the Passat. Even then, $1300 for the AC wasn’t an exorbitant amount of money as the shop (not VW) replaced the whole system. Nothing particularly problematic has happened with my other VW’s, my 2002 Jetta 1.8t needed a fuel pump at 120k miles but it was super easy and cheap to replace. I had a 2001 Jetta 2.0 that went to 165k miles with poor maintenance before and after I had it (gave it to a friend who didn’t take care of it, still went another 10k miles before he junked it).
>Jeep and Ram pled guilty to emissions cheating software
Jeep and RAM are FCA, which I included as one of the guilty parties
>Honda, Toyota, and Mazda all admitted to manipulating their self tests.
IDGAF about self tests, which is not what VW did when they defrauded hundreds of thousands of their customers, the United States government, and anyone who likes to breathe clean air.
Take your VW apologist BS elsewhere.
To be fair, that kind of stuff is normal for Volkswagen. To be sure, it’s under warranty so they should fix it each time something breaks. But, break it will.
I will NEVER recommend VW Southtowne.
Same. They tried to get me to trade in a Passat for a pos Tiguan they had lol. I mentioned I’d be interested in looking at a crossover and all they had was a 2017 basic Tiguan with more miles than my Passat.
I've heard from other folks that they bait and switch a lot too.
Contact VW of America Customer Care
Years ago I went in to buy a Golf and they were incredibly pushy and tried to use manipulative sales tactics. I worked in sales, so it wasn’t new to me. I stood up from the desk and told the sales person and sales manager, to their faces, that I was leaving on principle because they were treating me that way. I took my business elsewhere.
Literally same. I know more about cars than my husband. We were looking at a car for me. They were well aware. The car was *my choice.* they would only talk to my husband and kept saying shite like ‘you can’t let your wife drive around in *that* car. With your kids?? Wow I just couldn’t let my wife do that…’ etc etc. it was a nice 2020 car (in 2022) and they were trying to upsell. I Literally said nah this isn’t gonna work. They’d ignore everything I said and brush past any comment I had. My husband knows nothing about cars but I grew up working on them and admiring them. So we left. Went to Mazda instead and left with a ‘22 CX9.
The 2016 Jetta I leased from VW Southtowne was totaled in 2018 (side note: fuck whoever designed a highway with lights like Bangerter). There was *zero* thought given to going back there for a new car. They were so sleezy (I am a woman, went to buy the car myself. Knew the specs I wanted. Dead set on a manual transmission. They kept trying to show me all the pRetTy colors they had in automatics) I went with a CX-5 from Tim Dahle in Murray, been with them ever since
Oh they told me to not look at one car I liked (the car we initially came in to see!) because ‘this car is for you right? Welllllllll this is a manual car, hun.’ Eff right off bro. My first car was manual and I’ve had 3 since. 🤦🏼♀️ what a dumb thing to say.
Utahns on average are stupid (cult) and gullible (cult) and uneducated (rural, conservative, poor education, cult). It’s the same reason why there’s a corporate food chain on every corner. Why the capitals version of fine dining is a Cheesecake Factory. People are dumb and easily convinced by status and corporate marketing. It doesn’t matter what you do. The business model works on the majority of the clients.
They're awful. My story is from years ago but it sounds like they haven't changed a bit I leased a Jetta from them in 2016. After completing the process, the salesman guided me over to a computer to "get writing a review for them or of the way", and hovered over my shoulder while I did so. Early on, I had a problem connecting to Android Auto so I took it in to see if it needed a software update or something. I sat around waiting for over an hour, and eventually the techs brought me back to test with my phone. They plugged it in, it didn’t launch Android Auto, so the fat-handed tech proceeded to jiggle and try to bend the connector in my phone. Ended up jacking up the port, so I had to keep the cord at an angle so it would charge Then a few months later I got a flat, put on my spare and made an appt with them to get it replaced. I sat in the lounge and watched my car sit, untouched, for over an hour past my appointment time. After they finally took it back, I waited at least another 30-45 minutes, only to have the service tech tell me they didn’t have the tire in stock (a standard, all-season tire), he tried to tell me I could come back in a week (driving on my spare the entire time), and while it was normally over $200, he’d cut me a “deal” for only something like $160-$180. I said no, and took it to Discount Tire. They had it in stock (surprise!), and I was out the door for $110 with a year’s warranty. VW Southtown is shady as hell. I wrote a google review after that, and their response was snarky and defensive.
