# 2012 Routan changes and updates



## iPinch (Oct 25, 2008)

*Routan S*: No changes

*Routan SE:* 17” Mervin alloy wheels, Electronic Vehicle Information Center

*Routan SEL*: keyless access w/push-button start, rainsensing windshield wipers, 17” Rota alloy wheels

*Routan SEL Premium*: Lane Change Assist & Rear Cross-traffic Alert 


http://askavwsalesguy.com/blog/2011/6/30/2012-routan-changes-and-updates.html


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## Ondaora20 (Apr 19, 2010)

New Gauges (like Chrysler/Dodge) or the Old Prehistoric Crap that we've had all along?

Tilt and TELESCOPING Steering Wheel or just the Tilt?

Upgraded brakes as the Dodge R/T is getting in 2012?

If VW doesn't add these improvements for 2012, it is an epic FAIL in my opinion.


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## luckeydoug1 (Feb 11, 2001)

At a *MINIMUM* all of the Routans should get the upgraded brakes ala the R/T. The stock brakes in the current Routans are woefully inadequate (especially compared with the brakes my 03 Eurovan had)!

Any hint of the colors yet?


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## iPinch (Oct 25, 2008)

thats all they mentioned so far


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## ClownCar (Feb 16, 1999)

Wonder if these new wheel styles are unique or just new names for 2012 Chrysler minivan wheels?


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## ntotrr (Aug 5, 2009)

Ondaora20 said:


> New Gauges (like Chrysler/Dodge) or the Old Prehistoric Crap that we've had all along?
> 
> Tilt and TELESCOPING Steering Wheel or just the Tilt?
> 
> ...


Maybe the use of the new gauges would require a new dash design by VW that they are not willing to do? The new interiors of the Chrysler lineup is vastly improved over the previous thanks to the Fiat Chairman Marchionne who didn't like what he was seeing and ordered new interior design and allocated an extra 75 bucks to spend one each interior which makes a huge difference. I haven't touched the new Chrysler van interior but it sure looks much beeter than previous. We'll see how it stacks up to the VW interior.


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## trbochrg (Dec 1, 2004)

My wife and i want to buy a Routan but the brake issues have been making me question if i should wait to see if they upgrade them for the 2012 model year. So far i have been seeing decent deals on the 2011's and was hoping to "Cash in " while i can and while there was still adequate stock of the particular one we want (Nocturne Black, S or SE) 

There is a 2011 SE with RSE locally that is $7000 off the sticker price and we were really thinking about jumping on that one.


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## VWroutanvanman (Feb 12, 2011)

Haven't heard of any brake complaints on the 2011s.


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## trbochrg (Dec 1, 2004)

VWroutanvanman said:


> Haven't heard of any brake complaints on the 2011s.


 Good to know! Thanks!


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## taxman100 (Apr 30, 2011)

I'd bet they are playing out the string, so to speak. With a five year deal with Chrysler, and sales falling short of projections, they cannot be making money on these vehicles with how much they are discounting them. 

That would not stop me from buying - all of the expensive or common parts are easy to get, and inexpensive, so fixing it long after it is dropped by VW will not be any sort of problem.


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## Ipfreely49 (Jul 20, 2011)

trbochrg said:


> My wife and i want to buy a Routan but the brake issues have been making me question if i should wait to see if they upgrade them for the 2012 model year. So far i have been seeing decent deals on the 2011's and was hoping to "Cash in " while i can and while there was still adequate stock of the particular one we want (Nocturne Black, S or SE)
> 
> There is a 2011 SE with RSE locally that is $7000 off the sticker price and we were really thinking about jumping on that one.


I just nabbed a 2011 SE RSE but I only got 6k off sticker. I drive 90 miles a day on very hilly and curvy roads and the brakes do just fine. I got glacier blue. 

If nothing else at some point EBC will have aftermarket pads and rotors to fit.


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## rychas1 (Mar 2, 2004)

i have a 2011. the brakes are awesome.


