DSG woes in The Age

[AdamD]

How do you have zero posts listed ??

Not sure. I think the pro-VW mods here have me on a tight leash. I'm probably in a special user group.

No great conspiracy I'm afraid, OzVW. Posts in the General section don't contribute to your post count, and your posts thus far have all (correctly) been in this section.

[geeza]

I'm not sure I agree in this case.

Yes, Fairfax are proving once again that journalism in Australia requires no integrity and no facts - speculation, hearsay and dogged persistence will do.

But this stuff has hit the mainstream media and is gaining widespread public exposure, and there's nothing VWA can do to put the cat back in the bag now. As a good mate of mine (non-VW owner but a potential VW customer) observed, they should be in full damage control mode to at least calm the media frenzy, and protect the brand image. Even publishing a statement along the lines of 'We're liaising with our customers and our dealers to solve all these issues conclusively, and to everyone's satisfaction' would at least give them a reprieve.

In my opinion, saying nothing - in the light of what's been published in the media (whether true or not) - just comes across as conceited arrogance. Worse, some may assume it implies guilt. I am very disappointed in how VWA have managed this whole episode, and damaged VW's good name (not to mention all our resale values).

I agree - i don't think this is a good PR move at all....

I love my MK 6 GTI (no issues with my DSG) but i hate the thought of a company knowingly selling a potential dangerous car...(or 7 speed DSG gearbox) and re-calling in larger markets is just shamefull.

I think they've lost me as a customer as whilst i have a lot of brand loyalty - the thought of giving money to a company with those ethics is very off putting.

[brad]

WTF indeed. VGA would pay for any warranty repairs. Ask him what the fault codes suggest. GTi??

2012 77tsi dsg

[BluChris]

Completely agree current PR advice is if you stuff up, admit it straight away and say what you'll do to fix it. But I can imagine the conversation at HQ: "So what will we admit? Let's see. If you have a twincharger engine, sorry but it will probably chew oil and may well end up requiring replacement (Polo GTI), or otherwise lose compression on cylinder 3 on the way to self destruction requiring an engine replacement (Golf 118TSi). The good news is that the Golf engine might die on you but at least the Polo won't. Hmmmm, what else? OK the 7 speed DSG is a world of pain for a number of our customers and sometimes we don't know how to fix it properly or it breaks again pretty quickly. At least we know for sure the 125 TDi injectors are dodgy and can leave you stranded so we will fix those, oh yeah and coil packs on some of the other engines, and yes some customers do seem to have weird shutdown or loss of power issues and..."

If I were VW I'd find it hard to come clean too because if they cop to all this the brand damage is likely to be palpable. While there are plenty of happy owners, let's face it if you saw the stuff on these cars posted here and in the media what would you think of buying a VW? If you're not a loyalist you probably wouldn't take the risk, especially with owners complaining about lack of VW support. If VW confirmed your worst fears in the media...

None of which excuses VW if they have not made every effort possible to address failures that can create safety risks for owners.

[team_v]

Completely agree current PR advice is if you stuff up, admit it straight away and say what you'll do to fix it.

The problem is that VW don't know what the problem is for the DSG issue and the rapid deceleration.
So how can they say what they are going to do to fix it when there isn't a solution yet?

[BluChris]

The problem is that VW don't know what the problem is for the DSG issue and the rapid deceleration.
So how can they say what they are going to do to fix it when there isn't a solution yet?

Completely agree, and that only makes it worse. 'Yeah, some of our products are kinda dodgy, oh and by the way we don't have a cure.' Imagine how that would go down.

As many have said already, there appears to be a cultural issue that ramps up the discontent. Bad enough to have these issues, but when you feel you are treated badly by the dealer network and VAG it creates the angst now being expressed. Never personally had the big problems but the way dealers dealt with me over smaller ones resonates with others' views. It's what got me out of the brand, not the car itself (which I really liked).

Whether VAG can admit to these design and reliability issues or not, they sure as hell can change their attitude to customer service. That would be a massive start.

[RoknRob]

The problem is that VW don't know what the problem is for the DSG issue and the rapid deceleration.
So how can they say what they are going to do to fix it when there isn't a solution yet?

