2003 Passat

I'm having my 2003 Passat tinted and the place that is doing the job says they can not tint behind the rear brake light on the back window. They are planning on cutting around it. I'm afraid that this is look like a hack job.

Can they tint behind the rear brake light and if not, how does it look with the tint cut around the light.

Hacks for sure!! Those rear decks come out easily.

Naughty

am i way late...may post eh, oh well...i just did one today and those are a simple reardeck to remove

doin a passat this week, is there much room with regards matrix/felt? heard its tight. whats the best way. fx. take off headrests, tape up the felt??? cheers

Tape of felt and cut patterns tight, pull out rub rail for an easier install. The back doors can be tricky if your pattern is not bang on the money!

Naughty

Chose your tinter CAREFULLY. I happened upon this site looking for removal tips.
Why removal tips? Because some I let a shop in St. Peters, MO tint my 2003 Passat W8 and it's the worst thing I've ever seen. I've let the shop tint 2 of my other cars and they looked great. I guess German cars are a mystery to them. Honestly, there aren't many German cars in my neighborhood but that's no excuse.

Reasons of concern:
The dot matrix area looks terrible. His reply: It's impossible to get tint to stick to those dots.

6 of the 7 windows tinted have lint in it. His reply: It's tough to tint these cars with the felt. It's just something that happens. And it's impossible to keep a lint free shop.

The front side windows have hard creases in them right where I look in the sideview mirrors with the windows up. Both sides, same spot. Looks like the tint got crumpled and then carded smooth IMHO. His excuse: Again, these cars are tough to tint, the felt, the weather stripping is so tight, etc etc..

and the biggest screw up IMHO...There's a gap about an inch and half wide at the top of my rear window he didn't even tint! His excuse: You can't see it unless you stick your head up there. And he's right. You can't see it from the inside or the outside, but my reply: It lets a strip of bright light into the car that shines directly on the rear headrests and is annoying as hell.

The sad thing is I would have paid extra if he would have told me the car needed extra prep in order to look right. It's a VW, everything takes more work or more money with this car. I understand that. Instead he quoted me an average price and did a hack job because he was afraid to scare me away. Now he lost any future money with any other cars I purchase. Hell, If I would have known I would have rolled the car into his shop minus the door panels and weather stripping to make it easier on him.

To his credit he offered to fix the defects. But after seeing him shuffle his feet, the confuzzled look, and the lame excuses I don't want him touching the car again.