PCP - 4 months old, want rid.

[MrBarry123]

As mentioned OP, speak nicely with your local dealer and ask them to fix the problems. They get paid by VW to complete approved warranty repairs so it's in their interest to complete them.

[anonymous-user]

Sorry if I’m being a bit slow here, but which fault were you hoping to be grounds to reject the car on?

The small blemishes in the bodywork of a mass produced car (that the dealer are making an effort to rectify, perhaps just not to your standards*), a part being on back order or your USB port not working (that you haven't given the dealer a chance to look at)?

As much as I can understand the disappointment of a new car not being utterly perfect, none of the issues you have describe are catastrophic and sound like almost all are easily fixed.

A 4 month parts delay is unacceptable and requires a strong conversation/letter to get that chased up and the car into the workshop to sort out the faults unrelated to the seat back as soon as possible.

Are you able to replicate the ACC fault?

And the complain about 'pen marks on bloaters'. Both of them? From the day you collected it? Really?

*By all means if the door handle and bumper are hanging off and the paintwork looks like it was polished down with a emery paper feel free to post pictures.

[SturdyHSV]

xRIEx said:

Last thought: are you sure you didn't hit the RES button instead?

Given that they will all run the same software and hardware and seemingly nobody else has encountered this, I'd be inclined to think this is more likely.

I mean, come on OP, what's more probable? You have a one off murderous Golf that churned off the same production line as the other hundreds of thousands of Golfs but carries a unique trait that only happened this once whereby it launched you at the car in front, or you pressed the wrong button on this one occasion?

[Howard-]

TooMany2cvs said:

Aircon/climate control.

Quite why you'd turn it off just because you're stationary in traffic is another question.

[Tuvra]

SturdyHSV said:

xRIEx said:

Last thought: are you sure you didn't hit the RES button instead?

Given that they will all run the same software and hardware and seemingly nobody else has encountered this, I'd be inclined to think this is more likely.

I mean, come on OP, what's more probable? You have a one off murderous Golf that churned off the same production line as the other hundreds of thousands of Golfs but carries a unique trait that only happened this once whereby it launched you at the car in front, or you pressed the wrong button on this one occasion?

The Resume button wouldn't cause this. The car would still be aware that there was traffic in front so hitting resume wouldn't do anything. I guarantee he knocked the auto handbrake off as explained in my earlier reply....

[tenfour]

ashleyman said:

I’ll do my absolute best to explain what’s been going on here. I would like realistic advice on what I can do about my current situation.

I ordered a Golf R though Drive The Deal in January 2016. The car arrived in March 2016 and so far has been nothing but a problem. It’s not that I don’t like the car, I really do but it’s a lemon and I’m not happy.

The list of problems started off with:

badly fitted seat covers
pen marks on bolsters
broken rear bench seat-fold mechanism
squeaky exhaust valves
misaligned bumper
misaligned passenger door handle
2 scratches on rear off side quarter
clear coat lump on bonnet

The supplying dealer refused to fix the exhaust, stating it was normal so I took it to my local dealer and they confirmed it was faulty and replaced the whole exhaust system under warranty. The supplying dealer then fixed the passenger handle and front bumper, re-ordered new seat covers and rear bench fold mechanism.

The supplying dealer attempted to fix the scratches and the clear coat lump but ruined the repairs and handed back my car with buffer trails all over the bonnet, passenger door, near side wing and above the fuel cap.

I opened a case with VW UK to try and get this all rectified and basically I was told I have to give the supplying dealer one attempt at fixing the issues and then to contact VW UK again if I was not happy.

That was all in May, the dealer says they’re still waiting for the seat mechanism to come in to stock. Once it’s in they can take the car away and fix the remaining items.

However, since my last communication with the dealer I’ve now got even more issues with the car.

The first is the ACC totally messed up on Tuesday. I pressed OFF to turn it off as I was stuck in standstill traffic on the M25 and on pressing OFF the car accelerated HARD forward and I had to stamp on the brakes to stop rear ending the guy in front.

The driver carpet is coming away from under the door sill and the driver door alarm sensor glue has failed so the sensor is starting to dangle out of the door frame. The USB port has also stopped working and won’t charge or read my phone.

Obviously, it’s 4 months old and on a VWFS PCP agreement. I know a car purchase is a little different but for instance, if I was ordering a new laptop and I’d had a few issues with it, I might consider an exchange or refund. But with a car I have no idea what to do.