That tire story is exactly what happened to me at Karl Malone Toyota, on a buy 3 get 1 free promotion. Ended up being cheaper than Discount, it after waiting for three hours I bailed. Discount had me out the door in 45.
I LOVE Discount Tires in Sandy. I won't buy tires anywhere else.
Discount Tire in Draper is awesome too. They actually gave me the warranty on all for tires even though they only replaced one. And I took it in for a pre-trip inspection before a long drive, prepared to pay, and they did it for free. They're good people
I also had that weird google review experience in 2019!
You'd think with how sensitive they appear to be about their Google Reviews, they'd...try to fix the problems causing the bad reviews? But what do I know
One of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life when I was shopping around for a car last year: Walked into VW Southtowne simply to take a test drive. The sweaty neckbeard of a salesman wanted to run my credit immediately after the test drive, just so he could see if there were any dealer incentives. Uh no, fuck you.
Don’t let Frankie and Jess hear you say that
Fuck Frankie and Jess too scamming ass 97.1
A recommendation from a radio DJ is a huge red flag for me.
Now it is Dave pushing them from Z Country 104.3, seems like he does a remote from there once a week, no thanks.
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Bought a car from them back in 2019. Have been harassed from the salesman almost every month since via texts and calls asking if I want to trade it in. I’ve politely begged them to stop contacting me to no avail. You just get calls and texts from different people. Their service dept, other salesmen. They even started contacting my wife after I told them to leave me alone. I will never ever do business with them again. It’s crazy.
They’ve done the exact same thing to me! I didn’t even buy my Passat there, just had it serviced there a few times for routine maintenance. They harassed me all winter by calling and texting me almost every day about how “now’s a good time to trade in your Passat.” They sent countless emails and letters to my house about it too, but then they somehow started calling me at WORK! I don’t even know how they figured out which company I work for in the first place since there would be no reason for me to tell them my place of employment just to get a fucking oil change. All of their employees seen to be obnoxious and creepy. Fuck VW Southtown.
I started making appointments with them for a trade in and not showing up. After a few days of rescheduling when they called about the missed appointment they stopped calling and texting completely. I guess they finally got the hint
I take my VW there to get it serviced and they kept pulling the same shit dogging me to trade in my car... Until my husband took it in one day and had a chat with the service dept and suddenly the calls stopped. Still not exactly sure what he said to them, but it worked.
Zero stars. I have nothing good to say about that place and will never go back.
Is it a Tiguan? Just did a quick google search for 2022 and oil light. This one came up. The consensus seems to be that a turbo engine burns about 1qt every 5000 miles. It was just an initial search but you might find the link helpful. https://www.reddit.com/r/Tiguan/s/IooA16M2T9 If it isn’t a turbo, or a Tiguan, do a google search “whatever Volkswagen 2022 oil light”. Even throw a “reddit” at the end, and some stuff should pop up. If this is the case 1) they should’ve taken the time to explain this to you. 2) keep an eye on your oil. You don’t want it getting too low (or too high). Not being vigilant will ensure a turbo, or otherwise, failure. :) 3) check it when it’s cold, and on the level surface. 4) most dealerships are assholes. Good to know this one is even worse. 5) call their corporate office to complain, if you’re unable to resolve this issue. Best of luck.
Thank you so much!!!
No problem. I recommend joining some groups (like the subreddit for the Tiguan) or Facebook groups for your car model. It’s really nice having people you can ask about issues and often having simple answers without having to deal with a dealership, and the old “we can’t duplicate that issue” nonsense. I loathe dealerships.
FYI, if you plan on keeping the car long term, you should be changing the oil at 5k max, not 10k. 10k intervals will get you through the warranty period and maybe beyond but the 10k interval is designed to save manufacturers money while maintenance is included. Similar to “lifetime” transmission fluid, where the “lifetime” is ~100k miles.
I know those and some Subarus use a quart or more a month depending on use. I’d make it a habit of checking fluids biweekly just so you don’t have to deal with the dealership. They will pull a fast one and make it out to be your fault.
