Interesting read...

[question?]

The one quote that stands out, realise this is VW cars but can relate to all the things we have faced since becoming a new VW owner:


So if you're asking me if you should buy a Volkswagen, here is my standard answer (which it has been for some time now). Try to sell it before the three-year factory warranty period expires - and budget on a few days of inconvenience each year until then as you're likely to be taking the car in for unplanned maintenance. If you still want to buy a new VW after that advice, you have my blessings. They're great to drive. But I wouldn't buy a second-hand one without having a mechanic you know and trust go over it. And reading the countless blogs of disgruntled owners.

Read more: Why VW's inaction over reliability issues will dent sales | News.com.au

I am sitting here going, our 3 years are nearly up - the plan was to buy extended warranty but ... do I plunged another 1-2k away or just move on? I need at least 8 seats - nothing else in the market is close to our 9 seater unless I want a mini-bus toyota.

[Rebuild]

I think more than a few on here will say much the same thing, regarding warranty and vehicle ownership.
Not keen on the smaller engine,dual turbo(if you want diesel), DSG option with these later commercials.More stuff to go wrong.

"countless blogs of disgruntled owners"
As opposed to countless blogs of happy owners??Never gonna happen.

Good to see VW looking at 4000 vehicles, should have happened BEFORE the media got onto it.

[noone]

So who's car with which issues will be dealt with? I wonder where the 4000 number came from.

[Sunny43.5]

Shame isn't it that a manufacturere has to be badgered through the media into fixing some problems that have occured . There have been some problems with VW technology for a few years now and here in Australia they have been very uninterested in fixing what the rest of the world already know about . IMO

[T5Pete]

I'm going to do something that no-one has done before...

I've not had a problem with my van in over 2 years! I'm happy with it.

There, it doesn't happen often!

I'm sure if we got the real stats on the number of VW's sold and the number that go back with problems are actually quite small as a %. HOWEVER. because people can get behind a keyboard and vent anger without any comeback you will always hear about lots of problems, and these in turn make the issue look worse than it is.

The problems with modern cars are not solely with VW. Yota, Ni$$an, ford etc all have the same issues, it's just with the internet we hear about them all now.

[SnowMotion]

I'm sure if we got the real stats on the number of VW's sold and the number that go back with problems are actually quite small as a %. HOWEVER. because people can get behind a keyboard and vent anger without any comeback you will always hear about lots of problems, and these in turn make the issue look worse than it is.

You may well be right about this .... or not.

But I guess it goes to show why customer service is so important. I think the old saying says a happy customer will tell 1 person and an unhappy customer will tell 12.
In my experience VGA are arrogant to the extreme and have no consideration for their customers at all. In my case, I ordered my van in July 2011 with specific options. Being a factory build I was quoted 6 months for delivery. I though this slow but we wanted a specific build so was happy to wait. After 8 months the van was eventually delivered however it was missing a key ordered option, armrests on the 2 front seats as specified on our order. After many conversations later (about 4 weeks) we were advised that the build options changed 1 week prior to our order being placed by the dealer and that the dealer made the mistake. Nothing to do with VGA. I am not sure how they figure that as the dealer would have ordered the specific seat for us that was now in VGA orders had been superseded by 3 new codes.
Did VGA contact the dealer and advise the change? NO
Did VGA make any effort to find out what the customer wanted? NO
VGA just modified the order as they saw fit and chose to omit one of the options that was clearly on our order.
Does VGA accept any responsibility for this mistake. NO

The dealer was left to bare all the cost of rectifying the mistake but only after we had to take them to the CTTT and won the case.

As many have said, love the van to drive..... BUT hate VGA..

[Sunny43.5]

There is one more thing I will add here we must all take note even though the percentage is low there are also equaly possibiliites that many owners are like lambs to the slaughter and do not do anything and just accept it , and then there are those who just have not seen on the TV or read in the media what has gone on not every one who owns a VW is a member of a forum . I only found out about the incident in melbourne from a friend on Facebook .

[wai]

Shame isn't it that a manufacturere has to be badgered through the media into fixing some problems that have occured . There have been some problems with VW technology for a few years now and here in Australia they have been very uninterested in fixing what the rest of the world already know about . IMO

Actually I posted a message in a UK based forum and the answer came back that they have the same issues and response from VW, however the media has not given it traction.

[MultiplexMan]

After the Toyota fiasco, you would think that every car manufacturer would have lifted their game to avoid the same happening to them... VWA appear to be slow learners.

I have had VW from my first car - almost three decades! But gees VW is making it very hard to maintain the love

Customer service is everything. If you run your own business you'd understand this fundamental fact. How often do we see major brands forget this?

[wai]

Unfortunately PR agencies believe that they can calm any situation without having to spend anything (other than their fee). The argument goes:

"So you lose 1% of your customers. Just think how much you will save by letting them go and doing nothing".

I had something similar when I was setting up a drawing office for a client to get QA accreditation. The company had an excellent reputation in electrical switchgear. Basically, they had a 100% check system, and their reputation was such that any item purchased from them would be known to work. The QA consultant convinced the company to do sample checks only. This would mean that there would be an allowance for something like 10% failures/returns/refunds. The "savings" were significant.

The problem was that there was now something like a 10% chance of the item being faulty. No problem a free replacement was offered, only that replacement also had a 10% chance of being faulty. That company almost closed its doors. They went back to the way they did things before they got their QA accreditation and managed to survive.