Problem golf and problem service

[Stoney!]

Hey again,

A little while back I took the car back because the rain sensor was STILL not working properly (a fault I previousley mentioned in another thread). (2nd visit for this problem) and when I went to pick it up (after 24 hours without my car) they simply said no fault found again, after telling me last time that it has been a common problem and will be replaced no questions asked.

The bonnet fit and finish problem was however fixed and am happy for that.

However they completely refuse to replace the rain sensor. After telling them it sometimes drags across the dry window he came back with the pathetic excuse that I should NOT have the sensor set to on when its not raining to which I was gobsmacked. Not only this, but when its light rain, it will drag the wipers acros the window with barely any water on it, then when it teams down they wait LONGER. I cannot live with having a faulty rain sensor and no intermittent wipers as its driving me insane in light rain having to wipe it with the one touch wipe each and every time.

I rang VW customer assist who rang me back 2 days later saying theres nothing they can do about after investigating the matter.

On top of this my nearside rear speaker seems to be vibrating rather noticeably on high bass songs and I'm having troubles with the supercharger clutch making loud clicking sounds along with the car hesitating when it does this.

I'm tempted to sell the car now and am not happy what so ever. Its one thing to sell faulty cars, its another NOT to fix them, I don't mind products with faults as long as the customer service is there.

Does anyone think a letter to head office may help? Because I wont buy another golf if this is the way I'm going to be treated, the car I always wanted until I finally bought one.

I also find the face they want to charge you for a hire car it outrageous after spending $45k on a car that I'm without for a day because THEIR product is faulty.

Stoney!

[nicandlance]

We should have the lemon laws here. My beetle gave me 8 months of heartache, and countless return trips back to the dealership. Letters to Head office did nothing...

[Nath]

I thought we did have a level of protection against lemon cars?

Anyway I guess you have two options left to you, not sure if you've tried any of these already but firstly you could go to another dealer and explain you problems, dealers are alway more than happy to snaggle someone elses service customer, or alternatively go to an independant like Derek at EA, i see you're at Manly so hes out your way, as it doesnt void warranty at all.

Secondly, if still no joy, you could complain to the ACC and seek them to assist with the problem.

When it comes down to it you purchased a car on contract that was reported to function in a certain manner, if through no fault of the operator it isn't then the dealer is bound to rectify the situation to your satisfaction.

Good luck with it all..

[brad]

Go to another dealer.

[anarchycamp]

Try taking it to another service center... don't tell them you have had it looked at by another one and see what they come up with. Your current one may have it in their heads that you are a "problem" customer (unjustified...but it happens) and are less likely to want to help you.

But saying that, I wouldn't call your car a "lemon" with issues like that....just things that need to be resolved, which they should be sorting out for you.

As far as the hire car thing goes, you have to remember that VW isn't a premium brand like Audi, BMWetc so a lot of the business modelling is taken from say the UK where VW is on par with Ford as far as service levels and customer expectations go.

Anyway, hope you can get it all sorted!

[anarchycamp]

Go to another dealer.

you beat me to it :p

[Christopher]

if worse comes to worse, then go to the automobile ombudsman.
They'll investigate for you..

[Brian]

As far as the hire car thing goes, you have to remember that VW isn't a premium brand like Audi, BMWetc so a lot of the business modelling is taken from say the UK where VW is on par with Ford as far as service levels and customer expectations go.

WTF? My daughters' Hyundai Accent ($14k brand new) was with the dealer for 3 days for a gearbox problem under warranty. Was offered a choice of courtesy cars while without hers! Hardly a "premium" brand or price. With the overpricing VW does in Australia, both for servicing and the new car prices, I would expect a loan car for no cost while a warranty issue was fixed.
Go to the ombudsman straight away to get some clout behind you when dealing with these rip-off merchants
Brian

[Nath]

Yeah I have to agree, with less agro, that whilst VW is not seen as a premium brand in Europe it is actually maketed as one here in Aus.

So if you are marketing yourself as a premium european brand then its fair for consumers to expect high quality serivce, maybe not the the level of BMW or Mercedes, but it should at least be on par with Audi. But that being said we also have a Volvo and they dont provide a free car for services but would for a warranty issue.

Some dealers are also better than others from what I've been able to see too, with some going out of their way to keep your business for servicing and hopefully future purchases whilst the bigger ones are generally get'em in get'em out volume sales.

That being said the issue that's been raised here isn't very satisfactory and I'd be jumping up and down to someone if it was my new car.

[brad]

There's an automotive ombudsman?