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## VWroutanvanman (Feb 12, 2011)

*Buy with confidence*

Just a comment about the brake problems on the '09-'10 Routans: Don't be scared of buying a model of those years. The warped rotors on some vans are a nuisance because of dealing with the dealers, but are not a safety issue. Stomp on the brakes during a panic stop and you'll stop in the same distance. So it's an annoyance, and under warranty, should be covered by VW, and out of warranty you can upgrade the rotors inexpensively. Ceramic brakes will reduce the brake dust, so buy and enjoy! And apparently the '11s have upgraded rotors, so hopefully that problem won't return.


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## redzone98 (Jun 10, 2004)

rychas1 said:


> i have a 2011. the brakes are awesome.


Throw some Hawk Pads on the Routan, and WOW, different Animal !!!!


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## KShaul1972 (Jul 29, 2011)

*Routan Deals*

I bought my 2011 Routan SE (with the RSE) last Thursday, 28 July and the dealership was running a deal at $8000 off MSRP. I couldn't pass it up. So far i'm loving it.


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## higgledy (Jul 24, 2011)

luckeydoug1 said:


> At a *MINIMUM* all of the Routans should get the upgraded brakes ala the R/T. The stock brakes in the current Routans are woefully inadequate (especially compared with the brakes my 03 Eurovan had)!
> 
> Any hint of the colors yet?


I thought VW upgraded the Routan's brakes for 2011?


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## higgledy (Jul 24, 2011)

redzone98 said:


> Throw some Hawk Pads on the Routan, and WOW, different Animal !!!!


I thought the problem was with rotor warping not pads? I don't doubt Hawk pads would be an improvement.


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## redzone98 (Jun 10, 2004)

higgledy said:


> I thought the problem was with rotor warping not pads? I don't doubt Hawk pads would be an improvement.


Try em first, then post


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## higgledy (Jul 24, 2011)

redzone98 said:


> Try em first, then post


Try the stock pads or the Hawk pads? I'm not complaining about either...yet. I was just hoping you'd reply with "yes, they upgraded the rotors for '11" or "Yes, the brake issues have been resolved for '11" 

If the brakes are still an issue is there a better afterm market rotor that I can try with my Hawk pads?


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## 58kafer (Jun 27, 2007)

I hope the brakes are resolved for 2011, but I doubt it. Between here and chryslerminivan.net, I haven't seen any complaints. Remember though, the 2011's came out early in 2011, not in 2010 like they should have, there for the mileages haven't hit the magic number yet to toast the rotors. Our rears went first @ 7500-8000 miles, the fronts were probably bad then too but I didn't notice it until we were on a highway trip (@ 9K) and I hit the brakes at 75 MPH, Oh yeah you could feel them. Now we're creeping in on 18K and I think the backs are warped again (I can hear them shuddering), getting ready for a highway trip this afternoon, so I might re-live the fronts too!


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## higgledy (Jul 24, 2011)

58kafer said:


> I hope the brakes are resolved for 2011, but I doubt it. Between here and chryslerminivan.net, I haven't seen any complaints. Remember though, the 2011's came out early in 2011, not in 2010 like they should have, there for the mileages haven't hit the magic number yet to toast the rotors. Our rears went first @ 7500-8000 miles, the fronts were probably bad then too but I didn't notice it until we were on a highway trip (@ 9K) and I hit the brakes at 75 MPH, Oh yeah you could feel them. Now we're creeping in on 18K and I think the backs are warped again (I can hear them shuddering), getting ready for a highway trip this afternoon, so I might re-live the fronts too!


Are there aftermarket rotors that preform better than the OEM?


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## VWroutanvanman (Feb 12, 2011)

*6K*

The rear rotors were replaced at 6K on my '10 SE, and now the fronts are just starting to vibrate at 17K miles.


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## higgledy (Jul 24, 2011)

With 6k on the rotors, did the warranty pay for the replacements?


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## VWroutanvanman (Feb 12, 2011)

*1st free oil change*

The dealer initially said that the rotors were wear items, and not covered by the warranty. But when I took it in for it's first oil change, they replaced the rear rotors and pads at no charge. At 17K, I thoughI would have a fight on my hands to get them to replace the fronts, which are just starting to vibrate, but when talking to the service manager recently about the brakes, he said they would cover the rotors and pads on the front also, so word is apparently out from VW to take care of these rotor problems.


