2005 Golf - RUSTING ARCHES - Claiming on Corrosion Warranty
Discussion
Just been into my slimy local VW dealership, they initially denied all knowledge of this issue and claimed they had never done any, lying little feckers.
I know someone who had it done, and their wife works there. After revealing this little gem, his attitude changed and he admitted to having done quite a few. No checks, just agreed to two new wings but not 100%, is costing me £200.
Not bad on a car that is not dealer maintained on a 9 year old car, and got a deal to get the bonnet re-done too. So the front will look like brand new.
The whole experience of visiting the main dealer was a thoroughly unpleasant experience, from the desk jokey that didn't have a clue and couldn't understand what I was talking about, "rust, wings, car????" to the lying body shop guy.
I can't possibly imagine that this is what either VW or the very large group that runs the dealership meant as a customer experience.
I know someone who had it done, and their wife works there. After revealing this little gem, his attitude changed and he admitted to having done quite a few. No checks, just agreed to two new wings but not 100%, is costing me £200.
Not bad on a car that is not dealer maintained on a 9 year old car, and got a deal to get the bonnet re-done too. So the front will look like brand new.
The whole experience of visiting the main dealer was a thoroughly unpleasant experience, from the desk jokey that didn't have a clue and couldn't understand what I was talking about, "rust, wings, car????" to the lying body shop guy.
I can't possibly imagine that this is what either VW or the very large group that runs the dealership meant as a customer experience.
Ive got this problem on my 05 gt tdi, took it to vw preferred bodywork specialists yesterday, I also got corrosion on the sills between the arches and front doors and early signs of corrosion on the boot release handle, after taking photos of all the corrosion he told me that more than likely vw will only offer 50% good will gesture and say that all the mentioned corrosion would fall under mechanical issues and not perforation problems, his attitude was that he didnt want to even put the claim through to vw headquarters and told me that im more than likely have to pay £800 for the 2 front wings to be replaced without the sills or boot release being touched and also without the wings being blown over to match the paint, of course i still wanted the claim to be pushed, not that i intend to pay anywhere near that much for a problem which should be covered under their 12 year warranty.
Im awaiting the initial response from vw, but looking like im an a long haul fight from what i have read.
What got them to change your minds?, whats the best way to approach them?
cheers for any info.
Im awaiting the initial response from vw, but looking like im an a long haul fight from what i have read.
What got them to change your minds?, whats the best way to approach them?
cheers for any info.
Hi,
I had a similar problem with my MK4 Golf - rust along the roof rail seams. VW UK response was that the corrosion (RUST) was not covered under their ANTI PERFORATION WARRANTY. The corrosion has to travel from the "inside the car to the out side".
The disagreement between myself and VW Warranty went on for some 8 months until I eventually sold the car, because I did not want a £1000 repair bill for a 2003 MK4 GOLF (it only happened to 3 doors).
The BIG question is, how many dealerships would offer to STRIP OUT THE INTERIORS of their USED cars prior to their sale, for customers to view any potential RUST areas, oh sorry!, I meant to say ANTI PERFORATION spots.
Back in 2001 (Issue 1: February 2001-PVW006GO) VW produced a sales brochure which encouraged me to buy my car, but in 2003, the wording changed from corrosion to anti-peroration.
Best of Luck with your claim
I had a similar problem with my MK4 Golf - rust along the roof rail seams. VW UK response was that the corrosion (RUST) was not covered under their ANTI PERFORATION WARRANTY. The corrosion has to travel from the "inside the car to the out side".
The disagreement between myself and VW Warranty went on for some 8 months until I eventually sold the car, because I did not want a £1000 repair bill for a 2003 MK4 GOLF (it only happened to 3 doors).
The BIG question is, how many dealerships would offer to STRIP OUT THE INTERIORS of their USED cars prior to their sale, for customers to view any potential RUST areas, oh sorry!, I meant to say ANTI PERFORATION spots.