Some people have suggested handing the car back and walking away. This does sound good but then what do I do about needing a car? Will I get any money back such as my deposit or will I need to start again? Am I even in a position to hand the car back or should I wait to get everything repaired and see how I go….

I had a 59 plate Fiesta Zetec S before the Golf R. I bought that at 3 years old and never ever had a single problem with it. I actually miss it and regret selling it for this new Golf.

What can I do?

I've got photographic evidence of every single fault before and after fix. I've also got a thread open on the VWROC forum where I've been getting some advice about the specific issues but nothing on the finance, termination of a PCP.

I did think about putting this in Finance or SP&L but decided to put it here as it’s not a finance or law thing more just need some advice. Hope that’s ok.

The faults you mention sound to me like the car is an accident repair. It might be worth your piece of mind and your leverage to have the car independently inspected for crash damage by a recognised body like RAC etc. I'd think it extremely rare for a car to come off the production line with obvious paint defects/misaligned/loose trim etc, especially a premium product.

In the meantime, make sure you have a catalogue full of all the communications etc. Try to keep all comms in writing and or follow up everything with an email or letter. Make sure you put pressure on VW fianance too and CC them on all correspondence.

IIRC, by law the supplying dealer is allowed 'reasonable' opportunity to repair and hence, VW UK's insistence that you should allow one more attempt to fix, is I guess, reasonable.

However, subject to the independent inspection, you will be in a position to act with more information. If indeed the car has been repaired, then I would assume there is a fitness for purpose or merchantable quality argument to be had under SOGA.

Also consider how you bought the car: was it delivered to you once funds were cleared etc? If so, you may be covered under distance selling rules, which also puts you in a much stronger position.

Whatever, I think you owe it to yourself to keep fighting this. Make it clear to VWUK that you will allow reasonable opportunity to repair the car, but that you will at all times reserve your rights to reject if a full and satisfactory repair cannot be made.

[xRIEx]

Tuvra said:

SturdyHSV said:

xRIEx said:

Last thought: are you sure you didn't hit the RES button instead?

Given that they will all run the same software and hardware and seemingly nobody else has encountered this, I'd be inclined to think this is more likely.

I mean, come on OP, what's more probable? You have a one off murderous Golf that churned off the same production line as the other hundreds of thousands of Golfs but carries a unique trait that only happened this once whereby it launched you at the car in front, or you pressed the wrong button on this one occasion?

The Resume button wouldn't cause this. The car would still be aware that there was traffic in front so hitting resume wouldn't do anything. I guarantee he knocked the auto handbrake off as explained in my earlier reply....

It would if he'd switched off ACC and it was just in 'Normal' cruise mode, and the system had '70mph' stored as the most recent standard, non-adaptive cruise speed.

[Tuvra]

xRIEx said:

It would if he'd switched off ACC and it was just in 'Normal' cruise mode, and the system had '70mph' stored as the most recent standard, non-adaptive cruise speed.

It was the handbrake, trust me

[ashleyman]

Timbola said:

What is ACC?

Adaptive Cruise Control

culpz said:

As someone said above, it's not necessary as far as i'm aware to be taking the car back to the supplying dealer for them to fix. You've had better service overall from your local dealer. I'd take it back there, i'd advise and show them the list of every fault you've currently got, tell them politely that you don't want the car back until everything has been rectified and ask them for a decent enough courtesy car in the mean time.

The local dealer doesn’t want to interfere with any warranty fixes the supplying dealer is planning to do. I could go to the local dealer about the alarm sensor and carpet, but not the other stuff.

279 said:

Sorry if I’m being a bit slow here, but which fault were you hoping to be grounds to reject the car on?

The small blemishes in the bodywork of a mass produced car (that the dealer are making an effort to rectify, perhaps just not to your standards*), a part being on back order or your USB port not working (that you haven't given the dealer a chance to look at)?

As much as I can understand the disappointment of a new car not being utterly perfect, none of the issues you have describe are catastrophic and sound like almost all are easily fixed.

A 4 month parts delay is unacceptable and requires a strong conversation/letter to get that chased up and the car into the workshop to sort out the faults unrelated to the seat back as soon as possible.

Are you able to replicate the ACC fault?

And the complain about 'pen marks on bloaters'. Both of them? From the day you collected it? Really?

*By all means if the door handle and bumper are hanging off and the paintwork looks like it was polished down with a emery paper feel free to post pictures.

This is what I’m trying to understand. Any one of the single issues is not grounds to warrant a replacement or handing back but what with everything combined coupled with a bad service from the supplying dealer I’m trying to figure out what it is I can do about it.

