Are Modern Cars Rubbish?
Discussion
Or, is it the state of our roads? Too much salt being applied in the winter? Or, is it a combination of all three?
Driving to work this morning I hear one helluva bang, followed by the most awful scraping noise. I knew I hadn’t hit anything. I get out and have a good look around and find this.
OS rear spring has punched right through the bottom lower arm. The arm, on (not in depth) inspection appears heavily corroded (obviously) that’s why it failed. This is on a 15 plate VW Scirocco with 73 K Miles. I would never expect a failure like that of a major suspension component - or am I being naive?.
The car was MOT’d at a VW main dealer back in October.
Admittedly it’s a ten year old car but still.
It’s been recovered back to the main dealer I bought it from. I await the outcome. Have you folks any views and opinions on this?
Driving to work this morning I hear one helluva bang, followed by the most awful scraping noise. I knew I hadn’t hit anything. I get out and have a good look around and find this.
OS rear spring has punched right through the bottom lower arm. The arm, on (not in depth) inspection appears heavily corroded (obviously) that’s why it failed. This is on a 15 plate VW Scirocco with 73 K Miles. I would never expect a failure like that of a major suspension component - or am I being naive?.
The car was MOT’d at a VW main dealer back in October.
Admittedly it’s a ten year old car but still.
It’s been recovered back to the main dealer I bought it from. I await the outcome. Have you folks any views and opinions on this?
My dad's 2014 Passat had the same thing happen in December. The lower arms are just stamped steel, and the shape allows dirt and salt to collect in the recess for the spring. Poor design IMO.
More of a VAG cost cutting issue than a general modern car issue.
More of a VAG cost cutting issue than a general modern car issue.
Edited by eth2190 on Thursday 17th April 13:24
Eth and Blue.
Some interesting points thanks. The car is covered under VW approved warranty, OS front spring failed back in December and that was covered under warranty, which surprised me as I thought it may be considered a ‘wear and tear item’.
With regards to the cheap pressed steel construction. My understanding is to have all four wheels independently sprung requires significant design and construction costs. I could be wrong? Perhaps that’s what drives the decision making process related - construction of these parts.
I’ve been used to Corrado’s and Scirocco’s with non independent rear corners attached to the chassis by a massive solid rear beam.
I’ve had to go and do my shopping in my 45 year old Scirocco this afternoon thinking: ‘WTAF’.
First world problems I know!
Some interesting points thanks. The car is covered under VW approved warranty, OS front spring failed back in December and that was covered under warranty, which surprised me as I thought it may be considered a ‘wear and tear item’.
With regards to the cheap pressed steel construction. My understanding is to have all four wheels independently sprung requires significant design and construction costs. I could be wrong? Perhaps that’s what drives the decision making process related - construction of these parts.
I’ve been used to Corrado’s and Scirocco’s with non independent rear corners attached to the chassis by a massive solid rear beam.
I’ve had to go and do my shopping in my 45 year old Scirocco this afternoon thinking: ‘WTAF’.
First world problems I know!
Yes VAG cars are rubbish and have been for ages, in the US and Canada they're seen as a joke and are priced accordingly new and used. Here somehow people seem to think they're great and will post about how their 8 year old car is riddled with faults so they're looking to replace it with something from the same company
With customers like that why bother being any good? They seem to have utterly mastered engineering a car to fall completely to s
t at 12 years old irrespective of mileage too, it's quite impressive really.
With customers like that why bother being any good? They seem to have utterly mastered engineering a car to fall completely to s
t at 12 years old irrespective of mileage too, it's quite impressive really.Jim H said:
Or, is it the state of our roads? Too much salt being applied in the winter? Or, is it a combination of all three?
Driving to work this morning I hear one helluva bang, followed by the most awful scraping noise. I knew I hadn’t hit anything. I get out and have a good look around and find this.
