A lady friend of the family has a 2002 Passat that had to have rear brakes redone at 20,000 miles. Dealer told her this is normal for this car. I find that hard to believe. Anybody else have this problem? Alternative explanation?

I have 65K on my Passat and the rear brakes are still fine. Just did the front for the 1st time.

There are several threads in this forum about short rear pad lifespans on late model Pasats. Unfortunately 20K-30K is average, and usually the rotors have to be replaced.

She probably is a mostly-highway driver and has a heavy right foot. Granted the rear brakes are smaller than the fronts but I see the same thing happen on Mercedes Benz's quite often. That's generally how I can tell the driver's habits. Highway drivers tend to wear the rears first where the "stop-n-go'ers" wear fronts first. ABS allows the rear brakes to do a bit more work than years ago.

I have a 2002 VW Passat with 31,000 miles that is need of its 2nd complete brake and rotor set since I purchased it new (last complete job done at 18,000 after sparse use over almost 2 yrs). The rotors are warped again and they wanted to charge me $860 to fix, at 18,000 miles VW agreed to only charge me 25% of the cost. Supposedly the original manufacturer of the rotors has been changed due to defective products and my new set of rotors are supposed to be better. I am refusing to pay again and it is in the hands of VW at this point. I have never put brakes on any car I've owned (typically Saabs) much less rotors and all at 31,000 miles.