Back in 2001 (Issue 1: February 2001-PVW006GO) VW produced a sales brochure which encouraged me to buy my car, but in 2003, the wording changed from corrosion to anti-peroration.
Best of Luck with your claim
tragictramp said:
Ive got this problem on my 05 gt tdi, took it to vw preferred bodywork specialists yesterday, I also got corrosion on the sills between the arches and front doors and early signs of corrosion on the boot release handle, after taking photos of all the corrosion he told me that more than likely vw will only offer 50% good will gesture and say that all the mentioned corrosion would fall under mechanical issues and not perforation problems, his attitude was that he didnt want to even put the claim through to vw headquarters and told me that im more than likely have to pay £800 for the 2 front wings to be replaced without the sills or boot release being touched and also without the wings being blown over to match the paint, of course i still wanted the claim to be pushed, not that i intend to pay anywhere near that much for a problem which should be covered under their 12 year warranty.
Im awaiting the initial response from vw, but looking like im an a long haul fight from what i have read.
What got them to change your minds?, whats the best way to approach them?
cheers for any info.
I got the offside sill rectified under goodwill at the same time as the wings.Im awaiting the initial response from vw, but looking like im an a long haul fight from what i have read.
What got them to change your minds?, whats the best way to approach them?
cheers for any info.
I spoke direct with VW customer services after hitting them on twitter initially. (read this entire thread, pretty sure all my journey is typed up on here)
Good luck
well they have now responded saying that its a paintwork issue and not corrosion, and as a goodwill gesture (yeh right), they will pay half the costs of repair, the problem being that the total repair will cost £2400 and leave me with a £1200 bill, i could get the whole car resprayed for that elsewhere, ive asked for the warranty claim to be escalated and put a nice post on vw uk's facebook page with photos of the corrosion and included their terms and conditions of the warranty, hopefully i have put some customers off from buying a vw, but i doubt it.
Whats the next step, citizens advice, small claims court?
Whats the next step, citizens advice, small claims court?
Tragictramp...same as me, stuck with 50% goodwill offer. I escalated it to the top of VW Customer Care and they weren't budging. After months of traumatic communication i've given up trying. Contemplating buying cheap wings from Eurocarparts/Ebay and getting them sprayed, but then you have the risk of improper fitting and getting a decent bodyshop to "blend" in the paint.
It really does seem to be pot luck, after my local VW dealer lied and denied all knowledge, they agreed to do it. Although they said VW would only give 50% they said my contribution would be £200. i thought it wasn't worth arguing over although this doesn't seem like half to me as they told me it would cost about £1K to do. I also got them to do the bonnet for £150.
They didn't inspect the car, just said they would do it as long as it had been serviced by someone in the last year.
So a week ago I dropped it off, not heard anything but I know it is finished as I went passed on my bike this morning and saw it looking the business.
It does seem that this lot really don't get customer service and now it is pissing down so I won't get to see it looking like new and I bet they haven't moved it inside.
They didn't inspect the car, just said they would do it as long as it had been serviced by someone in the last year.
So a week ago I dropped it off, not heard anything but I know it is finished as I went passed on my bike this morning and saw it looking the business.
It does seem that this lot really don't get customer service and now it is pissing down so I won't get to see it looking like new and I bet they haven't moved it inside.
Just a quick post regarding rust on my front wings (2006 Golf GTI Mk5)
I initially had the inspection done at my local dealer to which they confirmed the reasoning behind the rust.
I was offered 50% goodwill by the dealer straight away, but decided this wasn't enough and went via Customer Care.
After to'ing and fro'ing a bit they decided to stick with 50% and blamed it on the peice of foam but stated that this would of been covered under the 3 year manufacturer warranty.
I got this and writing and confirmed to VW that I'd be going via MOTORCODES to pursue the matter further. (There was no inspection of the arch, just paint depth readings and photographs, so I played on this as to how could they tell the reason for the rust without proper inspection)
Anyway, had a reply from motorcodes, and in my reply to them with a form full of details I copied in Customer Care's email address.
