Best way to complain to VW (uk)

[dcdick]

Oh Joy

Just had the "tech" side of VW UK on the phone.

They say that the mpg figure of 48mpg (total since new) is "acceptable" as they have no control over how I drive the car.

Refused to tell me at what mpg figure they would accept as a company to take any action. Compounded this by saying that the dealer will sort any issues & will only take action when a fault can be identified.

After being asked directly 4 times the person on the phone said that VW UK consider this closed as it is for the dealer to address & they will take no further interest or action in the mpg "dispute" as he called it.
Then had the cheek to say that if I found myself disatisfied with the service from the dealer to get back in touch with them & they would "help me towards a resolution"

Makes you wonder what VW UK are there for ........................ if you haven't got a open & shut case of fraud/damage/failure to complete work etc.... they just don't seem to want to know

I surely can't be the only driver of a Mk7 Golf/1.6 TDI unhappy with the fuel consumption but of course the dealers staff are keeping quiet about this & refusing to admit to anything.

Looks like my only get out is the lease company who will put me in a petrol when I get to 2,000 miles .............. will it be a Golf ?............hmmm

I might be able to get the dealer on miss-selling me the car but it 'aint going to be an easy thing to do. I don't have a problem with the dealer as such so it's probably just as easy to wait things out & get rid of this "lemon" as soon as I can

Customer service....................................my a"**!s

D

[dickt]

Ring up VW UK. Ask for name of VW UK CEO or MD, or whatever his title is. (It will be a him. Equal opps is, er, lagging in the Car biz.)
Write to him personally, using Recorded/Signed for delivery. Use a real typed letter. they are so unusual that they often get read.
Tell him you only want a reply from him. Tell him not to bother replying unless he responds personally.
You want a proper, fully qualified VW techie to examine your car, not some 16 year old apprentice on minimum wages from a garage that will not let you see what he is doing to your car.
If he gives you the usual anodyne stuff, write to the boss of VW in Germany using the same technique. Don't bother with translations - they are all fluent in English. If the UK boss has been useless, point this out to the Group CEO. That should be bad for the UK boss's career. His career and bonus will be his main concerns.

[dcdick]

Ring up VW UK. Ask for name of VW UK CEO or MD, or whatever his title is. (It will be a him. Equal opps is, er, lagging in the Car biz.)
Write to him personally, using Recorded/Signed for delivery. Use a real typed letter. they are so unusual that they often get read.
Tell him you only want a reply from him. Tell him not to bother replying unless he responds personally.
You want a proper, fully qualified VW techie to examine your car, not some 16 year old apprentice on minimum wages from a garage that will not let you see what he is doing to your car.
If he gives you the usual anodyne stuff, write to the boss of VW in Germany using the same technique. Don't bother with translations - they are all fluent in English. If the UK boss has been useless, point this out to the Group CEO. That should be bad for the UK boss's career. His career and bonus will be his main concerns.

Waiting for a reply from the MD VW UK (only 24 hrs at the moment).............next step is VW head office in Germany I will continue to push this to a resolution, trading standards is Mondays destination (just to stir things up a bit) Audi are in a bit of bother with the same issue & are being forced to change there literature/advertising I believe .

One of the benefits of being retired is that you have the time to pursue these things as well as being able to be at home for calls during office hours & as I am still member of a couple of professional body's I can usually find out names & how to contact people of influence when I have to

D ............... or should I use Dickc to get around the archaic site censor

[bdb]

I have driven a Mk6 Golf SE 1.6 TDI 105ps (CAYC engine) from new for three years and three months up to mid-March 2013. Over that time the average fuel consumption (based on a log of fuel put in and miles covered on the odometer) was 58.47 mpg over 26500miles. Most of my mileage is local journeys of 7 miles each way or 10 miles each way to adjacent towns. Once per year there is a journey of about 2500 miles to Austria/Slovenia. Over the 3500 mile period including the long journey the consumption has been 64.17 mpg. Over the entire period I have never once noticed a forced regeneration of the DPF. Since mid-March 2013 I have owned a Golf Mk 7 SE 105 PS with BMT (CLHA engine) and my driving pattern has been unchanged. The new car has now covered 1500 miles and the long term fuel consumption indicated on the computer is 64.30 mpg. I have noticed more forced regenerations of the DPF and on 3 occasions I have interrupted a regeneration in progress when I have stopped the engine by turning off the ignition - the fan continues to run and the start-stop does not stop the engine. In spite of the more noticeable number of forced DPF regenerations the fuel consumption is markedly better than on the previous Mk6 (both these cars had 5 speed manual gearbox). I am posting this to say that not everyone has a bad experience of fuel consumption. The MFD display gives three options of fuel consumption display - consumption since last fill up, consumption since start of journey and long term consumption. If you use the consumption since start of journey option you should be able to see how the consumption varies with the duration of the journey - on my car , on a reasonably level road, it only takes a few miles to reach 50 - 60 mpg and can exceed 70 mpg after 7 miles. There appears to be something unusual about your fuel consumption problems.

[dcdick]

Interesting to see your mpg results, these are what I had been expecting to achieve.
The only significant difference seems to be that mine is the DSG version.
My engine numbers are the same as yours.
Our journey styles are not that different (apart from the 2.5k round trip)
Can it be that simple.................the auto gearbox is the culprit ??
My car is good on flat roads at normal light urban speeds but the slightest gradient sees the consumption numbers falling rapidly, like you I normally use the "since a start" option. DSG option is set at "eco".

