How to encourage VW to honour their 12 Yr corrosion warranty

[Rammy76]

SMB said:

I would have expected common sense to prevail but no, VW's decision to not even talk to the one expert that has seen the car is beyond belief.
I've approached Auto Express as a starter to get some publicity, dealer admin has so far refused to return my calls so not expecting any joy there in getting any more sense out of them.

Where are you based?

I have a 53 plate Passat and the wings started to corrode as well as some corrosion on the boot lid.
I am the 2nd owner and it had just turned 130000 miles when I took it into VW for them to assess the corrosion.

After a while they agreed to replace the wings and boot lid (costing around £2300!) and I had to contribute 10% towards it.
I happily paid that and they did an excellent job so it may be worth contacting some other dealers.

I know a couple of people from my work who have had 5 door mark 4 Golfs done under warranty FOC for new wings also so I'd definitely say its worth a shot.

[james280779]

Rammy76 said:

Where are you based?

I have a 53 plate Passat and the wings started to corrode as well as some corrosion on the boot lid.
I am the 2nd owner and it had just turned 130000 miles when I took it into VW for them to assess the corrosion.

After a while they agreed to replace the wings and boot lid (costing around £2300!) and I had to contribute 10% towards it.
I happily paid that and they did an excellent job so it may be worth contacting some other dealers.

I know a couple of people from my work who have had 5 door mark 4 Golfs done under warranty FOC for new wings also so I'd definitely say its worth a shot.

I have a 2002 Passat W8- I am going to be going over it with a fine tooth comb just in case while still under warranty!

[New POD]

I've done a bit of work on warranty over the years for Lucas, JCB and a supplier to the wind turbine industry.

In my humble opinion it would be really really good marketing if they paid out and made it public that they did.

When they decided a 12 year warranty would sell an extra 1/4 million cars, and make an extra 100 million euro per year, they also worked out (guessed) how many claims they were likely to get each year, and you can bet that they estimated that by year 11 that they'd be getting almost none.

Almost none because gradually those cars that survive or still meet the criteria gradually reduces.

I'd make sure that you meet every T and C, and then get 3 quotes for rectification, and if you can an independent report and take them to small claims court. Get on every GOlf forum and get written evidence from people who have had similar issues and get them to attend as witnesses (FOC)

Then let every car magazine and newspaper know the date of session, and watch VW squirm.

[BE57 TOY]

Is it really worth the hassle for a 12 year old car? Or is it a matter of principle?

What is the cost of the repair?

[New POD]

BE57 TOY said:

Is it really worth the hassle for a 12 year old car? Or is it a matter of principle?

What is the cost of the repair?

12 years ago that was the VW stance. "Don't worry, nobody will care if we make it hard enough, so it's unlikely that we will get any claims"

So yes totally principle.

Actually going to small claims works better, because they will end up paying out the cash that was quoted for the repair, and you can choose not to spend it on the repair if you want.

Years ago someone I worked with took a haulage firm to court for the £1000 damage to his £500 car, which he'd temporarily repaired with parts from a scrap yard, and with use of a hammer.

Obviously he spent the money on a motorbike, and ran the mk1 astra with the dents in it for years.

[nixon1]

OP specified the "qualifying criteria": Under 12 years, not caused by damage/stone chip, has original paint. So who knows why they wont sort this out for you. I just went through this process with Audi and it was as simple as tick tick tick, book it in. Their warranty guy was perfectly happy to sort. In this scenario the dealership are just inbetween and work with Audi's warranty team and the local bodyshop.

Makes no sense, the only way is to speak to the person that said no. Then speak to the manager, then phone up warranty at VW and ask why one of their dealerships is being so unhelpful. In theory, if VW warranty have all of the paperwork, you don't need to use your local dealership.

[B'stard Child]

surveyor said:

Interesting. It's not only Mercedes whose paintwork guarantee is useless then.

Isn't that the truth

Owner of 2001 Merc with lots of bubbles coming from under the paint rather than stone chip damage spreading

[daveenty]

I sympathise OP.

I had similar issues a few months ago, albeit with Audi, and gave up in the end.

Thread HERE.

