That’s exactly what my dad did with our Aspen station wagon of a similar vintage. In its defense, the engine still ran even if every other component on the car was either failing or rusted out.

Oh, this one brings back memories. And none of them are good.

about as interesting as a semester abroad in Ottawa.

I’d just moved to the US from Canada the year before. When I saw them start the war on a TV in the break room, I turned to one of my co-workers and said “Welcome to your second Vietnam.”

It was the one thing I was concerned about after reading online reviews. It seemed like fairly simple preventative maintenance and I realized I could get the VW-approved krytox lubricant online for far less than the dealership wanted. I also tried a Gummi-Pfluge product that was recommended for BMWs and found that to…

I’m not blaming it for engine compression, I’m blaming it for either holding gears too long or not engaging them quickly enough when I’m in sport and drive modes respectively. Considering that’s the entire job of an automatic transmission, I feel justified in complaining.

Thank you - I’ll give this a try!

Ah, so they eventually made it driveable, did they? Only took a few years since my car was made...

I have a much newer version that I daily drive and this is CP all day, every day. This is the car that has convinced me to never purchase another VW product in my life. You’ll be tripling this price with repairs in the first year alone.

When I drop the top on mine I can FEEL 400 pounds of glass and steel settle into the trunk right over the rear wheels. It’s not a good feeling.

No, the DSG is not a slushbox. It is, however, incredibly laggy unless you leave it in S mode at all times. Then it constantly holds each gear too long which means the car e-brakes the second you take your foot off the gas. You get the fun choice of having to floor it just to get it moving or having to keep your foot…

Cannot agree with this more - the top is a repair nightmare just waiting to happen. And yeah, what the hell is it with women and convertibles? Never heard of a scrunchie?

That was one thing I worried about before purchasing my Eos, but it’s actually the one thing that HASN’T gone wrong. Every few months you need to lubricate the roof seals which is a pain, but not that big a deal.

I’ll second the comment on how they were overpriced. The idiots at VW had a Phaeton-like brainfart and priced the Eos only slightly less than the A4 convertible. Would you spend another thousand dollars to drive an Audi rather than a VW? Of course you would! Thus they sold poorly and depreciated quickly.

Hopefully your imaginary teen girl has a fat bank account as this thing’s going to spend plenty of time in the shop.

Then that’s a problem with the AC units, not the fault of the soft top. I’ve got pictures of my dash thermometer showing 111F in Nevada when I took my 2005 Mini on a cross-country road trip. We were perfectly comfortable inside the car with the top up.

Cloth top convertibles are horrible to live with. They’re loud as hell on the highway, and they don’t keep the cold/heat out, so you freeze in the winter and roast in the summer.

You know, this is what I thought too. Then I realized I was wrong after buying an Eos. The soft tops on my Eclipses and Minis never had a problem with leaks and they kept me plenty warm through multiple New England winters. The insulating quality was literally never a factor. The hardtop convertible isn’t some massive…

As well they should; 400 moving parts and thousands of dollars in repairs if any one of them breaks. This is the car that has convinced me to never buy another VW again for the rest of my life. You keep telling yourself that their reliability can’t be THAT bad and then you find out that it’s even worse...

Me. Drove a 20015 Mini Convertible, had to trade it in for a minivan (still hurts to say that). Three years later I wanted another Mini, but thought the ride was too rough. Ended up seduced by a used Eos due to massive depreciation, upscale interior, softer suspension and head-turning roof.