When is a $1000 bill a good bill?

[LDV R5]

When you've been told that your A/C compressor is stuffed, that your belt tensioner pulleys have collapsed and you're out of warranty, oh and you've just spent $2k getting the tow kit fitted on your second hand Touareg.

Fairly unhappy days earlier this week.

Two weeks out from our driving holiday up to 1770 we started getting a deep and ugly rattle.

After some self inspection I found that the accessories/AC belt was a bit too loose for my liking.

Booked her in for a check up.

And so the phone call goes like this:

Oh, we've found that a tensioner pulley has collapse and will need replacing. That'll be about $1000 supply and fit. We have one in stock so you should be OK to go by the afternoon.

OK, so we're not too happy but not utterly pissed by this news.

Of course 15 minutes later the phone call starts again.

Oh, we found that your AC compressor shaft has split and is almost completely gone. That'll be an extra $3000.

Oops. Now of course my wife is about to loose it. But calmly tells the Service Manager that they'd better figure something out coz we aint paying the better part of $4k on a car we've owned for 4 months, and that to our thinking a car that has done less than 70,000 shouldn't have major engine components falling off.

Thankfully Austral and VW came to the party and covered a really chunky part of the bill and did it without the need for anyone getting cranky, so we're extremely happy overall.

(just try getting that level of service from your Holden dealership.... trust me I tried... not so easy)

They even had the gear in stock so we're back on the road the next day.

Was really please with the outcome and the helpfulness of the service department.

[The_Hawk]

Great news to hear it was solved and that your local dealer helped out. As you say it's not always the case, but it's never a bad thing when it is!

What year model is it? (and how far out of warranty?)

[mikinoz]

It is not often you hear about such a great experience, but glad for you that it was only $1k.

I get scared about these failures on cars out of warranty, maybe I am paranoid, but it is always after the warranty period is over you hear the $XXXX bills coming up.

[OilBurna]

glad they covered it good outcome what is with all the a/c compressors going on VW's?? Lesson is ensure you have extended warranty well worth the price.

[RedMk2Gti]

I suppose it has full dealership service records in the log book within warranty periiod, otherwise you won't be that lucky