Why you should never, ever buy a Volkswagen

Two weeks ago I was fortunate to avoid death in my new Volkswagen Tiguan. Two days before the accident, in which my car has lost a wheel just before I merged a highway, the car was inspected by the official Volkswagen dealer, following my numerous complaints about noise and vibrations while driving. After this inspection, they assured me that there's nothing abnormal in the car. Then they rejected to take responsibility for the accident, repairs, and even tried to force me to come and pick up the broken car from their parking while I tried to figure out what to do.

I felt like I was in a third-world country. I have the impression that to save a few dollars, Volkswagen is ready for anything.

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My car started to make weird noises, vibrate, and tap. I recorded the noises and vibrations on my phone several times, made a complaint to Volkswagen, and took my almost new Tiguan to the dealership. After an inspection, the Volkswagen technician told me that the car has no problems and "everything is very solid." Two days later, the vibrations intensified and, at some point, when I and my family were about to merge a highway, the car lost a wheel. Luckily, we weren't on the highway yet!

Two Volkswagen dealers in Quebec City (the one which inspected the car two days before the accident and another one to which the car was towed by the automobile club) refused to take responsibility for the accident and for the repair of my car. The reason for refusal was that it was not them who installed the wheels. The fact that it was one of them who inspected the car two days before the accident (following my numerous complaints about noise and vibrations in the car), didn't matter to them. They said over the phone that, I quote in my own words,

"Our inspection did not include the wheels, so what was said about the solidity of your car by our car technician did not include the wheels."

In addition, one Volkswagen representative told me over the phone that because it wasn't a regular inspection, they don't even count it as an inspection!

In my opinion, Volkswagen dealers are either,

1. terribly incompetent (how, being an automotive technician, can you ignore the wheels when you inspect a car that makes noises, vibrates, and taps? how can you say "everything is very solid" about a car, in which you have not inspected the wheels?) or
2. liars who would tell anything to free themselves from responsibility.

I don't know which of the two options is worse: being incompetent in the area where people's lives are at stake or lying to save a few dollars in repairs of a new car the customer paid you for more than $50k less than a year ago and who has just lived a traumatic experience in the car of your production.

You decide.

A couple more details to the portrait:

1. One of Volkswagen dealers also told me several times on the phone that if I do not say that I pay for the repairs (while I tried to contact Volkswagen Canada to explain my situation and then waited for their internal investigation and decision) I must come and pick up my broken car from their parking lot "because they have a very small parking lot"! It looked like a scene in Ocean's Thirteen when two crooks kicked a sick resident out of his hotel room to free the room for a VIP client. It was very humiliating, I was not ready to experience that in a country like Canada and a city like Quebec City.
2. The dealer whom the car was towed to told me over the phone the morning following the accident that for a service I must call the other dealer (the one that sold me the car) because "we are two different Volkswagens."
3. I never got a response from Volkswagen Canada about this egregious situation, which convinced me that what happened to me is quite normal for Volkswagen.