German auto giant Volkswagen on Friday said it was recalling 2,440 Passat model cars produced in Shanghai because of faults in the boot-locking system.

The faulty locking systems were installed in Passat 2.0 and 1.8T models manufactured from August 11 to August 24, the joint venture Shanghai Volkswagen said.

The company said it had reported the problem to China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, which also announced the recall on its website.

Shanghai Volkswagen is a 50-50 joint venture formed in 1984 with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation.

Volkswagen China last month raised it 2007 sales target to 900,000 vehicles in China and Hong Kong after 30 per cent growth in the first nine months of this year.

Sales through Volkswagen and Shanghai Volkswagen rose 24.3 per cent to 711,298 units in China and Hong Kong last year, rebounding from a slump of 11.7 per cent in 2005.

The company’s market share for personal cars in China was 22.8 per cent last year.

Shanghai Volkswagen sold 340,600 units in China last year, ranking third in passenger-car sales.

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Even though the Volkswagen Eos is flying out of dealerships, the German carmaker is suffering some rather major recall woes, specifically with the 2005-2008 Jetta, as well as the 2006-2008 Rabbit, GTI, and R32. The most recent announcement is a recall for 340,000 automobiles sold in the United States.

And this recall isn’t just for a creature comfort either. Apparently, the headlights on several of these cars “don’t comply with federal safety standards.” Whether this means that they aren’t pointed in the right direction, they dim unexpectedly, or whatever is anyone’s guess. Thankfully, no accidents have been linked to the recall.

With this recall of 340,000 cars, Volkswagen has officially become the automaker with most recalls for 2007. Looks like they’ve got an uphill battle if they wish to accomplish their goal of overtaking Toyota as number one carmaker in the world.

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Volkswagen will start recalling 340,000 cars in the U.S. at the end of October to fix headlights that cannot be aligned properly, increasing the risk of a crash, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The recall includes the Volkswagen Jetta from model years 2005-’08 and the 2006-’08 Volkswagen GTI, Rabbit and R32 models.

“Improperly aimed headlamps could cause reduced road visibility, increasing the risk of a crash,” said the NHTSA in a summary of the Volkswagen recall.

NHTSA says “some vehicles may not have had a required cap installed that disables the headlight horizontal aim, and some vehicles may contain a cap that disables the vertical aiming screw.” Owners of the vehicles in question can contact VW at (800) 822-8987. The recall is expected to begin on or about October 31.

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by Dan Roth

Boy, that’s one hot car, that Passat. But is it so hot, in fact, that it self-immolates? The NHTSA seems to think that the ignition coil packs are prone to faults that can lead to fires underhood, in the instrument panel, or underneath the vehicle. Passats from 2000 to 2003 are currently under investigation by the NHTSA after 19 reports of spontaneous Teutonic combustion (hey!). Lucky owners who opted for the frugal TDI or spendy W8 can motor along blissfully, while gas-fueled four and six-pot drivers should start parking at the curb. No recall has been issued, but preliminary investigations such as this often end with the manufacturer issuing a recall. If it comes to that, VW’s looking at fixing about 350,000 cars.

[Source: Bloomberg via Winding Road]

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by John Neff

BusinessWeek has trolled the NHTSA files to find out which automakers have had to recall their brand new 2007 models the most, and the winner is Volkswagen thanks to a recall of just over 1 milion 2007 New Beetles because of potentially faulty brake light switches. Of course, Ford announced a major recall of 3.6 million vehicles earlier this month for defective cruise control switches, but none of the vehicles affected were 2007 models and so don’t count for this list.

We’ve complied the rest of the data for you in a handy list after the jump, because we hate having to click through BusinessWeek’s 15-part slideshow, and we suspect you might, too.

[Source: BusinessWeek]

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by John Neff

We were well aware of Volkswagen’s placement in The Bourne Ultimatum thanks to press releases out of Wolfsburg that prepared us for an epic car chase involving a Touareg 2. When an automaker brags about its product placement, we usually start worrying that the movie will be overrun with subliminal adverts. For instance, before Michael Bay went shopping for actors at General Motors, there was the all-GM highway scene in Matrix Reloaded. The heavy-handedness of such product placement that GM seems to favor can instantly take a moviegoer out of the moment, so we were justifiably nervous to see the VW Touareg 2 make its big screen debut.

I’ve just returned from seeing The Bourne Ultimatum and can report that Volkswagen’s product placement was very understated and tastefully done. The climactic car chase involving the Touareg 2 was incredible to watch (and sounded even better), but the fact you’re watching a VW is hardly noticed since a fender bender early on completely rips off the Touareg’s grille, taking the VW emblem with it. Likewise, Jason Bourne’s world isn’t populated entirely by late model VW, Audi and Lamborgini vehicles. A last-gen Lincoln Navigator figures prominently, as does a Chevy Impala cop car and many older Chrysler 300Ms.

There were two other vehicles in the movie that VW no doubt paid to have placed. One is a European spec Golf GT Sport briefly driven by Julia Stiles’ character, and the other a previous-gen Audi A6. Both are onscreen for a short time only, and the fact the A6 is not the current generation model makes its placement even less noticeable.

While most marketers can’t argue with the effectiveness of GM’s overwhelming product placement in Transformers, regardless of how it negatively affected the viewing experience, we felt VW deserved an extra mention for its welcomed restraint in The Bourne Ultimatum.

Source:Autoblog

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