Volkswagen Cleared by Coroner in Melissa Ryan "Unintended Deceleration" Case

[gldgti]

I dont see how you can support the newspaper exploiting the death of a car accident victim and their families search for someone or something to blame, in trying to get VW to provide better customer care for a technically completely unrelated issue (which in fact is just a way to roll several smaller stories into a long saga that helps sell their papers).

The ends justify the means? Really?

I can certainly appreciate a good bit of investigative journalism and pushing corporations to do the right thing, but its pretty easy to recognise that that is not what fairfax have done here.

[stickshift3000]

I have nothing but praise for Fairfax for pushing Volkswagen to act on their issues.

Yup. +1

[The_Hawk]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they are perfect and that there are no issues, I said as much in one of the early threads on this topic. The fact that this forced VW to take action isn't a bad thing, I just feel like there is something below the surface focussing on VW for some reason.

So it seems the Coroner was handed the case in April-ish (maybe, there isn't any detail) with no results due out until July, yet for no apparent reason the article brings up a range of VW issues in some vague way linking them back to a 2 year old case that has no findings and was a completely different car which doesn't have any of the issues they are talking about (other than being a VW).

Then every subsequent article talking about people with DSG problems manages to link back to the original article and use talk about the death and all but implies it's a common & widespread issue causing every VW to be a death trap.

She was driving a Petrol GTI, Manual. Not a DSG and not a diesel which are the things they are banging on about having issues and what seems to be the focus of that and later articles.

[PassatB6]

I would think that this was not Fairfax's doing, but rather surfaced from within the case. Fairfax merely picked up on it and pieced it together with the many complaints.

I'm a little shocked that even after all this people believe Volkswagen is absolutely innocent of everything.

I have nothing but praise for Fairfax for pushing Volkswagen to act on their issues. I for one have had many problem with my car and yes, I have experienced the "false neutral" problem and my car is getting the recall fix. I don't think VW would have done anything without Fairfax exposing them for what they are.

The problem is that despite the fact that the judge exonerated VW, you continue to suggest that they are guilty of something primarily because you had an unrelated problem with your own vehicle. You're deluding yourself if you can't admit Fairfax implied a link between the death and VW. The fact is that the driver was on the phone, the car make was irrelevant. Why didn't Fairfax run a story on mobile phone use in cars??

This event had NOTHING to do with VW but Fairfax continued to mount a campaign against the company even going to the extent of documenting how many complaints there had been from VW drivers about their "issues". They even said the company would not respond to their requests for information. Absolute trashy journalism.

[ziggyboy]

I dont see how you can support the newspaper exploiting the death of a car accident victim and their families search for someone or something to blame, in trying to get VW to provide better customer care for a technically completely unrelated issue (which in fact is just a way to roll several smaller stories into a long saga that helps sell their papers).

The ends justify the means? Really?

I can certainly appreciate a good bit of investigative journalism and pushing corporations to do the right thing, but its pretty easy to recognise that that is not what fairfax have done here.

I don't see it this way. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the fatal victim's family encouraged Fairfax to do just this. They have been very vocal about Volkswagen from the start and the type of support they got.

So a big NO. They were not exploited. In fact, I think they wanted Fairfax to take their story and all other VW issues to the public.

[ziggyboy]

The problem is that despite the fact that the judge exonerated VW, you continue to suggest that they are guilty of something primarily because you had an unrelated problem with your own vehicle. You're deluding yourself if you can't admit Fairfax implied a link between the death and VW. The fact is that the driver was on the phone, the car make was irrelevant. Why didn't Fairfax run a story on mobile phone use in cars??

This event had NOTHING to do with VW but Fairfax continued to mount a campaign against the company even going to the extent of documenting how many complaints there had been from VW drivers about their "issues". They even said the company would not respond to their requests for information. Absolute trashy journalism.

I never said they were guilty of the victim's death. They were not. It is unrelated. The issue with VW has not really just been their quality control which is pretty obvious, but the lack of support from dealerships and the company itself. You've been a member of this forum since 2007. How many times have you heard VW and its dealerships say "Nothing wrong with it, it's normal" being told to people who have had problems? Or being given the runaround? And if you call VW head office you're given the cold shoulder and told it's a dealership problem....while other manufacturers entertain customers, VW head office don't. Their new customer service centre is new this year because of this.

So to answer your question. YES THEY ARE GUILTY of their lack of support and any care to fix customer problems before this year.

[JustCruisn]

So i read the whole darn thing.

Here are the brodie notes...

* "No definite indication of the wearing of a seatbelt was identified" Seatbelt pretensioner fired - indicates seatbelt was used.

* on phone without a hands free kit, phone in lap or centre console.

*Brake lights on before crash
*Impact speed approx 40km/h Truck 100 * car 60 or 90 - 50
*50km rear impact spin hit guard rail at 31km
*Was in a gear lower than 3rd in a 100km/h zone
*General mechanic used basic scanner and came to wrong conclusion, that the engine was in limp mode. VW used their equipment which shows time stamp - proved no issues with vehicle. No codes logged in ECU, not in limp mode.

Document does address the media attention and dismisses the link if the recall for 7 speed DSG and Diesel engines to manual petrol GTI. *"none of the complaints are relevant"
*Of the 79 cases raised only 3 were manual or petrol, none were the same combination as this car.
*VW has had no complaint before of after this accident relevant to the situation claimed in the case.

Summary:
It is likely that the girl was not paying attention, traffic had slowed, then failed to keep up with traffic when it sped up again.
There is discussion that the truck driver may have seen traffic moving on again further up the road and not noticed the Golf still at low speed.
Nothing wrong with the car.

[PassatB6]

Any improvement in customer care for any manufacturer is welcomed. I just think that SMH got this one entirely wrong.

[brimway]

I wonder who started the whole blame VW thing. Was it Fairfax or the truck driver's lawyer looking to get him off?

[The_Hawk]

Where was that info? Would love to see the source.

Edit, never you mind, it seems my work computer wasn't loading that window for some reason.