Most expensive rear door speakers?

**brianf** · 01-12-2006,02:49 PM

My VW main dealer story relates to the fitting of speakers in the rear doors of my Touran 2.0 TDi DSG and is hot off the presses - the bill received yesterday is an unbelievable €850.87 (£586.80). It's bad enough that they sell a vehicle of this class without rear speakers but their sales literature is misleading in that it tells the prospective buyer that it comes with a four-speaker system as standard. What they don't say is that all four speakers are in the front.
The car went in for its end of warranty check-up last week to deal with any faults that should be rectified before warranty expires on 12th Dec and I thought it would be expedient to have the speakers fitted at the same time.
They only dealt with two of four warranty items that I reported, the most time consuming of which was a modification to the front seats to stop them descending by themselves. All they did was to tighten the adjusting mechanism. I suspect that they are also billing me for that work because the total time listed is 11.31 hours.
Prior to asking the main dealer to fit the speakers, I did ask the importer how much it would cost and they told me about three hours of work plus the parts (double the price of Kenwood speakers) so about €400 in total.
I have sent a registered letter of complaint but you can imagine what this has done for my confidence in dealing with these people in future.

**Fourbears** · 08-12-2006,11:30 PM

I've just bought a UK S TDi and found the same. I was quoted £458 to fit them by the supplying dealer as they couldn't find one with them in. Needless to say I didn't bother. VW and the dealers are taking the mickey I think. Even my 1995 Vento has rear speakers!

**brianf** · 09-12-2006,02:44 PM

Originally Posted by Fourbears

I've just bought a UK S TDi and found the same. I was quoted £458 to fit them by the supplying dealer as they couldn't find one with them in. Needless to say I didn't bother. VW and the dealers are taking the mickey I think. Even my 1995 Vento has rear speakers!

At least you had a quote whereas mine came as a complete surprise after other reasonable quotes. My dealer declined to give a quote but said it would not be too expensive. I was just too trusting and now feel that I'm paying for a job done at a very casual pace. Who would believe 11.31 hours just to install rear door speakers?

**Eshrules** · 29-12-2006,12:56 PM

sounds like a cash cow to me, id seriously think about reporting them for this...doesnt sound entirely ethical to me

**brianf** · 29-12-2006,02:38 PM

Originally Posted by eshrules

sounds like a cash cow to me, id seriously think about reporting them for this...doesnt sound entirely ethical to me

I did write to both VW Wolfsburg and the importer.
At long last I am delighted to report that the dealer has seen reason and issued a credit note for 400€. This makes the total installation cost 450.87€ (£310.94). Still expensive by comparison with the ICE dealers but acceptable for a 'properly done' job.

**Caddy Van Man** · 03-01-2007,11:22 PM

Tell your ******* to suck you sideways and get an independant to do the work!

**RickT** · 05-01-2007,12:58 AM

Thats a joke.... shows they knew there were at fault as they refunded some of the cash..

Good help you if your car goes in for any proper work!!

RicKT

**tourantog** · 15-08-2007,12:56 PM

has anyone managed to wok out how to take the inner door skin off to fit the speakers thimselves, I had a look and can not work out how the main plastic moulding is detached.
I thoght if i run the cable and fit the speakers in the door as it would either work and auto detect the speaker conected to the head unit or reduce the bill for the ICE upgrade for the connection to the head unit if they do not auto detect.

**brianf** · 15-08-2007,03:58 PM

Originally Posted by tourantog

has anyone managed to wok out how to take the inner door skin off to fit the speakers thimselves, I had a look and can not work out how the main plastic moulding is detached.
I thoght if i run the cable and fit the speakers in the door as it would either work and auto detect the speaker conected to the head unit or reduce the bill for the ICE upgrade for the connection to the head unit if they do not auto detect.

If you have the standard CAN-Bus and the radio is an RCD 300/500 of MFD2 Nav unit, then the speakers will be automatically detected when they are connected. That then also triggers the Fader control display so that you can adjust the front-back balance.
I don't know about the Sharan but the Touran rear door panels are held in place by two screws underneath and pop-outs up the sides. The top edge is folded over so the panel lifts off once you've removed the screws and pulled the pop-outs away from the door.

**tourantog** · 16-08-2007,12:48 PM

Thanks, I will try to connect the speakers DIY, I did take out the two screws and had a tentative pry at the securing plastic push in clips, they looked very secure.
I will give it a bit more of a pull with a thin steel pry bar and write back if it pops free.
I was wondering if the door handle needs to come off, I cant see any screws.