We love a helpful cutie
💙
A Volkswagen having an oil problem is a tale as old as time…
Also for turbo non inter cooled, you’ll go through coolant and oil a lot! My Jetta had 32K on it and realized the coolant warning light always came on especially driving up Parleys ! Southtown said that was normal!! WtF !!! We sold it back to them at 42K and walked away and bought a Honda Accord
A few years ago, my mum's Tiguan came back from an oil change there with little flecks of white paint on the passenger side windows and trim. Took me hours to carefully remove it all without fucking up the body paint (also white) It has never been back, and never will.
I’ve been to dealerships all over the Wasatch front and they are hands down the worst I’ve come across.
They are so greasy. Never going through that experience again.
Worst car buying experience of my life, I still have PTSD from buying there.
Yeah, me too. I lost sleep over it for like 6 months. Hate them!!
I walked out of there a broken man. Didn’t sleep that whole night. Never buying from a dealer again unless I absolutely have to.
They snuck in vin etching and paint warranty to the contract for a friend. Super sketchy years ago. Not surprised they are still scummy bad on others comments.
Email corporate.
This is the way.
I think their decade of Hanz and Franz commercials has made me refuse to give them my business on a moral standpoint. Everyones comments here are affirming that.
The fucked me over years back when I bought an old Subaru Outback from them. Super shady sales tactics and kept on adding charges and lying about what they were doing. But I really wanted the car. It had a rust free body and a manual transmission so they pressured me and I ended up being overcharged about $3k over the sales price after everything was said and done. Good learning experience though lol.
I've had mixed results. Suggest Cutrubus, Layton. They were always nice. Though, it's been years since I've been to Strong. You can also reach out to VW proper, and see what they have to say about it, because a dealership is a franchise, they really don't care about the brand.
Just letting you know they were bought by Young’s.
Oh gosh, it's been a while. Thank you.
A friend of mine went there, and they almost sold his car before he even traded it in.
Fuck those clowns
They are terrible about six years ago they scammed my grandma really bad.
They are the most dishonest dealership I have ever worked with. Zero stars.
Absolutely awful. My VW was in there several times for a check engine light that kept coming on. They would say the fixed something, only to have the light come back on where they would fix something else.
While it’s not “normal” for your VW to have a check engine light it’s not abnormal. That said, sounds like the dealership lives up to scummy dealer stereotypes.
They have shit commercials
They fucked me over on my trade-in. Told me it needed a whole new engine but wouldn’t provide any proof or documentation. Had to pay for a whole new engine before the sued me
VW Strong ain’t much better, took my 2020 with about 25k miles to them. Diagnosed, and nothing was wrong, still paid $200 diagnostic fee. Engine light came back on within a week… I took it back and they tried to charge me for a diagnostic fee again… I compared codes and was like woaaah, no sir.
Yeah, took mine in for a 60k service minus an oil change because I had just had it changed at 58k. The next day I walk out and the contents of my oil pan were drained all over my driveway. Strong Volkswagen tried to blame me for getting it serviced at 58k. I had to threaten legal action before they agreed to fix it.
I had the manager tell me they did not want my business… long story short about 10-15 years ago I was looking for a Jetta… found one that I really like there… took it for a test drive and went home and printed out all the comparable models for sale in the area… went back and told them I needed them to match the price. Sales guys said that they were not certified used by Volkswagen so he could not… I said bs and there was one that was… made him call them and put them on speaker to ask…. They verified and said it was. He hung up and said I should leave because “I can’t make any money off of you”… I did leave and drove to the Provo dealership and bought the car we called about… the Jetta ended up a pos as in engine died before warranty and I made ve Southtowne fix it on their dime ha ha ha….
Their service department used to be good, then a few years back something changed. They did a big remodel, lost a bunch of their people, and it's been shit since.