OS rear spring has punched right through the bottom lower arm. The arm, on (not in depth) inspection appears heavily corroded (obviously) that’s why it failed. This is on a 15 plate VW Scirocco with 73 K Miles. I would never expect a failure like that of a major suspension component - or am I being naive?.
The car was MOT’d at a VW main dealer back in October.
Admittedly it’s a ten year old car but still.
It’s been recovered back to the main dealer I bought it from. I await the outcome. Have you folks any views and opinions on this?
A little sad to have to agree that VAG have lost their edge over competitors ,although you always had to pay the 10% extra to get one, as a result of excellent advertising. They were, maybe two decades ago, a ‘cut above’ ,but no longer. In part mitigation, our roads are so awful now that suspension has a really hard time. Driving to work this morning I hear one helluva bang, followed by the most awful scraping noise. I knew I hadn’t hit anything. I get out and have a good look around and find this.
OS rear spring has punched right through the bottom lower arm. The arm, on (not in depth) inspection appears heavily corroded (obviously) that’s why it failed. This is on a 15 plate VW Scirocco with 73 K Miles. I would never expect a failure like that of a major suspension component - or am I being naive?.
The car was MOT’d at a VW main dealer back in October.
Admittedly it’s a ten year old car but still.
It’s been recovered back to the main dealer I bought it from. I await the outcome. Have you folks any views and opinions on this?
Jim H said:
OS rear spring has punched right through the bottom lower arm. The arm, on (not in depth) inspection appears heavily corroded (obviously) that’s why it failed. This is on a 15 plate VW Scirocco with 73 K Miles. I would never expect a failure like that of a major suspension component - or am I being naive?.
It's 10 years old. I don't think it's that unreasonable for something to have rusted and failed after 10 years.If you're comparing modern cars to older cars; I'm sure if you could travel back to the mid-80s, I think you'd be surprised at the state of a 10 year old Mini, for example.
Jim H said:
The car was MOT’d at a VW main dealer back in October.
This is the issue for me. Rust is a fairly slow process, if it was that bad to the point it was going to fail 6 months later, it should surely have been picked up on the MOT.Lester H said:
Jim H said:
Or, is it the state of our roads? Too much salt being applied in the winter? Or, is it a combination of all three?
Driving to work this morning I hear one helluva bang, followed by the most awful scraping noise. I knew I hadn’t hit anything. I get out and have a good look around and find this.
OS rear spring has punched right through the bottom lower arm. The arm, on (not in depth) inspection appears heavily corroded (obviously) that’s why it failed. This is on a 15 plate VW Scirocco with 73 K Miles. I would never expect a failure like that of a major suspension component - or am I being naive?.
The car was MOT’d at a VW main dealer back in October.
Admittedly it’s a ten year old car but still.
It’s been recovered back to the main dealer I bought it from. I await the outcome. Have you folks any views and opinions on this?
A little sad to have to agree that VAG have lost their edge over competitors ,although you always had to pay the 10% extra to get one, as a result of excellent advertising. They were, maybe two decades ago, a ‘cut above’ ,but no longer. In part mitigation, our roads are so awful now that suspension has a really hard time. Driving to work this morning I hear one helluva bang, followed by the most awful scraping noise. I knew I hadn’t hit anything. I get out and have a good look around and find this.
OS rear spring has punched right through the bottom lower arm. The arm, on (not in depth) inspection appears heavily corroded (obviously) that’s why it failed. This is on a 15 plate VW Scirocco with 73 K Miles. I would never expect a failure like that of a major suspension component - or am I being naive?.
The car was MOT’d at a VW main dealer back in October.
Admittedly it’s a ten year old car but still.
It’s been recovered back to the main dealer I bought it from. I await the outcome. Have you folks any views and opinions on this?
I’m coming off the back of 20 years running of two VW Corrado’s and they were bullet proof. 16 v, not VR6 or Supercharged.
Right, I’m going out to kick start my Atco Villiers lawn mower from 1967 - and mow the lawn.
Note to self, never replace with something newer!