A good start would be to fix the known problems, as they have in Japan, Singapore and China.

(By the way, can anyone enlighten me as to how the Chinese DSGs are different or what their specific problem was? I've only ever read that "it doesn't apply here, because they were BUILT in China," but not that there was a specific manufacturing problem that only occurred in China. Would be happy to be corrected).

[pologti18t]

The problem is that VW don't know what the problem is for the DSG issue and the rapid deceleration.
So how can they say what they are going to do to fix it when there isn't a solution yet?

Very true on both counts.

Rapid deceleration really is power cutout. Is this a common problem in any other market?

There is also a difference to the false neutral issue in DSGs and the slow speed/clutch/jerky issue on the DSG7. Mind you, if you look up Powershift (dry clutch) problems they tend to also have the slow speed/jerky/clutch pack issues as well. I think all manufacturers will suffer this in dry clutch models unfortunately.

AS i mentioned before Mazda had issues with the first CX5 diesels - some people saw large crankcase oil dilution by diesel. People got pissed off, because even though Mazda acknowledged there was a problem they couldn't honestly give a resolution date or a reason for why it was happening. Secondly, the fix was applied hodge podge by dealers which pissed some people of more (why was yours repaired before mine etc). Then Mazda wouldn't say what the actual ecu fix was... so even though the car didn't show anymore symptoms some owners didn't "believe" Mazda had actually fixed it. Manufacturers can't win in the end.

VWA needs to get their dealers on board... every power cutout/DSG issue reported by a customer has to be treated as a top priority and all problems (and the solution!) need to be analyzed at a central location to get to the bottom of this. In some situations it may well be user error... but this needs to be fed back to dealers so they can tell customers not to "rest left foot on brake whilst driving" for instance etc. Salesmen need to be trained in explaining the differences in the operation of a DSG gearbox compared to a normal auto so the buyer's perceptions are correct. I can see complaints about CVTs rising as they make more inroads into the market!

[Transporter]

Transporter, I recognise you make your living looking after VWs, but think how little work you will have if people stop buying, out of concern for their safety. You should be CHAMPIONING a fix! Not minimising the problem...

I am all for the fix, but not for trolling and rudeness. Your car can stop or start slowing down for many reasons and you can get scared, you can get the puncture (people get it more often than the DSG fart) and it could get even worst, so should we recall all the wheels until we find a safer alternative?

I think just many more people are making noise than there are affected cars, but hey it's OK when they like the sensations and steer up the problems making them look bigger than they are that's fine with me. I'm not worried about my work at all, even if they would stop selling the VW in Australia I still have enough work.

...and if the resale value goes down, it doesn't affect me because I keep my cars longer than 10 years. The cost of the new cars going down because of the media involvement, well that'd be a good for the enthusiast they could get into a new VW cheaper than ever before, so my friends keep trolling.

[wai]

Or prudent PR work.
Obviously Fairfax don't care about any of the facts/proper investigative journalism or they wouldn't be running missleading articles and combinging issues that have nothing to do with each other.
So why should VW bother to respond when it is just going to be taken out of context or written up that VW have no clue what they are doing when there isn't a valid fix so they can't do anything?

The thing is that it is perceptions, and the public are developing a perception (rightly or wrongly) that VW is not necessarily the manufacturer to be buying a vehicle from.

Put it this way. If you were in the market for a new car, and you did not have the knowledge we might have about VWs, would you be spending your hard earned money on a VW?

While driving back from a client's this morning, there was some discussion on the share price crash of Billabong. It was much the same there. problems with profit downgrades and no one wanted to respond to questions.

The really silly thing is that VW could stop all this by simply announcing that they have set up a register where those with issues (ANY issues) can report them. All issues will be investigated and the details of the investigation would be published on the register. Any appropriate action will be taken by VW to rectify problems that are the responsibility of VW.

With just that, all the negative publicity will be stopped, and they will be able to clearly state how they are dealing with things if they are the responsibility of VW.

Anyone who wanted to whinge would be asked if they had reported the matter on the register and if so had they a response and what it was. Simple; end of story.