3 days later I have a call from VW saying they will cover the costs 100% (except for blending!!!!!).
The interesting part is, they told me they were due to get in contact with me because "as of last week there was a change to our goodwill policy" and that they are now fixing this problem with 100% payment on their behalf.
How true this is I am not sure, I rather suspect it was an excuse as to why they have increased my goodwill payment rather than having to go through the rigmarole of a small claims court case with the backing of Motorcodes.
Hope this helps some people on here.
I initially had the inspection done at my local dealer to which they confirmed the reasoning behind the rust.
I was offered 50% goodwill by the dealer straight away, but decided this wasn't enough and went via Customer Care.
After to'ing and fro'ing a bit they decided to stick with 50% and blamed it on the peice of foam but stated that this would of been covered under the 3 year manufacturer warranty.
I got this and writing and confirmed to VW that I'd be going via MOTORCODES to pursue the matter further. (There was no inspection of the arch, just paint depth readings and photographs, so I played on this as to how could they tell the reason for the rust without proper inspection)
Anyway, had a reply from motorcodes, and in my reply to them with a form full of details I copied in Customer Care's email address.
3 days later I have a call from VW saying they will cover the costs 100% (except for blending!!!!!).
The interesting part is, they told me they were due to get in contact with me because "as of last week there was a change to our goodwill policy" and that they are now fixing this problem with 100% payment on their behalf.
How true this is I am not sure, I rather suspect it was an excuse as to why they have increased my goodwill payment rather than having to go through the rigmarole of a small claims court case with the backing of Motorcodes.
Hope this helps some people on here.
YoungDan said:
Just a quick post regarding rust on my front wings (2006 Golf GTI Mk5)
3 days later I have a call from VW saying they will cover the costs 100% (except for blending!!!!!).
The interesting part is, they told me they were due to get in contact with me because "as of last week there was a change to our goodwill policy" and that they are now fixing this problem with 100% payment on their behalf.
How true this is I am not sure, I rather suspect it was an excuse as to why they have increased my goodwill payment rather than having to go through the rigmarole of a small claims court case with the backing of Motorcodes.
Hope this helps some people on here.
It wouldn't surprise me if this last bit was just b3 days later I have a call from VW saying they will cover the costs 100% (except for blending!!!!!).
The interesting part is, they told me they were due to get in contact with me because "as of last week there was a change to our goodwill policy" and that they are now fixing this problem with 100% payment on their behalf.
How true this is I am not sure, I rather suspect it was an excuse as to why they have increased my goodwill payment rather than having to go through the rigmarole of a small claims court case with the backing of Motorcodes.
Hope this helps some people on here.
ks. But if true, I wonder if I could go back and ask for my £200 back? I finally got mine back after two weeks and having now cleaned it up properly it looks really nice but I have no idea if they blended or not into the doors, I had the bonnet done anyway. You would expect them to do a proper job. Mine came back with only the panels they touched polished, although they did black the plastic and tyres and it didn't look to bad.
i took my 2005 bora in monday just starting to bubble 12 o clock on both front arches bodyshop manager said vw were going to start paying 100% costs thought it was too good to be true however havent heard of vw yet so taking nothing for granted
Edited by duncanboing on Thursday 17th April 17:43
Recently noticed that the paint on my 2007 Golf is starting to bubble at the top of the wheel arches. I had hoped that this problem only affected 2006 and earlier, but clearly I was wrong. Took it in to the dealers today and was told 'it is not covered by the warranty, but VW are making goodwill contributions'. I was told that the VW contribution could be 25%, 50% or 75%, but definitely not 100%. I was also told that the VW contribution depended on age, condition and mileage! How does mileage affect a 12 year body warranty? The dealer took photos and said he would get back to me, so I am keeping my powder dry. Being charitable, perhaps he was not aware that VW are now paying 100% of the cost of repairs.
Gassing Station | Audi, Seat, Skoda & VW | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff