Polo GTI High Oil Usage - Discussion Thread

[Pere]

Fontana,
Which Brisbane dealer agreed to rebuild your engine ?

[dening]

I'm in for first service and the beginning of sorting the oil use tomorrow.

Solitaire had been fairly open in talking about the oil use since purchasing and the fixes since it hasn't gone away, so fingers crossed they are happy to do the work and bill VW Australia.

Mine started off getting 2,500-3,000 between top ups, but it just came on after 1200 this time, so probably not going away.

[fontana302]

They didn't attempt a rebuild, I got a complete new motor.

[RossP]

Heads up on McGrath Volkswagen at Liverpool, Sydney. They have acquired a 2011 Polo GTI 4-door in candy white by way of a CTTT order last Friday. Only 22,000+ kms & well cared for, but has had 30 litres of oil put through it for the distance travelled. Not a car I would want to own (any longer) due to the oil consumption. VIN is on record with the NRMA as having used 1 litre of oil for 1,000kms following the breather hose "repairs". Last seen wearing the number plates BWI-29C.
When we left the hearing I asked the dealer principal if he intended to fix the oil consumption problem. He told me "unfortunately if we do an ECU diagnostic and it doesn't report any errors, then there's nothing wrong with the car". So, although nearly all their staff have been changed and the last service manager has now been sacked, one has to wonder if anything much has actually changed at McGraths?

[dening]

Heads up on McGrath Volkswagen at Liverpool, Sydney. They have acquired a 2011 Polo GTI 4-door in candy white by way of a CTTT order last Friday. Only 22,000+ kms & well cared for, but has had 30 litres of oil put through it for the distance travelled. Not a car I would want to own (any longer) due to the oil consumption. VIN is on record with the NRMA as having used 1 litre of oil for 1,000kms following the breather hose "repairs". Last seen wearing the number plates BWI-29C.
When we left the hearing I asked the dealer principal if he intended to fix the oil consumption problem. He told me "unfortunately if we do an ECU diagnostic and it doesn't report any errors, then there's nothing wrong with the car". So, although nearly all their staff have been changed and the last service manager has now been sacked, one has to wonder if anything much has actually changed at McGraths?

So were they made to refund or just buy it from you at current trade in value?

[skoobysGTI]

Ok thanks for the replies!

Sorry, I meant to say the CAVE was the old engine.

So are you telling me that this engine rebuild MAY NOT fix the issue?? Bloody hell man..I'm so sick of this..hope that it has fixed it..I'm not sure they will go down the path of exchanging the entire engine for me.

[RossP]

So were they made to refund or just buy it from you at current trade in value?

The CTTT were determined to tell me that the new dealer principal was a reasonable guy & they knew him well & that I would have to make allowances for the fact the car was 2 & half years old. So I got better than the lousy trade in prices, more like a market value. $21,000 and I don't have to live with the fact that I have privately sold this piece of crap to somebody else. At the end of the day it was expensive and involved a lot of time preparing submissions for the CTTT. Also not without the dealer playing some stupid stunt and throwing me out of the dealership when I tried to return the car on the date ordered. They ended up having to transfer the money to my account before picking up the car, or I would have just got a court order for the sherriff to take action. And that would have looked BAD in any future action against them.
There are other dealerships out there that do care about these cars and the trouble people have experienced with them. However, this is not one of them from my experience.

VW's form was interesting as usual.....their take was "the CTTT haven't made any orders against us", so they basically left their dealer hanging. They don't seem to care much more about their dealers than they do about their customers it would seem.

[Zakarados]

So are you telling me that this engine rebuild MAY NOT fix the issue?? Bloody hell man..I'm so sick of this..hope that it has fixed it..I'm not sure they will go down the path of exchanging the entire engine for me.

After my engine rebuild, everything seems fine. I just had my first service done, and the oil hasn't dropped since (only driven 1000km). I was burning 1L/1000km before the rebuild. Not sure if people have has rebuilds and still have heavy oil usage.

[dening]

So I just got my car back from 1st service and the breather hose mod, which the foreman said is updated to a few pipes and hoses and an ecu update, he was laughing at how many times VW had revised this TPI now. As I was paying I asked another guy "so am I on a consumption test now?" and he said "no, this will work 9 times out of 10 and but if the light comes back on, only then I should come in and do a test, that's what VW say". Clearly this guy was thinking they needed to protect VW. The service manager and workshop foreman said much different when I queried them and were very insistent that I am on a consumption test now and to come back in 1000km.

[gavs]

The CTTT were determined to tell me that the new dealer principal was a reasonable guy & they knew him well & that I would have to make allowances for the fact the car was 2 & half years old. So I got better than the lousy trade in prices, more like a market value. $21,000 and I don't have to live with the fact that I have privately sold this piece of crap to somebody else. At the end of the day it was expensive and involved a lot of time preparing submissions for the CTTT. Also not without the dealer playing some stupid stunt and throwing me out of the dealership when I tried to return the car on the date ordered. They ended up having to transfer the money to my account before picking up the car, or I would have just got a court order for the sherriff to take action. And that would have looked BAD in any future action against them.
There are other dealerships out there that do care about these cars and the trouble people have experienced with them. However, this is not one of them from my experience.

VW's form was interesting as usual.....their take was "the CTTT haven't made any orders against us", so they basically left their dealer hanging. They don't seem to care much more about their dealers than they do about their customers it would seem.

Oh Ross man, I understand that you wanted this over with and without being there in court with you I can only imagine how it would have gone, but surely the right and proper thing to have done is to have refunded the value of the car when you first reported the problem because after all, they never actually fixed the initial problem which you reported to them which under Australian consumer law says that if they fail to do so then they have to refund the price of the goods. The only reason the car is 2.5 yrs old when you finally sorted this is because the dealership, VGA and the (seemingly dodgy/cor...) CTTT took this long to reach a decision! I'd be writing to your local member for state parliament issuing a formal complaint into the proceedings of the CTTT. At least VCAT down here has some balls.