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VW Golf – What a bogie.
So VW wants to be the biggest car maker in the world. Well hopefully they will sort out their quality control and engineering issues before we are all driving around in loaner cars, while our VW’s are being repaired.
Back in early 2009, after years of my wife driving around in people movers, my wife started looking for her car. Something that would be zippy, comfortable to drive and reliable. And boy, did she look! We visited every car dealer in the area, looking at brochures on the internet and of course, test driving all those on the short list (and of course having to talk to car salesmen). The short list included vehicles from Lexus, Audi, BMW and a few others. But, in the end, it was the little Golf –Car of the Year, which got the tick.
Now when it was first delivered, there was some confusion regarding the front seats. We did not want the sports seats, and the salesman told us that it would come with the comfort seats, but on picking it up, it had the sports seats. But, she initially did not mind them, and as it was her car – I let it slip.
Now, initially the car performed well, it was zippy around town, easier than the old Kia Carnival to park, and certainly cheaper to run. But after a while, we noticed that the clutch appeared to be slipping. It would chug and shudder as it changed gears. So when it went in for its service, there was some work required to fix up the gearbox (the fancy DSG double clutch gearbox that the salesman told me was super reliable!). So they gave her a Jetta loaner, and off she went.
We got the car back and my wife was motoring again. Then we received a recall letter, something to do with reprogramming the engine management system to handle the Australian fuel. So another trip to the dealer (90 minutes away) and a day lost waiting for the service department to fix it.
Then there was the next service…. I couldn’t believe it when my wife rang me to say “they have to keep the car a little longer, as they had to replace the motor”! The car had only done 30,000km. But, what could we do? So we left my wife’s little Golf there again, took a Corolla loaner and headed home. After a few weeks, her car was fixed again! And we took it home.
Then one morning, in the middle of a busy road the car suddenly stopped. Nothing – just dead! So another call to roadside assistance and the car got dragged onto the flatbed truck and transported to the nearest dealer. It turned out to be the engine management unit. While they waited for parts, we got to drive another loaner. It was only after we sat down; we realized how different the situation could have been. If the car had broken down a few minutes later, my wife would have been on the New England Highway, mixing it up with B-Doubles and P-Plate drivers. The consequences of the car dying while in this traffic could have been tragic. We selected the Golf for its supposed reliability, but we were starting to really doubt this claim.
Anyway, after the little Golf had its holiday at the service centre, we handled over the Ford Focus loaner and took Golfy home.
Now, things seemed to be going ok, but after a while we started to have problems with the gearbox shuddering again and the air conditioner not working. The fan would just stop and no matter how much you pressed the buttons, it just would not work. You had to turn the ignition off and on before it would work – which is a real pain when you are travelling down the freeway.
So Golfy went in for a service, and this time when I arrived to collect her, I was told “the alternator is not charging and the battery has died”. Now, you would have thought that with all the cars VW sells in Australia, they would have a replacement alternator available, but no – it had to come from Germany or Singapore! And this would take 10 days. But this time, no loaner, we would have to drive Golfy while we waited for the replacement alternator to arrive. But because the alternator was not charging, we had to hook up the battery charger each night to make sure the car had sufficient power to run all the electronics.
And finally we received the call – your new alternator has arrived. But you will have to wait a week until we can do the work. Why did they not make a spot back when they ordered the alternator? So Louise takes the Golfy back to the dealer – 2 hours in the traffic. After filling in a day, walking around the shops, she returned to the service department to be told “the alternator did not fix the problem, so you can take a loaner home until we get it fixed”.
So Louise heads home in a new diesel Golf. And this is where it gets interesting. She was amazed at how much better this Golf performed, no hesitating when she takes off, smoother gear changes and all from a base model.
Then a few months later we start to notice problems with the gearbox. You drive along and when you plant your foot, nothing happens! The car drops a gear and the tacho increases, but nothing happens to the car – no acceleration. You stop and restart the car, and it’s ok. But the gear changes are much slower than normal. So I ring Kloster Newcastle and they say, “we cannot look at it for 10 days, so just keep driving it”. Unfortunately the idea of driving a car that intermediately stops accelerating is not very safe. And then on Australia day, it just stopped. So it was back on the flat tray truck and it returned to the service center at Klosters Newcastle.
So it’s another rental car and we received a call from the service center that the car should be ready on the 23rd of February. This is almost a month!
So did we get a lemon? Initially we thought the Golf was a great little car. But its reliability really leaves a lot to be desired. Would I recommend a Golf to somebody looking for a new car? NO
So where to from here? Will VW continue to fix the problems until the warranty expires, then try to hide behind the old excuse “it’s out of warranty”? Or do I return the car and get my money back, as the car is obviously not fit for purpose, and does not live up to advertised claims? Or is our car just a lemon and needs to be replaced?
I will let you all know how I got on, and remember to pass this info onto anybody you know that might be considering a new VW.
Originally Posted by Rockman
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