I will try the "manual" option on the gearbox & see if it makes a difference, the stated difference between DSG & Manual is in the order of 1.5% worse for DSG in the published fuel figures which is very small (but more than the petrol versions for some reason) hmmmm
Or possibly it needs to be run in the "normal" or sport options or even the "programmable" option to get this thing changing gear at a better time................

Thanks for posting your the first with a 1.6tdi to respond

D

[maisbitt]

Dcdick: Is your DSG the 6 speed or the 7 speed? The 6 speed has about a 10% economy penalty on the 2.0TDI, but the 7 speed DSG should actually be more (just)economical than a manual.

It is a fact that at the helpline level, VWUK are very poor - I do hope that at the CEO level something will be done.

It's one thing for you to have poor economy but for the dealership technicians to get better economy on your test drive - I would put that down to your driving style. On the other hand, when what is actually happening is that they can't get close to even your mpg, it says to me that you're driving far more carefully than should be considered normal and are still experiencing poor economy.

I'm pretty sure there must be something wrong with your car - either a slight leak from one or more of the injectors, causing the car to overfuel and then leading to excessive forced regens on the DPF, or perhaps the DSG box has an atypical gear changing regime which makes the car uneconomical.

Looks like you're fighting your corner well - have you considered taking your story to somewhere like "what car?" or "watchdog"?

[bdb]

"the slightest gradient sees the consumption numbers falling rapidly" This is normal as the engine has to work harder to pull the weight of the car uphill but it is partially compensated by the downhill sections where fuel consumption decreases as the car is coasting. I say partially compensated because on steep hills it is necessary to use the brakes to control the speed and this wastes energy that is lost. I have two possible routes to my nearby town. One is about 9 miles long and goes over a hill. The first mile rises about 500 feet (about 1 in 10) , then there is a fairly flat section of about 7 miles followed by a descent of 500 feet in the last mile. The car does less than 30mpg over the first mile but recovers to about 55 mpg after the final descent. The alternative route to the same town is about 10 miles along a river valley which goes around the hill and is fairly level. On this road the car reaches 70mpg driving at an average speed of 45mph. The mpg figures can be very dependent on the terrain.

[dcdick]

Dcdick: Is your DSG the 6 speed or the 7 speed? The 6 speed has about a 10% economy penalty on the 2.0TDI, but the 7 speed DSG should actually be more (just)economical than a manual.

It is a fact that at the helpline level, VWUK are very poor - I do hope that at the CEO level something will be done.

It's one thing for you to have poor economy but for the dealership technicians to get better economy on your test drive - I would put that down to your driving style. On the other hand, when what is actually happening is that they can't get close to even your mpg, it says to me that you're driving far more carefully than should be considered normal and are still experiencing poor economy.

I'm pretty sure there must be something wrong with your car - either a slight leak from one or more of the injectors, causing the car to overfuel and then leading to excessive forced regens on the DPF, or perhaps the DSG box has an atypical gear changing regime which makes the car uneconomical.

Looks like you're fighting your corner well - have you considered taking your story to somewhere like "what car?" or "watchdog"?

It's 7 speed on the 1.6 (almost nothing in it in the published figures) ....................I have noticed some "odd" gearchages that when decelerating it sometimes selects a lower gear than it should & needs a lift off from the pedal to trigger the "free wheel" then the right gear comes in wether this is enough to affect the economy figures ??

You've got in in one about me having to work far to hard to get even low 50's economy & that is the problem

There's a 50 mile each way run coming up at the weekend that is almost all motorway/dual carrigeway so the figures from that will be interesting to say the least !

Trading Standards/Watchdog/What car etc... are the next step as well as going back to Pullmans (supplying dealer) to see if they can do anything as the car will have done over 1,000 miles & the economy figures are not going to get that much better than they are now (unless I take to 100 mile journeys down motorways at 60 mph for fun)

D

[dcdick]

"the slightest gradient sees the consumption numbers falling rapidly" This is normal as the engine has to work harder to pull the weight of the car uphill but it is partially compensated by the downhill sections where fuel consumption decreases as the car is coasting. I say partially compensated because on steep hills it is necessary to use the brakes to control the speed and this wastes energy that is lost. I have two possible routes to my nearby town. One is about 9 miles long and goes over a hill. The first mile rises about 500 feet (about 1 in 10) , then there is a fairly flat section of about 7 miles followed by a descent of 500 feet in the last mile. The car does less than 30mpg over the first mile but recovers to about 55 mpg after the final descent. The alternative route to the same town is about 10 miles along a river valley which goes around the hill and is fairly level. On this road the car reaches 70mpg driving at an average speed of 45mph. The mpg figures can be very dependent on the terrain.

The fall in economy at the slightest gradient is very noticeable & much more than I expected............means I have to work too hard to get into the 50's in the mpg.
Another worrying factor is if the display in the car is being overly optimistic & the mpg figures are even worse than I am seeing.

I think I am going to have to "brim the tank" even though I disagree with that way of refuelling, but I need to do as accurate a check as I can to confirm my original calculations

Completley agree that mpg figures are entirely dependant upon the way the car is driven & the "terrain" it is driving through

Really do wish now that I had gone for the 1.4TSI & would have accepted a mpg figure around 50 mpg as good enough with more on a run.

D