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## redzone98 (Jun 10, 2004)

higgledy said:


> Try the stock pads or the Hawk pads? I'm not complaining about either...yet. I was just hoping you'd reply with "yes, they upgraded the rotors for '11" or "Yes, the brake issues have been resolved for '11"
> 
> If the brakes are still an issue is there a better afterm market rotor that I can try with my Hawk pads?



Try the Hawk pads, i did, they are Fantastic, 

And Centric Rotors


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## Steveaut (Sep 16, 2010)

higgledy said:


> I thought VW upgraded the Routan's brakes for 2011?


That's what we heard in 2010, but mine are starting at 17k. Maybe that's an improvement over 2009, but still not acceptable.


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## Trail Ryder (Jul 18, 2011)

1,500 miles so far.

The amount of brake dust on the front wheels is acceptable, but *the amount of brake dust this vehicle accumulates on the rear wheels is ridiculous*. I have to clean them once a week.


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## VWroutanvanman (Feb 12, 2011)

*Brake dust*

Yeah, same with my '10 SE, lots of rear brake dust, which is weird, because most of the braking force is with the front wheels. There must be a difference between the front and rear pads. I wonder if the part numbers are different?


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## 58kafer (Jun 27, 2007)

Why mess around any where else. Lifetime warranty against warpage! If mine aren't covered I may be sporting these. 

http://brakeperformance.com/brake-rotors/Premium-Dimpled-and-Slotted-Brake-Rotors.php?did=29290


Personally I think Chrysler knows the brakes suck and they changed the proportioning valve to one that allows more brake pressure to the rear brakes to help aid in the stoppage of these vans. I've NEVER heard of a vehicle warping the rear rotors---EVER. Just my 2 cents.

My originals rears were replaced at the first 6K service (check my records) and the fronts were done at 9K. Now I think they're gone again at 17K, waiting for our 18K check up.

@Steveaut---How was the brake dust on the rear of your Journey??


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## taxman100 (Apr 30, 2011)

58kafer said:


> Why mess around any where else. Lifetime warranty against warpage! If mine aren't covered I may be sporting these.
> 
> http://brakeperformance.com/brake-rotors/Premium-Dimpled-and-Slotted-Brake-Rotors.php?did=29290
> 
> ...


The website you list above has the same part number for both 2010 and 2011 Routans. If there was a change for 2011, it was not for different sized rotors.


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## redzone98 (Jun 10, 2004)

58kafer said:


> Why mess around any where else. Lifetime warranty against warpage! If mine aren't covered I may be sporting these.
> 
> http://brakeperformance.com/brake-rotors/Premium-Dimpled-and-Slotted-Brake-Rotors.php?did=29290
> 
> ...



Warped my Rears out at 2500 miles, I drive in Rural, Flat as a pancake, Southern NJ. Brakes are Trash !


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## TCM GLX (Jan 2, 2000)

I have an 2010 SE here..... at 12k mile service, I told the service guy.. chk them for me, not because I felt any issues, but just to start creating a complaint log so I wouldnt have issues in the future. Here is what happened:

1) He changed, all four rotors and pads for me, no cost 
2) Said he used a different set, that apparently will cause the issue
3) Said, we want you to be a happy VW customer, so you will basically get brakes for free as long as you own this ride hahahaha

I was pretty OK with that....... on a side note, my brother is a Honda Odyssey lover, and he has the exact same issue on 2 different Honda's. Brakes every 25K miles on that hunk regardless of driving style. My brother in law has a Toyota Sienna, and it kills brakes every 20K miles, he has 130K and has done them religiously every 20K miles now.

Bottom line, VANS need bigger brakes... and people dont get that. They need to be throwing bigger stuff, I do not beleive that the manufacturers realize the extra weight of 5 or 6 passengers, and cargo there fore brakes go bye bye.

Anyways, that is my useless rant.


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## tuanies (Oct 16, 2009)

If someone wants to release a big brake kit for the Routan, I'd be down for one


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## Steveaut (Sep 16, 2010)

Regarding my Journey's brake dust, there was a lot. But it seemed more on the fronts. I had more problems on the front than the back brakes on the Journey.