[Sir Fergie]

New POD said:

I've done a bit of work on warranty over the years for Lucas, JCB and a supplier to the wind turbine industry.

In my humble opinion it would be really really good marketing if they paid out and made it public that they did.

When they decided a 12 year warranty would sell an extra 1/4 million cars, and make an extra 100 million euro per year, they also worked out (guessed) how many claims they were likely to get each year, and you can bet that they estimated that by year 11 that they'd be getting almost none.

Almost none because gradually those cars that survive or still meet the criteria gradually reduces.

I'd make sure that you meet every T and C, and then get 3 quotes for rectification, and if you can an independent report and take them to small claims court. Get on every GOlf forum and get written evidence from people who have had similar issues and get them to attend as witnesses (FOC)

Then let every car magazine and newspaper know the date of session, and watch VW squirm.

Agree with you on the marketing side of things - one of my fathers friends (no longer with us ) used to own a Mk 1 Jetta - which was recalled when it was 13 or 14 years old. Might have been for the heater issue VW had but I can't remember. Sounded very diligent and impressive at the time that VW were willing to take the hit and address (admittedly a design flaw) on a car that was 13 or 14 years old.

Unfortunately the reluctance of VAG to go out of their way to help out customers with issues on their cars is getting a bit too common.

It took them a long time to get around to sorting out the injector issues on the 2.0 TDI PD 170 engines - and they are still moving far too slow in dealing with the 1.4 twin charger oil consumption issues.

Is there any manufacturer any more that can make a very reliable well built car that will last 10 years plus - and who will stand over any stupid design flaws on the cars and take the hit on fixing them.

So much for all the fuss from VW back in the day about how the cars were galvanised and thus we would be standing over the cars for 10 to 12 years in terms of rust.

Will be interesting to see how Hyundai will deal with issues with cars with 150,000 miles on the clock at less then 5 years old when they have to pay out for things that other manufacturers will not be paying for because the car is more then 3 years old or had more then 60,000 miles or 100,000 miles.

Sir Fergie



Sir Fergie

[excel monkey]

Sir Fergie said:

Will be interesting to see how Hyundai will deal with issues with cars with 150,000 miles on the clock at less then 5 years old when they have to pay out for things that other manufacturers will not be paying for because the car is more then 3 years old or had more then 60,000 miles or 100,000 miles.

Sir Fergie

With Hyundai's customer base, I don't envisage many cars doing 150,000 miles in 5 years AND keeping to the manufacturer service intervals.

[Sub5s]

Social media is way faster than courts.
Vent on Twitter, with a few #VW hashtags, that they're not honouring their warranty.
Get on their faceboook site, if you happen to have an account.
Might get someone from VW to react. Manufactures usually don't want to lose face on there.

[vincevega]

I remember the Lancia Beta rust scandal from around the late 1970's. If I recall correctly some disgruntled owners plastered their rust ridden cars with anti Lancia slogans and parked them up outside dealerships, railway stations and the like. Seemed to get the messasge across and Lancia ended up buying back cars from owners.

If you tried the same thing nowadays you'd probably just get your car towed away and done for breach of the peace or obstructing a public right of way.

[SMB]

BE57 TOY said:

Is it really worth the hassle for a 12 year old car? Or is it a matter of principle?

What is the cost of the repair?

Is it worth it yes, it's the wife's car from new and she loves it, cost of repair properly is probably between 1-2k. Part of the original contract of sale was a 12 year corrosion warranty,

[SMB]

daveenty said:

I sympathise OP.

I had similar issues a few months ago, albeit with Audi, and gave up in the end.

Thread HERE.

So it's clear the strategy is reject all claims first and make it near impossible so people give up, I've no intention of giving up.

VW have created a process which ensures they reject claims, and can blame the dealership. That process is based on rules VW set to the dealer including exact technical bulletins and chassis numbers, so when VW say the dealer rejected, what they mean is that it didn't match the few occasions they are prepared to accept via the rules they set. But they can legitimately say the dealer rejected.

It also means that real issues that should be covered are rejected until VW see enough weight of claims they have no choice but issue a tech bulletin. If people give up that never happens.....

[CoolHands]

so what was the result?