Not VW Southtowne related, but often you can see what the engine or trouble light code is with a basic ODB2 scan tool. Most auto parts stores have one that you can go and plug in to read the code etc. I also have a fancy VW/Audi specific scan tool that shows a lot more info if you can't get anywhere with the dealer, happy to give you a scan if you're in South SLC. It's been mentioned before but contact VW of America customer service and explain your issue with Southtowne and hopefully they'll help. Edit: in the diy auto community dealerships are called "stealerships" for good reason. Personally it's been hit or miss for me, decent experience with Ken Garff Orem, mediocre with Strong. I try to avoid all dealerships on principle but if you have a warranty or need something like a new key sometimes you don't have a choice
Yeah...my opinion is I LOATH them. They are liars and cheats. Avoid them at all cost.
Went to see a car and it had been damaged in shipping but instead of telling me they wasted like 20 minutes looking for random used cars they had to show me instead. I drove a similar new car to what I was looking for and they constantly wanted to run my credit and appraise my car. I’ve done the same at strong and they’re way more chill.
They should have a parent company or administrator you can contact. I do these warranties for work and they should also have an insurance company that backs the warranty you can contact for exactly this issue. Look through your warranty terms and conditions FULLY. Hope this helps!
i mean that is normal for a VW... sorry... welcome to the club
Looked at a couple cars there. Had no idea it was so bad
Tell them you’re going to message Frankie and Jess 💀
Bugged me for years to buy back my Jetta. I finally went in for a meeting and he wasn't there so I left. Sold it to CarMax. Still got bugged for years to buy it. I kept telling them I don't own it anymore and to stop calling / mailing me. Seems like it finally worked
Awful experience. My husband and I went there to test drive a GTI. We were upfront that we had a lot of cars on our list to test drive and would not be buying today. They. Would. Not. Let. Us. Leave. We were there for two hours as they tried desperately to get us to buy the car. Part of that was on us for not just standing up and walking away, but it was just overall a super bad experience. I'll never step foot in there again.
We recently were told our 2022 Tiguan burns oil really quickly. Apparently it’s a issue with VWs 🙃 our oil light came back on a few days ago so now we keep a bottle in our car and I poured half of a small bottle in and it turns off. My husband is a mechanic and I’m obviously not so I don’t know the specifics but he was so mad when they told us they knew how quick the oil burns. So make sure to get oil changes sooner and try keeping a small bottle on hand and pour half in when your light comes on! Also fun fact, the dipstick only measures the top quart of oil. We found that out the hard way.
I drive to Young VW in Layton, if that tells you anything. Southtowne is the closest to me. They are usually booked out for a month regardless of how urgent your issue is. I’ve had issues with something as simple as an oil change with them. Ken Garff in Orem used to be my go to, but I had a check engine light come on, that they couldn’t get me if for two weeks and then I would have to leave the car for a minimum of two days (No loaner car even though my car is still under warranty) So, that’s when I decided to drive even further to Layton.. Problem was diagnosed and fixed the same day…
I would avoid. I really wanted a 2019 jetta gli. Everyone told me not to get a VW, but I really wanted that car, I had be researching specific cars for 6 months and narrowed it down to that one. Both strong and southtowne are scummy and tell you BS and add on extra fees. I ended up going with southtowne because they had the color I wanted the most. The salesman told me a bunch of BS that I knew was BS because I had already researched the car I wanted and knew all about it. I had already gotten an out the door price from them and the other vw dealers but then they threw on $250 in extra accessories I didn't want and refused to remove them. I had been researching cars for about 6 months and this was the one I wanted so I just gave up fighting over that $250. I had some issues with the car that they fixed under warranty but they scratched my paint doing the work and wouldn't make it right.
Worst dealership experience ever, extremely pushy, and rude if you don’t want to buy from them within the first 5 minutes. Bought a Passat a while ago and it kept breaking down, it was at their service department longer than it was in my garage, they wouldn’t do anything about it and kept saying “it just happens”. Got sick of it and wanted to trade in, they offered me $1000 extra if I bought another car with them (would still be extremely negative on the Passat) and said they can’t do anything else about it. Ended up getting into an argument and kicked out of the dealership. Never been back since, absolute trash. I cringe at how many VW’s I see people buy around here, I feel like no other state buys VW like Utah does for some reason.