It seems like I read somewhere that VW prefers to put more braking in the back than American companies. Apparently, the front to back braking ratio is much closer on VW vehicles and maybe most german makes. I wonder if VW had the ratio changed from the Chrysler version to allow more use of the back brakes, ie, more wear back there than expected/dust.

As to the above brakes, I will seriously consider those for the lifetime warpage. Does anyone know anything about this company. I would hate to buy something with the expectation of lifetime only to find they were a fly by night company. But from my experience, a lifetime warranty is great. One catch is that you would have to return them and wait for a new set. I wonder if they have an exchange policy where they send you new ones before the return with a deposit. Better rotors are worth it if it means they will not warp every 20k or so.


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## 58kafer (Jun 27, 2007)

Steveaut said:


> Regarding my Journey's brake dust, there was a lot. But it seemed more on the fronts. I had more problems on the front than the back brakes on the Journey.
> 
> It seems like I read somewhere that VW prefers to put more braking in the back than American companies. Apparently, the front to back braking ratio is much closer on VW vehicles and maybe most german makes. I wonder if VW had the ratio changed from the Chrysler version to allow more use of the back brakes, ie, more wear back there than expected/dust.
> 
> As to the above brakes, I will seriously consider those for the lifetime warpage. Does anyone know anything about this company. I would hate to buy something with the expectation of lifetime only to find they were a fly by night company. But from my experience, a lifetime warranty is great. One catch is that you would have to return them and wait for a new set. I wonder if they have an exchange policy where they send you new ones before the return with a deposit. Better rotors are worth it if it means they will not warp every 20k or so.


On the lifetime warpage-----you only get one set warrantied, better than paying twice I guess. Read some of the testimonials, It seem that almost every car has shatty rotors. Nothing beat my 2001 Dodge 2500 Cummins Turbo, 217K on the original rotors on ALL 4 corners!


Our 2 Passats always had/have more rear dust than the front. That being said, I see DGC's and T&C's with a lot of rear brake dust so I don't think its a VW thing. I'm sure in testing the Chrysler engineers found that the brakes were adequate at best and had the proportioning valve re-valved to allow more to the rear to "equalize" and minimize the warpage. I'm down to basically "It is what it is". It in no way changes how much I love this van. Some one I know has a 2008 DGC and in 12 months they warped the rotors, took it to an independent mechanic and now they have only had to replace the pads not rotors. 

My GMC Yukon use to eat rotors in a short time too, until I upgraded to Cross Drilled Brembo Rotors and Akebono Ceramic pads. Yet a guy that I personally know with the exact same year Yukon complains about how thouchy the brakes are. The Yukon brakes still pull to the gutter even with a new master cylinder, power brake booster, rubber lines and calipers! I even question if my rear brakes make contact, although when I manually andjust them the brakes are great for about 3 weeks then they are just like before, non-existant. I'm ready to ditch the ABS and see if my brakes improve


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## Zambee500 (Jun 23, 2011)

The B5.5 Passats are known for much longer wear on the fronts than rears. We got 110k on the original rears, and the original fronts had 30% of life left on them. A front caliper ended up sticking on ours and chewed up one of the front pads, so we had to replace the fronts at 125k miles but the other 3 front pads still had plenty of life left on them. Informal polling on the TDI website indicates the fronts on the B5.5 tend to go half-again farther than the rears. And I believe the OEM fronts were Akebono ceramics while the OEM rear pads were not ceramic, so makes sense the rears had worse dust than the fronts. I put Akebono ceramics on the rears and TRW semi-metallic on the fronts when I replaced them and it's now exactly opposite.

I wonder if upgrading to premium rotors by a company like Zimmerman, Brembo, ATE, Hudson, etc. will help the problem on the Routans. Now that our Routan is out of warranty, I'm probably going that route when the time arrives, together with premium pads like Akebonos or similar.

Interestingly, VW designs their cars with throwaway rotors, and even though this is a Chrysler that's not designed for throwaway rotors, that's what we seem to have wound up with.


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## Optical TDI (Dec 18, 2001)

higgledy said:


> I thought VW upgraded the Routan's brakes for 2011?


The dealer told me the replacement rotors are updated part numbers - we have a 2010. They did the fronts and the rears are next, but waiting on rear caliper brackets. I can only imagine new brackets mean different sized rear rotors.


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