SturdyHSV said:

Given that they will all run the same software and hardware and seemingly nobody else has encountered this, I'd be inclined to think this is more likely.

I mean, come on OP, what's more probable? You have a one off murderous Golf that churned off the same production line as the other hundreds of thousands of Golfs but carries a unique trait that only happened this once whereby it launched you at the car in front, or you pressed the wrong button on this one occasion?

I pressed OFF in the same way that I have done hundreds of times since collecting the car. The Auto-Hold, Auto-Handbrake were all switched on, same as normal.

Tuvra said:

The Resume button wouldn't cause this. The car would still be aware that there was traffic in front so hitting resume wouldn't do anything. I guarantee he knocked the auto handbrake off as explained in my earlier reply....

This was also in my mind. The ACC wouldn’t move the car under normal operation if it sensed a car in front. There was a car in front so why the ACC made the car drive forward, I don’t know. I still don’t trust the ACC 100% so had my foot over the brake just in case anything happened, which it did.

[ashleyman]

xRIEx said:

It would if he'd switched off ACC and it was just in 'Normal' cruise mode, and the system had '70mph' stored as the most recent standard, non-adaptive cruise speed.

I had the speed on 40MPH as I was in traffic and the overhead speed limits were 40. When this happened it was a complete standstill.

I didn't think the Golf R had 'normal' set cruise speed. There's 2 functions on mine, cruise and speed limit. Cruise is all adaptive and radar based. You certainly can't set it to 70 and let it crash into the back of someone, thats what the radar is for and it should slow you down.

[Tuvra]

OP: Is it a DSG?

[ashleyman]

Tuvra said:

It was the handbrake, trust me

It wasn't the handbrake and I'd be grateful if you'd stop assuming and telling people that I incorrectly pressed the handbrake button.

The handbrake and auto-hold buttons are in the centre console. The cruise control settings are on the left hand side of the steering wheel. You have to use your left hand to press both buttons. It's impossible for me to be pressing OFF on the steering wheel with my left hand whilst also pressing the handbrake buttons off at the same time.

I can without a doubt say that I pressed OFF, I was nowhere near the handbrake or auto-hold buttons.
Even if I had pressed RES. the radar should have detected a car in front and not accelerated as hard as it did.

Yes, it's a DSG Golf R.

Edited by ashleyman on Monday 1st August 10:09

[Krikkit]

ashleyman said:

Tuvra said:

It was the handbrake, trust me

It wasn't the handbrake and I'd be grateful if you'd stop assuming and telling people that I incorrectly pressed the handbrake button.

The handbrake and auto-hold buttons are in the centre console. The cruise control settings are on the left hand side of the steering wheel. You have to use your left hand to press both buttons. It's impossible for me to be pressing OFF on the steering wheel with my left hand whilst also pressing the handbrake buttons off at the same time.

I can without a doubt say that I pressed OFF, I was nowhere near the handbrake or auto-hold buttons.

I can see why it's assumed you're mistaken - it's a system which has probably a million of miles of testing/validation in the manufacturer's hands before it even graced a car, so it's about as close to infallible as a piece of software can be.

[ashleyman]

279 said:

Sorry if I’m being a bit slow here, but which fault were you hoping to be grounds to reject the car on?

The small blemishes in the bodywork of a mass produced car (that the dealer are making an effort to rectify, perhaps just not to your standards*), a part being on back order or your USB port not working (that you haven't given the dealer a chance to look at)?

As much as I can understand the disappointment of a new car not being utterly perfect, none of the issues you have describe are catastrophic and sound like almost all are easily fixed.

A 4 month parts delay is unacceptable and requires a strong conversation/letter to get that chased up and the car into the workshop to sort out the faults unrelated to the seat back as soon as possible.

Are you able to replicate the ACC fault?

And the complain about 'pen marks on bloaters'. Both of them? From the day you collected it? Really?

*By all means if the door handle and bumper are hanging off and the paintwork looks like it was polished down with a emery paper feel free to post pictures.

Lots of this, all over the car.

[vtecyo]

279 said:

And the complain about 'pen marks on bloaters'. Both of them? .

I think that's a whole new thread entirely..

[ashleyman]

vtecyo said:

I think that's a whole new thread entirely..

It was supposed to say pen marks on the bolsters. Sorry!

[Tuvra]

ashleyman said:

It wasn't the handbrake and I'd be grateful if you'd stop assuming and telling people that I incorrectly pressed the handbrake button.

