MY16 Cracking internal Door handle trims

[Passerati]

Hi all.

So I purchased my Passat MY16 as an ex demonstrator in mid August 2017. It had about 2000km on the clock and was immaculate. Driven by the dealership manager.

I have now had the car for than less than one year, I use it as my daily driver as well as for work. Recently ticked over 30k.

I’ve taken care of my car as if it was my baby.
This morning as I jumped into the car to pick up groceries I noticed a piece of plastic flapping on the internal door handle.

It’s from the plastic trim on the inside of the handle, on the other side it’s leather trim.

It’s clearly cracking along the entire handle.

This is something one could expect from a 10yo car but not one that is less than 2, and only driven for a year.

I quickly called the local VW dealership who said to book in a viewing by the team.

To me it looks like poor quality/factory defect as this part of the handle being used daily shouldn’t perform like this after such short period.

Any thoughts?












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[tigger73]

Warranty claim. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long for it to come in. For this type of stuff I’d take it past the dealer at a not so busy time (I.e. not start/end of day) and get the service guys to take a look/order the part/book it in.

It’s likely going to be a 2 visit fix as unless they have the trim part in stock they’ll have to get the part in and rebook for another day.


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[ope126]

Hi Joey,

That's a shame that your door handles are doing that!
In the time I had mine, I never experienced anything like that.
Also, by looking at your pic, it appears like a manufacturing defect.
I m sure VW will sort this out for you mate.

[limiteded]

That looks like a whole new door card to me. There is only a few replaceable parts on the door cards these days such as electrical connectors, switches, lighting strips and reflectors. The components of the card are plastic welded/ heat pressed together and aren’t designed to come apart. Don’t think they keep whole door cards as a spare part in Australia, but you never know.

there should be zero issue for a warranty claim, as the defect is either the material, or the assembly of the door card.

[Passerati]

Thanks for your input.

I took the car down to the VW dealer and Service centre at Newstead in Brisbane.

They had a quick look at it, took some photos and asked if the car still was under warranty. I said yes as it is.

One of the girls who looked at it quickly said she doubted that it would be covered under warranty but they would send the photos away for review and would get back to me within 48 hours.

VW doesn’t have the best rep when it comes down to customer service so if they reject the claim I will escalate to Fair Ombudsman, ACCC or similar as it should be covered by the 3 year warranty as per Australian Consumer law.

Warranty | Volkswagen Australia



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[Jondalar]

Maybe try a different dealer if you get no joy, I've had indirect experience of not being very willing to push warranty claims at that dealership. Also, has the car been parked in the sun a lot?

[Passerati]

Hey.

It’s always parked inside the garage at home, while I’m at work it’s outside.

Sun damage shouldn’t happen so fast but...

I’ll try the Springwood dealership where I purchased the car if VW Newstead rejects it.




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[Lucas_R]

Thanks for your input.

I took the car down to the VW dealer and Service centre at Newstead in Brisbane.

They had a quick look at it, took some photos and asked if the car still was under warranty. I said yes as it is.

One of the girls who looked at it quickly said she doubted that it would be covered under warranty but they would send the photos away for review and would get back to me within 48 hours.

VW doesn’t have the best rep when it comes down to customer service so if they reject the claim I will escalate to Fair Ombudsman, ACCC or similar as it should be covered by the 3 year warranty as per Australian Consumer law.

Warranty | Volkswagen Australia

If VW do not honor this under warranty, just get the part number for the handle trim piece and buy it yourself. For the sake of no more than $50 i certainly couldnt be bothered going to ACCC etc where you will no doubt waste far more of your time filling in forms and talking on the phone etc than what the trim piece is worth.

In saying that, you can see a mould line in the trim piece that follows exactly where it is cracking - so it's obviously a weak point in the mould.

[Jondalar]

Hmm ok, does it have aftermarket window tint?

[tigger73]

The dealer probably just wants you to go away. It’s going to cost them
more in time sorting it out than they are going to make fitting the new trim.

Best off taking it back to the dealer that sold you the car if you can. They (hopefully) will be a bit more interested in sorting it out for you.




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