Hi
when I read this NG with this much problems (frontbrakes,
pollenfiltercover, ignition lock etc.pp) that no one in Germany ever
heard about, I am not sure if You are right.

I have a 2000 TDI with 90 hp, and none of these problems came around my
car. I did not even read about before coming to this NG.
bye
Jupp

(earlier top posting reset in chronological order...)

I had to smile reading Rob's post, because it reminded me what's apparently
required (for whatever reason) for the mandatory "paper stickers" for new
U.S. cars "fresh on the lot" nowadays. Interesting to hear if anyone has
noted anything like this lately -- it's been 5 years since I bought my last
new car -- and I just found this part of the whole transaction amusing...

In fact, I did buy a new 2004 Focus station wagon (U.S.) just today -- on
the strength of how well my wife's 2001 Focus sedan has behaved -- but my
2004 was delivered to my local dealer from another dealer, and so all the
U.S. "informational stickers" (your own country's "informational stickers"
will certainly vary) that I expected to see stuck to the windows of a new
car had been scraped off already. Before I bought the 2004, however, the
dealership had shown me a 2005 F. station wagon first, the only one the
salesman had  to show. (Not my color; sorry.) It was the "mandatory sticker"
on that 2005 that caught my attention -- I wish I had written down the exact
wording of it -- which was it was guaranteed that 50% of the components of
that car were either Canadian OR U.S. made, and that "of the remaining parts
in the car, it could be guaranteed with a lot of certainty" (or something
like that) that 15% of them came from ... Mexico.

No problem with the Mexico part ... the first thought springing to my
mind -- can't be helped, sorry  -- was "where's the other 35% of the car?"
The second realization was that it was too complicated for Ford to break
out, by country. Or perhaps it's just Ford's minimum compliance with
whatever the "mandatory sticker" rules are in the U.S. for "country
break-out"  -- today, anyway...

I may have bought the most International car that I have ever owned, also.
(But I learned that lesson over a decade ago, when I moved from the U.S. to
Europe for 2 years. I bought a VW Fox, then, in the U.S., figuring that a VW
could be fixed anywhere in Europe, whatever might go wrong... When the U.S.
recall came out for a certain faulty part on the Fox later that I needed to
replace, I couldn't find the part anywhere in Europe. _Then_ I learned this
Fox was made for the N.A. and S.A. markets only, according to VW...)

Dave "coming off a 1999 Ford Escort, which was a very good car" B.