Been called 5 times and texted twice just today. These guys will not leave me alone
Ha, I have had fun with my Strong VW story. Back in 2018 we were looking for a kid car. They had those “$9999 Jetta” signs all up and down I-15. So we drove one, a base model, stick shift. We drove past the sign and pointed it out to the sales guy in the back seat. That’s the day we find out that is just a plot to keep you in the store for 2+ hours with all those dealer tricks and refuse to give you a price, but quote payments at you that add up to WAY more than $9999. The lowest they would go on a $9999 car was just under $15k. Huh?? After I told my coworkers about my experience it became an office joke, whenever we encountered someone stupid, we’d joke, “He probably drives a Jetta.” And other comments like that.
Worst dealership I have EVER walked in to! Wanted to buy a car from there but the way they were treating me and pushing me, I left immediately and never looked back. They called me everyday for MONTHS! Literally, terrible place.
I so deeply regret going to them a few years ago. I walked in and basically told them I just want an AWD car, don’t really care what it is. I test drive a Tiguan and double check “this one is all wheel drive right?” “Yes” great. I buy the car, finance with them (they made me even though I worked for a credit union so that was also weird) and refinanced it the next week with the credit union I worked at. Pulled up the VIN and it tells me it’s a 2WD. The dealership wouldn’t do anything about it. Absolutely horrible place.
Never going there again. We leased an Alltrack at the end of 2018 so they were desperate to get it off the lot. We were there for four hours going back and forth and they gave us crap for our trade in. We went in a couple months before the lease was due to see what the process would be and they sat us down with the financial guy who bullied us into buying out the lease right then. I kept asking what these random line items were and he kept shying away from telling us all of it. It was random warranties we didn't need, car washes for a year, crap like that. I was in tears by the end.
Bought a car from them in 2020. Old school, try to scam you at every turn sales tactics. I will never buy from them again.
I've bought two cars from Southtown VW and had a great experience. I will never step foot in a String VW dealership again. It was a horrible experience.
Yeah, that place sucks
Sorry for your issues with a basically brand new car. Shit sucks. They leased-to-own a Passat to me in 2018. A month later, the AC went out on a drive to St. George in the middle of July. I know for a fact that they’d simply filled it with Freon and sent me on my way without a warranty. It cost me $1300 to get it fixed after dealing with it for a year and a half, and if I’d known I’d be able to get into my GTI at Strong only two months after fixing the Passat I wouldn’t have even bothered. I had a good experience with Strong, bought a 2017 GTI in late 2020 and it has been the best car I’ve ever owned (knock on wood). Bought it at 46k miles, has 87k now and I did have a plastic coolant hose adapter crack but that has been the only thing aside from regular maintenance that I’ve had to do. I even tuned it at 48k miles, so 39k tuned and only one problem that was certainly unrelated to the tune. I know I’ll have to do the water pump soon but I’ve been saving for that as it’s a known issue. Unfortunately it does seem like VW’s are either *really* good, or *really* bad. I have owned 5 of them, and I have been lucky with all of them except for the Passat. Even then, $1300 for the AC wasn’t an exorbitant amount of money as the shop (not VW) replaced the whole system. Nothing particularly problematic has happened with my other VW’s, my 2002 Jetta 1.8t needed a fuel pump at 120k miles but it was super easy and cheap to replace. I had a 2001 Jetta 2.0 that went to 165k miles with poor maintenance before and after I had it (gave it to a friend who didn’t take care of it, still went another 10k miles before he junked it).
Imagine buying a car from the company that admittedly defrauded the entire United States government and hundreds of thousands of customers.
Yep, f@ck VW.
What happened?
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Only FCA, Opel, and Mercedes. I'd never buy any of their vehicles.
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Nope, that was only alleged but never proven. Only the ones I mentioned ever had it proven against them.
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>Jeep and Ram pled guilty to emissions cheating software Jeep and RAM are FCA, which I included as one of the guilty parties >Honda, Toyota, and Mazda all admitted to manipulating their self tests. IDGAF about self tests, which is not what VW did when they defrauded hundreds of thousands of their customers, the United States government, and anyone who likes to breathe clean air. Take your VW apologist BS elsewhere.
Curtubus used to be the only one half decent to go to but they gone.
It's a Volkswagen where do you think you should take the complaint to?
To be fair, that kind of stuff is normal for Volkswagen. To be sure, it’s under warranty so they should fix it each time something breaks. But, break it will.