Clear Lake Volkswagen

Reason for Visit: Sales (New)

I recommend this dealer: Yes

Employee(s) Dealt With: Alfonso

My Review of Clear Lake Volkswagen:
I bought my 2009 CC from Clear Lake Volkswagen and I love it!!! It's by far the best car I've ever owned. They gave me a great deal and worked with me on financing because most of this was over the phone. When I went to pick it up the car was ready to pick up everything was perfect. Clear lake volkswagen was a great car buying experience.

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: Yes

Employee(s) Dealt With: Alex Delapena

My Review of Clear Lake Volkswagen:
As always, Alex and the entire team at CLVW took excellent care of my car. Because of them, I actually look forward to service appointments. With their buy 4, get 1 free oil change program I can have the oil changed at the dealer for less than I can do it myself. Matt and Alf in sales are always happy to show me the latest offerings from VW and take me on test drives. If I'm too busy to wait for my car, their quick and courteous shuttle driver gets me to work and back. Alex thoroughly explains the services and any recommendations to keep my car running perfectly. Booking my appointment is easy thanks to the online service scheduler. Alternatively, I can just give Alex a call with the peace of mind knowing that he'll always answer. I bought my first VW at a dealership inside the loop where I live and quickly learned that their service department was inferior. When it came time to buy a new car, I immediately contacted Clear Lake Volkswagen. 12,000 miles later, my 2008 GTI is still running perfectly thanks to their efforts.

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

Employee(s) Dealt With: Alex

My Review of Clear Lake Volkswagen:
AVOID THIS DEALERSHIP! I can't go into how much trouble this dealership has caused me in the past few months. They disassembled our car, the quote was too high, we had the car towed elsewhere. They did not reassemble correctly, left pieces off completely, never returned phone calls, lied to me when they did. My car suffered damage due to the missing pieces. I am currently disputing the charges with my credit card company. They said I lied about the missing pieces. HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE experience. How VW allows a dealership like this to remain open is way beyond me. They have horrible reviews on Better Business Bureau website too. My only hope is that anyone reading this never uses them.

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

Employee(s) Dealt With: Serv Mgr.Roger Reyna and a Serv. Writer ??

My Review of Clear Lake Volkswagen:
I am a gruff person that speaks very directly (clearly). I told, yes told, the Service Writer that I had had a bad experience with the dealership previously and was apprehensive about getting service there. I wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings about what service I was to receive. I also stated that I had always gone to one of their competitors, DeMontrond VW, for service and had bought the car from that dealership. Apparently the man didn’t like my directness and stated that I should probably go back to DeMontrond. I closed my hood and got in my car to leave. Then I got out and went in to ask for the Service Mgr to state my case. He sent me to DeMontrond too, because I talked to him wrong as well (no cursing at anytime). They’re a sensitive bunch. I wonder how many other cars DeMontrond sells and services at the advice of their service group. After reading the other reviews on this site, I'm lucky I didn't leave my car there today.

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

Employee(s) Dealt With: Alejandro DeLapena

My Review of Clear Lake Volkswagen:
I brought my VW Phaeton fro maintainence at 38000 miles. I paid over $700 and took car home. Next day would not start or even jump start. I have towed to Clear Lake VW. It took 2 months and $6000 to "fix it". Now the cruise control is not working and thay declined to repair it. PLEASE PLEASE AVOID THIS DEALER AT ALL COSTS

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

Employee(s) Dealt With: 3

My Review of Clear Lake Volkswagen:
I originally brought my car into Clear Lake for a steering wheel noise. They told me it my tires making the noise and that the car needed new tires and alignment. The noise that I described was when the car was sitting still, nonetheless I changed all four tires and returned to Clear Lake VW for alignment and to have them check the steering noise that I described. The car was completed that day and returned with no resolution on the noise and the aligmnent was worse than when I brought it in. Took it back a third time to correct the alignment. Car was return to me again a day later no change, they told my Wife that the reason it was pulling to the right was the wind and the road. I took it in a fourth time and had a mechanic ride with me and finally confirm that there was a noise, and the alignment was still off. Got the car back after four days and the alignment is still off. The noise issue is fixed after 5 times, so I guess they will not get the alignment correct until the fifth time as well. Avoid this dealership at all cost, drive across town for service, service staff can be rude at times. I will not ever use this dealership again

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

Employee(s) Dealt With: Dennis

My Review of Clear Lake Volkswagen:
He was rude, he was not particularly helpful and he had no idea what was going on. When I expressed my problem with my car he basically said that if they couldn't recreate the exact thing that I was wrong and my car was fine. Needless to say last time I had brought it to them with the exact same problem they "fixed it" and less than 6 months later the same thing is happening.
I had spoken to him the day before about a loaner/rental and he let me know that I would have to pay for it myself b/c it wasn't their fault my car wasn't working, even though it was their crappy work to begin with.
PLUS at the end of the day, they didn't fix it again.
I will never buy another VW, nor will I ever deal with Clear Lake VW again.

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

Employee(s) Dealt With: Dee Dee

My Review of Clear Lake Volkswagen:
My 2005 Jetta TDI simply stopped running while entering a freeway.
It would not start.
I used VW's roadside assistance to get a tow to the nearest dealer, in this case Clear Lake Volkswagen and arrived just before closing time.
They took the vehicle to check it out the next day.
They diagnosed the problem as "bad fuel", and that "we see this all the time".
A call that evening said that the car was ready to be picked up.
We arrived (25 mile trip) and the cashier had the ticket and we paid close to $700.
But the car was not ready yet.
The back seat was still removed, the cover off the fuel tank and a hose dangling from it.
It took about another hour for them to get it put back together and send someone out to get fresh diesel for it.
Dee Dee had already gone home for the evening.

The charge for the repair was five hours of labor, the maximum in the book for this task. A friend who services TDIs said that there is really no reason for it to take five hours. He also says that he NEVER sees fuel quality problems.

This past week, same problem.
Bad fuel?

This time I had AAA tow it to my friend's dealership.
No fault codes in the computer and replacing the o-rings on the fuel filter (the quick fix) didn't work. He later tested the fuel pumps and found that the pump in the tank no longer worked. After replacing it (ironically, with a pump that came from Clear Lake VW's supply) it worked fine, with the same tank of fuel.

My belief is that the fault the first time was an intermittent problem with the fuel pump, not bad fuel. Clear Lake's did not test the fuel pump - they told me that they put a container of "good" fuel over the engine and gravity-fed it into the engine and it ran. They simply assumed that this was a fuel quality problem and not a fuel starvation problem.

The combination of misdiagnosis, overcharging and false reporting of task completion leads me to NOT recommend this dealership for service.

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