Muzzer79 said:
This is the issue for me. Rust is a fairly slow process, if it was that bad to the point it was going to fail 6 months later, it should surely have been picked up on the MOT.
Absolutely Muzzer, my thoughts entirely. Yes a car MOT is valid from the day of inspection (and anything can happen after that). But a major structural component likeThat so heavily corroded that lead to complete failure 6 months later.
It does leave you wondering.
I was travelling down a smooth straight piece of road when it happened.
I’m pretty hacked off about it in all honesty.
blueg33 said:
In my experience VW springs are rubbish.
Fixed that for you! 
It is a shame how far VW have lost their way nowadays I think. When I was growing up in the 70's and 80's, I generally found them fairly desirable to be honest, especially over something like a Ford at the time, but that definitely isn't the case now though for me.
It may also be an indication of the state of the roads and the amount of speed humps ?
Had one go on my lads daily, a 2013 Golf, got two springs for £50, undid two bolts, popped out the old ones, popped the new ones back in, 15 mins start to finish. Front ones are a bit more involved.
Mother in laws X1, she rang me with a flat tyre, it was flat as there was half a spring embedded in the (brand new) tyre, she had replaced them all a week earlier, an example of sods law in play there.
Anecdotally, as a cyclist, its amazing the number of bits of springs you see around, all these hoops of metal, looks like Pat Butchers dressing table !
Had one go on my lads daily, a 2013 Golf, got two springs for £50, undid two bolts, popped out the old ones, popped the new ones back in, 15 mins start to finish. Front ones are a bit more involved.
Mother in laws X1, she rang me with a flat tyre, it was flat as there was half a spring embedded in the (brand new) tyre, she had replaced them all a week earlier, an example of sods law in play there.
Anecdotally, as a cyclist, its amazing the number of bits of springs you see around, all these hoops of metal, looks like Pat Butchers dressing table !
Unfortunately an MOT tester is unlikely to see the extent of the issue unless they have a proper look inside the spring cup or start whacking it with a hammer.
The time frame between seeing proper rust holes and the spring punching through is probably not very long at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2pNwpwqMps
The time frame between seeing proper rust holes and the spring punching through is probably not very long at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2pNwpwqMps
Edited by eth2190 on Thursday 17th April 14:59
In our household we have an A3 2014 with 130k miles on it the underside is clean enough to eat off of (no rust at all etc), we also have a recently purchased Golf GTI PP 2015 with 40k miles on it & the underside looks like recent photos of the Titanic (with rusty springs). The A3 has spent its life on the south coast & the Golf is from Scotland so yeah I'd say how much the roads are salted can make a clearly visible difference to similarly aged vehicles. All springs are made from the finest chinese monkey metal these days. Whenever I see a broken spring there's usually some sort of inclusion within the metal at the point of failure too, so it's not just corrosion but poor quality materials to begin with.
Panamax said:
To answer this question you'd need to know how failure rates in UK compare with other countries. My suspicion is that UK pot-holes and speed humps are what's exacerbating the problems.
Suspension is now the second most common reason for MOT failure. (Lights remain the most common.)
Yeah I must admit I do often wonder what the utter state of our roads are doing to my cars suspension and sub frames, not only are they strewn with potholes on a surface that is rippled and buckled, the council spend every cent they can get their hands on putting their own humps and lumps on as well. Suspension is now the second most common reason for MOT failure. (Lights remain the most common.)
J4CKO said:
It may also be an indication of the state of the roads and the amount of speed humps ?
I think that is a fair point, but cars are generally developed/tested to deal with that though really. I remember smacking a kerb edging(with the front passenger wheel) once pulling into a lay by at speed at night back in 2007 in the E90 330d. I didn't see it(I did get my eyes checked after that and it proved that I needed glasses for night driving), but it hit it with an almighty bang though. So the next day I took it to be looked at, and it hadn't even knocked the tracking out or anything! I couldn't believe it to be honest, and I thought how well made the car was at the time, because it didn't upset it one bit for example. Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff