Demanding a replacement car or refund

[Zakarados]

Hi Guys,

I am looking for some help, and to help others when asking for a replacement car or refund due to owning a lemon.

So here is my lemon story:

• Purchased mid August 2012 after waiting 18 months for the car.
• At 1000km oil light came on - topped up.
• Car was left for 1 day to remove dash rattles.
• At 2000km oil light came on - top up and was given a 1L top up bottle.
• At 3655km oil light came on - top up and was given another 1L top up bottle.
• At 4155km EPC and engine light on - car was towed - cylinder 4 misfiring due to oil in the spark plug area. Rattle which was fixed previously returns. Oil was topped up and 1L top up bottle was provided.
• At 4248km EPC and engine light on - car was towed - cylinder 4 misfiring due to failure in coil pack.
• At 4822km EPC and engine light on - car will be towed on Monday.
• I will also be complaining about the following:
• Excessive oil consumption of over 1L/1000km.
• Excessive exhaust soot - tested multiple different service stations and brands, always has the same issue.
• Window tinting is smearing when moved, causing 5-6 streak marks from top to bottom when windows are brought down and up. I assume the brand of tint they used is too thick and is touching something inside the doors?
• Door seals making popcorn like noise
• Dash rattle

To be towed three times within 1 month is just a joke.

I have lost all trust in this car, and cant even drive to dinner without feeling like the car is going to break down and need to be towed, leaving me to wait 1hr for NRMA then 1hr for a tow truck, then find my own way home.

Should I be taking this up with Volkswagen Australia or the Dealer I purchased the car from?

What a nightmare.

[ill0gitech]

Fair Trading indicates that if you plan to lodge a dispute, you should be raising it with the dealer.

You can also go to the CTTT and they have forms you can fill out - but not much info about what you should do beforehand

[Umai Naa!!]

Good luck getting a new car out of it. Rarely happens.

All of these problems can be fixed.

Oil consumption can be rectified by known repairs to the engine. Oil in spark plug tube (from topping up oil?), and subsequent coil failure seem to be related.

Window tinting is not a Volkswagen problem if it's aftermarket tint. Which it would be, if the car hasn't got tint in the glass itself.

Doors creaking can be fixed with known remedies (Correct lubrication of door seals, and locking mechanisms, etc).

Exhaust soot is common. Not sure what the solution is there. As fair as I'm concerned, all cars get it to varying degrees.

[Zakarados]

Good luck getting a new car out of it. Rarely happens.

All of these problems can be fixed.

Oil consumption can be rectified by known repairs to the engine. Oil in spark plug tube (from topping up oil?), and subsequent coil failure seem to be related.

Window tinting is not a Volkswagen problem if it's aftermarket tint. Which it would be, if the car hasn't got tint in the glass itself.

Doors creaking can be fixed with known remedies (Correct lubrication of door seals, and locking mechanisms, etc).

Exhaust soot is common. Not sure what the solution is there. As fair as I'm concerned, all cars get it to varying degrees.

Although these are all repairable (well there is no real fix for soot or engine oil burning), having a large number of issues within several months on a brand new car is unacceptable and there are laws against having such things happen to consumers. I have gone through 2 so called repairs for the same issue and it is still happening.

Also it was VW's dealer who sold and installed the tint.

I know it is a long shot having a replacement, but as long as you demand these things, maybe something will be fixed.

[Polo GTEye N9]

Quote 'Fair Trading indicates that if you plan to lodge a dispute, you should be raising it with the dealer. You can also go to the CTTT and they have forms you can fill out - but not much info about what you should do beforehand'

Extremely long story short here, I attempted to have a new car 'lemon' replaced and went to ACCC which failed. They claimed the manufacturer had made serious attempts to rectify the problems. Yes after over $13000.00 bucks in waranty repairs a lot of effort there but they had casued all the issues! After many many personal meeting with the Queensland Manager of Mxxxxx they finally made an offer of a new car replacement but failed again as they could not source one so late in the model cycle lol I sold the car after their final attempt and it passed all testing.. could you ever trust it though?

Not trying to put you off yes go to ACCC and do call VAG Australia. My current Polo GTi 9N3 ran out of warranty in August 2011. Due to some family issues I failed to address some warranty concerns that existed. I called VAG Aust and they suggested a 'Good Will' request via Hwy VW. I was successful mainly due the very much appreciated efforts of Mike Comasuli the service advisor who bent over backwards to get Good Will work done on our Polo. I rang Hwy VW this week to thank Mike again, Mike had moved on. All the best Mike!

If they can do that as Good Will why not attend to your car?

Go hard man, hit them up but always stay calm and be pleasant to them. Cheers Al

[Zakarados]

Go hard man, hit them up but always stay calm and be pleasant to them. Cheers Al

Thanks for the advice. I am the calm type so its all good. I have have a family member who works at the dealership, so I will not be causing any scenes, but I will try to pull as many strings as possible and cause enough noise to get my GTi fixed/replaced/refunded.

[Umai Naa!!]

Although these are all repairable (well there is no real fix for soot or engine oil burning), having a large number of issues within several months on a brand new car is unacceptable and there are laws against having such things happen to consumers. I have gone through 2 so called repairs for the same issue and it is still happening.

Also it was VW's dealer who sold and installed the tint.

I know it is a long shot having a replacement, but as long as you demand these things, maybe something will be fixed.

Tint is not covered by the Volkswagen-issued new car warranty. The tinter's warranty covers this.

So you're saying the countless engine rebuilds carried out are not proactive measures in rectifying the oil consumption issues?

[RoknRob]

So you're saying the countless engine rebuilds carried out are not proactive measures in rectifying the oil consumption issues?

Sure they're proactive!

But no guarantee it will actually fix the problem.

There are a number of posters who have had engine rebuilds and still have oil consumption issues.

If an engine rebuild was the solution, why pussy-foot around with replacing a breather pipe???

[Zakarados]

Tint is not covered by the Volkswagen-issued new car warranty. The tinter's warranty covers this.

So you're saying the countless engine rebuilds carried out are not proactive measures in rectifying the oil consumption issues?

The tint will be just another issue I will be complaining to the Dealer about, its just one of issues I am complaining about. I don't care who is at fault for this or who is liable, a fix is all I am after. The engine break downs and towing is the major complaint here.

Lets see how we go with the complaints, I am happy to get a repair if it actually REPAIRS something..... But from the look of the forums, exhaust soot and engine oil consumption have not been fixed even with engine replacements.

[6rtrendline]

My polo used oil right up to its first service. After that point it hasn't used a drop. But when I first got the car it was in the workshop for three straight weeks due to the globe warning light, turned out the factory broke a earth bottle and the tech had to repair the earth point.