My gearbox is shot, after all!

[the surfer]

Some of you may remember posts I made a few months back regarding the gear changes on my 55 GT TDI; most of you probably won't....

Anyway, here's a bit of background info and what the issue is: I bought my car from my local VW dealer, at the end of my road, back in March 2007 for the grand sum of £16,000 The car had done 18k and was 1.5 years old. After a few weeks of ownership it became apparent the gear changes didn't feel right - crunching, baulking and juddering in 1st, 2nd and 3rd gears. For a car of this age and mileage, I didn't expect there to be any problems with the car I'd purchased whatsoever, mechanical or otherwise.

The first thing I done was take my car back to the dealer with the complaint of poor gear changes. I left it with them over night to test the following morning as the gear changes are far worse when the engine/gearbox is cold. They called me later in the day to say they'd found an issue; apparently the gear linkages needed adjusting. They done this for me at no cost as obviously the car was still well within warranty. I get the car back and the gear changes are exactly the same - no worse, no better!

I put up with the issue for a while and asked some opinions of people in-the-know. Many said that VAG boxes are renowned for their poor shifting and not to worry about it. I didn't spend a large amount of £££ on buying a car that doesn't drive to a satisfactory standard!

A few months later I took the car back to the same dealer about the same problems. This time, a technician came out for a test drive with me. He said that there is an issue and the gearbox will require stripping down to fully diagnose the fault. Finally, I thought to myself! So, I left the car with them for the afternoon. I get a call from the service manager to say that there is nothing wrong, it's a characteristic of the Golf TDI. So my gearbox never got fixed and I got fobbed off once again!

Time passed until my MOT was due. I took the car to the dealer to do the MOT and I specifically asked them to look at my gears before my warranty runs out (the following week). Picked the car up, the service adviser tells me that they were too busy to look at my gears and they don't think there is a problem!

Now, today, I still have the same faulty gearbox and my warranty expired in September 2008! I wrote a letter to VW UK explaining my problems in January. They called me back to tell me to get a second opinion from another local VW dealer. They told me that if they find a fault, they would contribute to the cost of getting my car fixed. In hindsight, I know I should have done this much sooner, ideally when the car was still under warranty. Unfortunately I didn't though....

So, Tuesday evening I dropped my car off at VW in Swindon (very helpful, very professional and an excellent service, may I add). Yesterday they called me to say they'd tested the car and they've found a fault - see everyone, I'm not going mad, there is a fault! They said there was a fault with some components within the gearbox but it will need fully stripping down to diagnose the fault. They quoted £980 to do this They also carried out the 24N8 update for me, FOC.

Where do I stand in terms of getting this repair done FOC by VW? Bearing in mind I took this to them under the warranty period, only to be turned away. They are offering a contribution, personally I don't think this will suffice. They should be covering the entire cost of this repair as they should have done it last year under warranty! Clearly the issue comes down to a factory fault as a well maintained car with low mileage should not have a worn gearbox.

Sorry for the length of post, I cut it down as much as I could!

Any comments much appreciated.

[Crasher]

What is the transmission code? It is in your service book on the sticker inside the front cover?

[Mini Mark]

I would have thought that VW would want to cover the cost as a gesture of goodwill. Have you got anything in witting from the first garage that looked at the car?

When my Mini was 3 years old I took the car in for service and told them the cam followers needed looking at they said it was the tappets and they had adjusted them. Shortly after it went back in for it's MOT etc and they informed me that there was a major problem with the emissions after further investigation it turned out the cam was scrap!!! the car was out of warranty but the Rover garage said they would provide the labor FOC but I had to provide the cam as it was an aftermarrket cam fitted (it was fitted new by the company how did the engine conversion). I also had a battle with rover over the engine a month after I had the car as the engine went rusty now I know your thinking how sad complaining about the engine being rusty but as I'd spent £><* on a classic Mini I wanted it right after a long battle they agreed to take the engine out and repaint it!! I supplied the paint as I wanted it doing in the prorper 60's green!!!

[the surfer]

What is the transmission code? It is in your service book on the sticker inside the front cover?

Thanks Crasher,

The transmission code is HDV and the engine code is BKD.

I would have thought that VW would want to cover the cost as a gesture of goodwill. Have you got anything in witting from the first garage that looked at the car?

When my Mini was 3 years old I took the car in for service and told them the cam followers needed looking at they said it was the tappets and they had adjusted them. Shortly after it went back in for it's MOT etc and they informed me that there was a major problem with the emissions after further investigation it turned out the cam was scrap!!! the car was out of warranty but the Rover garage said they would provide the labor FOC but I had to provide the cam as it was an aftermarrket cam fitted (it was fitted new by the company how did the engine conversion). I also had a battle with rover over the engine a month after I had the car as the engine went rusty now I know your thinking how sad complaining about the engine being rusty but as I'd spent £><* on a classic Mini I wanted it right after a long battle they agreed to take the engine out and repaint it!! I supplied the paint as I wanted it doing in the prorper 60's green!!!

I have my fingers crossed! I do still have the invoice from when it went in originally so that should help considerably.

My dad works for Honda UK and part of his job is to investigate and analyse warranty claims. He told me that my case is good and VW don't have a leg to stand on. I just hope he's correct!

[knt]

Legally if you've told them about the problems under warranty and the same problems haven't been repaired to standard then you should keep pushing VW UK for the full costs of the repair.

Get help from the Citizens Advice Bureau and report the VW dealer to the trading standard.

[the surfer]

Legally if you've told them about the problems under warranty and the same problems haven't been repaired to standard then you should keep pushing VW UK for the full costs of the repair.

Get help from the Citizens Advice Bureau and report the VW dealer to the trading standard.

