Kearny Mesa Volkswagen Service Center

I got a safety recall notice from Volkswagen about my Passat. I made an appointment 20 days in advance much ahead of the curve because I got the notification on Carfax the day it was sent vs most people who got it by mail much later. I reached the place of appointment on time only to find 5 cars in a queue! I waited by my car for about 20 min. Not a single employee did as much as acknowledging my presence. Could have said, hi there, someone will be with you shortly. But no, every employee is clearly just trying to avoid you there. I went inside, was told to go to the service counter in the back where this employee was entertaining another customer. I overheard that he had a 9:45 am appointment for the same safety recall. When the employee was taking this customer out to his car, he told me that I need to wait by my car outside and someone will come. I went out again and waited for another 10 minutes while their employees took all 4 cars out of the driveway in front of me including this other customer's car. Then finally, I got one person who asked me if I have come for a drop off. I told him about my appointment and he sent me to yet another guy who finally comes in with a tablet and finds my appointment. He comes out to the car with me and then tells me that they ran out of all the parts for my appointment. I tried to argue how could they not have parts for my booked appointment. What is the point of any appointment then? He then did some kind of check in and said that he'll earmark a set for my car and will call me when it is available. Bunch of bullshit essentially. I don't think the guy himself wanted to do all what he had been to do. I understand when the management is bad, individual employees can't do much. I don't know how their service experience would be because at that time they would be earning some money. So in a way, the behemoth Volkswagen is to blame as a corporation too, not keeping check and taking care of basic management of their service centers. This safety recall is urgent, the airbags in the car can burst without the usual trigger which can explode it during normal use. The Volkswagen should be much more in action about his recall than passively forcing their franchise to take the load of recall without any extra assistance.

Jan 11, 2025 · Anchal Gupta

worse place for service. I took the appointment at 7am on Saturday to repair slow pressure release in my tire. they told me it will take several hours to repair and asked me to go some other place. There was no car behind me. I was there at 6:55am. no one came to me till 7:10am. then I went inside. one person asked me to wait and then he disappeared and then I went to another person. No other customers were there at that time. That another person scared me for the cost and time for repair and asked me to go to other tire repair places.

Jan 04, 2025 · surendra jain

If I could give them zero I would have. Bought a brand new 2024 Atlas and had some issues with rear seats and center console. The service department has broken more things in my car than they’ve fixed. None of the issues were taken care of in any way shape or form. When I bought the car the tires were also filled to 46 PSI now the pessimist in me believes this was done to hasten the deterioration of my tires so they could make money. They also never have loaner vehicles even though they’ve had to keep my car for multiple days. The last time I brought it in on a Friday morning and nothing was touched on it till Monday afternoon. The VW app sends push notifications anytime the doors open or it’s unlocked so that’s how I got that info. The last appointment I had set for them to look at all the things that were broken I got turned away because the dealership was changing ownership. I’ve also been given the run around by the service manager for months and have tried to get the dealership manager on the phone, but had to leave a message. That was almost a month ago and still haven’t heard back from them. Long story short just save yourself some headache and avoid this dealership.

Oct 23, 2024 · Jeremy Vige

I have always heard that this service area is really bad and not somewhere you want to bring your car. I never truly understood why and now I get it. First and foremost, my car cannot run and needed to be left at the lot next to it since Volkswagen was closed on Sunday. Sunday night I made an appointment for 7am so my car could be looked at first thing the next day. When 7am came around on Monday the service is open and I go to tell them my car needs to be pushed over to them so they can look at it. Immediately I start to get a runaround and it has been like that ever since. Apparently they are under new management and something with the systems isn’t working. I get told the system will be up working soon and I hear NOTHING for over 7 hours. I end up calling and Eddie tells me they can’t even push my car to their lot because “it’s a liability to their employees” even though I left my keys with him because he told me they could push it. For an entire day my car sat, not looked at, and not processed. Tuesday morning I call and ask if their system is back up and running to which they answer “no hopefully soon but I don’t think your car will be looked at today”. Why are they open and having appointment availability? Why was this new system not implemented on Sunday when the dealership was closed so they didn’t have this issue? They couldn’t even get me a loaner while I wait for my car to even be looked at and I have to go to work and have no extra car to get around. They can’t even tell me when the system will be up and running to know how long I’m without a car. After countless phone calls I finally get told my car was “pushed to the back lot”. Wednesday now comes around and they still don’t know how long their system will be down so I paid $130 to get my car towed out of their service lot (not compensated even though they are the reason I’m paying to tow it out). When I get there, Eddie (who was the person I talked to from the beginning who I told the car needed to be pushed and was out of oil) comes up to me and says the car is in a weird angle for the tow truck and ASKED ME if I was sure the car was emptying oil and not water because he put A LITTLE oil in my car and DROVE IT to the back of the lot. I told him not to start it and to make sure there wasn’t oil on the ground (even though there was 3 car lengths of oil to a storm drain under my car where it waited to be pushed). He comes back and tells me it was BONE DRY on the dip stick so he had to push it for the tow truck to get to it. NO WAY! I had him put it in writing of what happened in case something happened to my engine and he claims he checked my dip stick saw it was dry and put 5QUARTS of oil in it??? You wouldn’t ask me if I was sure it was oil on the ground if you checked the dip stick and saw it was dry the first time. I went to check the spot my car was driven to and sitting for a whole day and there was nothing but a small puddle. That was not 5 quarts because 5 quarts would’ve made a long trail to a storm drain the way it did when it waited for them to push it for one and a half days. How can a business be down for over 3 days with no end in sight? Why are they open? Why not listen to the customer when they tell you not to drive it? Why lie on the written paper knowing well enough you didn't put 5 quarts in there? This is not a place I recommend anyone to take their car. The only person who was nice enough to not give me the runaround excuses that Eddie was giving or another lady gave me, was Paul. He was so upfront, honest, and genuinely seemed to want to help me out to get my car looked at. Unfortunately, Paul is the only helpful one and is the only reason this place gets 1 star from me. Otherwise I’d want to give this place 0 stars. Never again will they get my service. They have a 2.7 star rating for a reason. And the management they are moving over to is from City of Volkswagen on Morena Blvd who has been known to have a bad management team. Save your time and money.