The handbrake and auto-hold buttons are in the centre console. The cruise control settings are on the left hand side of the steering wheel. You have to use your left hand to press both buttons. It's impossible for me to be pressing OFF on the steering wheel with my left hand whilst also pressing the handbrake buttons off at the same time.

I can without a doubt say that I pressed OFF, I was nowhere near the handbrake or auto-hold buttons.
Even if I had pressed RES. the radar should have detected a car in front and not accelerated as hard as it did.

Yes, it's a DSG Golf R.

Edited by ashleyman on Monday 1st August 10:09

I know exactly where the auto hold button is, this is what I reckon happened:-

• You accidentally hit the auto hold button earlier in the journey (disabling it)
• The traffic comes to a standstill, you bring the car to a stop and apply the auto handbrake by pushing the brake pedal down hard (which has been accidentally disabled)
• You press "ACC off" while lifting you foot off the brake, the car "jumps" forward (because the Auto Hold has been disabled).
• The ACC / Accident avoidance warning lights up red in front of you. It lit up red because it feared you rear ending the car in front.

I am not suggesting you hit the Auto Hold feature off at the very moment the car jumped forward, I suggested you hit it some time before.

I strongly believe this as I did almost exactly the same thing. I would bet my life on it that you have either accidentally knocked the Auto Hold button or the Auto Hold feature has some how failed. This is not a ACC problem, you pressing the off button as the car jumped forward is nothing but a coincidence.

All IMHO

[ashleyman]

Tuvra said:

I know exactly where the auto hold button is, this is what I reckon happened:-

• You accidentally hit the auto hold button earlier in the journey (disabling it)
• The traffic comes to a standstill, you bring the car to a stop and apply the auto handbrake by pushing the brake pedal down hard (which has been accidentally disabled)
• You press "ACC off" while lifting you foot off the brake, the car "jumps" forward (because the Auto Hold has been disabled).
• The ACC / Accident avoidance warning lights up red in front of you. It lit up red because it feared you rear ending the car in front.

I am not suggesting you hit the Auto Hold feature off at the very moment the car jumped forward, I suggested you hit it some time before.

I strongly believe this as I did almost exactly the same thing. I would bet my life on it that you have either accidentally knocked the Auto Hold button or the Auto Hold feature has some how failed. This is not a ACC problem, you pressing the off button as the car jumped forward is nothing but a coincidence.

All IMHO

I never had my foot on the brake when turning ACC off though. It was at a standstill with the green handbrake light showing on the dash - same as normal when stopped in traffic. I pressed OFF and the car moved off.

If you're correct and I had disabled the auto-hold or handbrake earlier in the journey. Why did the car not shoot forwards when I took my foot off the brake after recovering the car setting off by itself? Surely if I had turned the Auto-hold/handbrake off then when I removed my foot from the brake it would have moved again right?

Only, it didn't. When I pressed off, it moved. I put my foot on the brake HARD so it stopped. Then took my foot off the brake and it stayed where it was just the same as it has done every single time. I never touched any buttons to do with the handbrake or auto-hold. It functions exactly as it should now, just as it did the other day. The ONLY difference was the car moving by itself when I pressed OFF on ACC.

I'm open to hearing what you have to say but I've not enabled the auto-hold or anything since this has happened and it's working as you would expect it too.

[Thorny]

Have you got the dealer principal involved?

I would think the best thing to do would be that the dealer buy the car back off you for a reasonable price and get you into a new one with a very good deal.

[Tuvra]

ashleyman said:

I never had my foot on the brake when turning ACC off though. It was at a standstill with the green handbrake light showing on the dash - same as normal when stopped in traffic. I pressed OFF and the car moved off.

If you're correct and I had disabled the auto-hold or handbrake earlier in the journey. Why did the car not shoot forwards when I took my foot off the brake after recovering the car setting off by itself? Surely if I had turned the Auto-hold/handbrake off then when I removed my foot from the brake it would have moved again right?

Only, it didn't. When I pressed off, it moved. I put my foot on the brake HARD so it stopped. Then took my foot off the brake and it stayed where it was just the same as it has done every single time. I never touched any buttons to do with the handbrake or auto-hold. It functions exactly as it should now, just as it did the other day. The ONLY difference was the car moving by itself when I pressed OFF on ACC.

I'm open to hearing what you have to say but I've not enabled the auto-hold or anything since this has happened and it's working as you would expect it too.

Fair enough, as long as your 100% what actually happened, I know I was a bit shook up and thinking "WTF" when I did it.

I am still 100% sure that its the Auto Hold feature that has gone wrong and the pushing of the Cruise control button is a coincidence though