I called VW UK 5 mins ago and I'm just waiting for them to call me back. I'm going to push for a full coverage of expenses. Anything less, IMO, would be very unfair and in breach of trading standards etc.

I'll report back here on any progress.

[TDiBoraSam]

This tale of warranty claims sounds all too familiar to me! I had very similar problems with Citroen a couple of years ago. Basically I got fobbed off time after time, 'it's a characteristic of the car' being a popular phrase.

I got Citroen UK, Citroen HQ in France, Trading Standards, SMMT and Citizens Advice involved, and basically apart from Citizens Advice, all the others closed ranks, and challenged me to dare to take them to court! In the end I stood in the dealer's showroom making a real scene until they eventually bought the car back off me...still conning me out of £300 in the process.

All dealers seem to be the same. There's never anything wrong.....until the warranty has run out!

I hope you don't have to go through what I did.

[the surfer]

This tale of warranty claims sounds all too familiar to me! I had very similar problems with Citroen a couple of years ago. Basically I got fobbed off time after time, 'it's a characteristic of the car' being a popular phrase.

I got Citroen UK, Citroen HQ in France, Trading Standards, SMMT and Citizens Advice involved, and basically apart from Citizens Advice, all the others closed ranks, and challenged me to dare to take them to court! In the end I stood in the dealer's showroom making a real scene until they eventually bought the car back off me...still conning me out of £300 in the process.

All dealers seem to be the same. There's never anything wrong.....until the warranty has run out!

I hope you don't have to go through what I did.

Thanks for the response.

I hope so too! They haven't called me back yet!

I was under the impression that VW dealers get more profit from doing warranty work than they do for non-warranty work. I guess I was wrong!

This whole scenario comes down to the incompetance of one VW dealership. If they had diagnosed the fault at first, there would be no issue as the car would have been repaired under warranty! Why should I have to pay for a mistake made by VW? I have handed over enough money to them already!

[Paul_mkV_golf]

Thanks for the response.

I hope so too! They haven't called me back yet!

I was under the impression that VW dealers get more profit from doing warranty work than they do for non-warranty work. I guess I was wrong!

This whole scenario comes down to the incompetance of one VW dealership. If they had diagnosed the fault at first, there would be no issue as the car would have been repaired under warranty! Why should I have to pay for a mistake made by VW? I have handed over enough money to them already!

Surfer, good luck with this- hope you get a satisfactory response! VW's lack of caring for their customers seems to be one of the main gripes of VW owners. Much like you, bought my car approx 1.5yrs old from VW dealership (for 'peace of mind') had a few things dealt with under warranty- nothing as major as your gearbox problem. It probably took half a dozen visits for them to fix pretty basic things- including drivers elec window that seemed to have a mind of its own. In the end it required me to haul one of the technicians outside to see my car that he'd apparently just 'fixed' to get it fixed. As I pointed out the problem he twigged that it needed x,y & z doing- kind of made me think do they not f***in test it when they've carried out the repair work??!!!

When spending a bit more on a VW in the 1st place over the equivalent focus/astra etc you'd expect better customer service + knowledgeable staff- sadly not always the case. Shocking the fact that it took another VW garage to find the gearbox fault- you'd think all the techs should be trained up to the same standard & be able to diagnose something as obvious as a gearbox fault. Hopefully you've got this all catalogued- at the very least they should have a record of it on their computer system! I know Whatcar magazine have a legal section- might be worth e-mailing them and seeing what their advice is from you point of view.

Good luck!

Paul

[the surfer]

Surfer, good luck with this- hope you get a satisfactory response! VW's lack of caring for their customers seems to be one of the main gripes of VW owners. Much like you, bought my car approx 1.5yrs old from VW dealership (for 'peace of mind') had a few things dealt with under warranty- nothing as major as your gearbox problem. It probably took half a dozen visits for them to fix pretty basic things- including drivers elec window that seemed to have a mind of its own. In the end it required me to haul one of the technicians outside to see my car that he'd apparently just 'fixed' to get it fixed. As I pointed out the problem he twigged that it needed x,y & z doing- kind of made me think do they not f***in test it when they've carried out the repair work??!!!

When spending a bit more on a VW in the 1st place over the equivalent focus/astra etc you'd expect better customer service + knowledgeable staff- sadly not always the case. Shocking the fact that it took another VW garage to find the gearbox fault- you'd think all the techs should be trained up to the same standard & be able to diagnose something as obvious as a gearbox fault. Hopefully you've got this all catalogued- at the very least they should have a record of it on their computer system! I know Whatcar magazine have a legal section- might be worth e-mailing them and seeing what their advice is from you point of view.

Good luck!

Paul

Thanks for the support, Paul.

Maybe my expectation of VW was too high to begin with. Since passing my test at 17, 7 years ago now, I have always driven VWs. I have had 3 Golfs previously which were always trouble free. I have owned a 1971 VW camper for the last 6 years and that too has always been 100% reliable - not bad considering the vehicle is 38 years old! I guess VW, or any manufacturer, just don't have the same high build quality more recently as they did 10+ years ago or so. A colleague has a '91 MK2 Golf that has 340k on the clock and it's never had any major issues and apparently it's still on the original clutch! It's still going strong and commuting 100 miles a day, 5 days a week!

As for the customer service, or lack thereof, there is no excuse. I rang them yesterday as I got fed up waiting for them to return my call. The lady told me that VW were not prepared to cover any expenses as my local VW dealer are not an empowered(?) dealership, or something like that? TBH I'm even more confused now! To the average customer a VW dealer is a VW dealer! It's not my fault that my local dealer is incompetent and can't diagnose a fault! This is my argument of why they should cough up the £££. Just waiting for the next call back now........

In the meantime I'm going to arm myself with as much legal info that I can gather.

Cheers