Sep 11, 2024 · Caroline Horne

I recently received an $8,000 estimate from the Service Department for repairs and maintenance on my 2018 VW Atlas, marked as requiring "Immediate Attention." Unfortunately, I wasn’t contacted to discuss the issues in detail, and when I arrived to pick up the car, there was limited information provided about the potential impacts or urgency of some repairs. For instance, one recommendation was over $3,200 to replace a cracked plastic piece holding the air filter, which I was ultimately able to secure with a zip tie. While I understand that dealers may not endorse certain DIY solutions, it would be helpful if the service team could provide a clear explanation of all urgent repairs, discussing the risks, impacts, and any possible alternatives. This would be especially valuable when the estimate is so significant, as well as for customers like me who adhere to regular service intervals, have had no prior issues, and expect maintenance costs to align more reasonably with typical ownership data.

Oct 25, 2024 · Brant Robinson

Shout out to service consultant Norman Miller. I had my ID.4 in for service and the door was slightly damaged when picked up. Norman made some calls and had my door fixed with a few weeks. I wanted to thank him for seeing the repair through. A lot of dealerships would have made this a much harder process. I did receive the car back dirty however I washed it and the repaired door looks great. Appreciate you! I leased the car from that dealership and had a decent but not great experience and I had a recall and the service experience was terrible.. so I decided to leave and get my first recall service done at Mission Bay before it closed and had a great experience. I had my reservations going back to Kearny to get all this work done and this happened along with the car being there longer than anticipated so I think to myself.. here we go again with their service dept.. I wanted to kick myself for going back but YOU made it things right and I appreciate that. Looking at your card I see you were at Mission Bay so I'm sure that has much to do with it.. either way I appreciate your help and effort. The service department has improved greatly from previous experience! Thanks again!

Apr 28, 2025 · Jason Armstead

DO NOT SERVICE YOUR VEHICLE HERE. I once believed I wanted to rate this place 5 stars, but now 0 if I could. Whatever happened to the service from less than a year has changed maybe when they merged with whoever was from Mission Bay VW. It went from keeping you updated to all of a sudden transferring you to 2 different departments and hanging up. Scam artists from this dealership will call you to schedule maintenance and tell you how quickly service will take then the supposed service takes hours longer or even days. My car notifications showed that they didn’t even turn on or move the car for 3 hours before they got to servicing it. Both times we’ve dropped off the vehicle was at 7am with an appointment and expected return time at 11am. Your car returns more messed up than it went in so they can charge you for parts that weren’t even an issue! Our other vehicle was “repaired” and won’t even open and they did not have a resolution. Currently working on a recall for a second time again, where I had to call to find out that the part was available and had been available, when we initially took it in they had to “order the part” when that was the initial reason for bringing the vehicle in, but they held onto the car for 8 hours just for a maintenance check. No update or text from the service person who is assigned to you, in this case, Glenn, until you have to call yourself and get the run around. As a family who relies on transportation for school, work, and appointments, they wasted our time and resources being on lunch for 3 hours today! We will NOT be returning for service at this location.

Mar 07, 2025 · Rachel G

I have been taking my car here since I bought it in 2018. All of the maintenance has been done here, which has been helpful to prevent anything else from happening to my car. The technicians explain everything thoroughly and the people at the desk are extremely polite. They always offer coffee and everyone is very respectful.

May 01, 2025 · Tania Lopez

I’ve been here for three maintenance milestones for my VW GTI: 40k (with DSG fluid flush), 50k, and 60k. Plus some recalls added into those appointments. Service was great all three times. Everything was done in a few hours. Sure the prices might be a little high, but they do the job right. Never had issues with any of their work. If price is a concern, there are coupons on their website and they will give you a deal if you have a relationship with them. Much appreciated. Keep it up

Mar 18, 2025 · Max Khatsenko

Great service center! Always takes care of me and my GTI. John consistently provides great customer service and is super helpful. The staff is always welcoming and i know my car is in excellent hands due to them.

May 06, 2025 · Elroy Pineda