General Panda V Passat

[Geddes]

Well it took me a few months but sitting here bored on New Years Eve I did indeed google my own company and indeed hidden away I did find your post....

Thanks for the reply.

In no particular order my concerns are:

• The business about unbolting doors and wings and bumpers to disguise the distorted C-pillar. Who on earth came up with that one?
• How invisible should I expect a repair to be? At present the car looks OK, but you can tell it's been repaired as soon as you look closely. And looking under the boot floor is a dead giveaway.
• What happens about the corrosion warranty? The manufacturer's warranty doesn't cover the repaired sections and if it's going to rust it's going to rust where the new metal has been welded in.

On the plus side, the customer service from the branch has been good. It's just the actual repairs that have been underwhelming.

Thanks again,

Dave

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Looks like youre lucky to have the tow bar fella - was £2600 repair not enough to cause it to be a write off?

Yeah tell me about it. If I didn't have towbar I fear it would have been a write off.

Nope, £2600 no-where near book value apparently. With LPG system my car retails at about £4500 Private apparently :shrug:

Without LPG though answer would have been yes

 

[JTD_Liam]

Yeah tell me about it. If I didn't have towbar I fear it would have been a write off.

Nope, £2600 no-where near book value apparently. With LPG system my car retails at about £4500 Private apparently :shrug:

Without LPG though answer would have been yes

Blimey, onto abit of a winner there!

The JTD prices seem to be holding up ok at the moment aswell i've noticed. In 15 months & 10,000 miles it looks like i've lost £900, which doesn't seem bad at all to me?!

I guess it's something to do with the scrappage scheme bolstering used car values.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Blimey, onto abit of a winner there!

The JTD prices seem to be holding up ok at the moment aswell i've noticed. In 15 months & 10,000 miles it looks like i've lost £900, which doesn't seem bad at all to me?!

I guess it's something to do with the scrappage scheme bolstering used car values.

I know. The DERV's do seem to hold their value well!

Scrappage has helped a bit as not many 'cheap' older cars to easily buy.

 

[Geddes]

Haven't posted an update here for a while...

I've been waiting for BP Rolls to provide some documentation of their repair to preserve Fiat's corrosion warranty. Which they so far have failed to do :bang:

Anyway, I gave the car a bit of a checking over and it's not good.

After the Winter there's quite a bit of visible rust on the boot floor.

Here's some rust coming through the caulking along the welds.

The new tailgate has pin heads of rust all over it.

The C pillar where they've repainted it is also breaking out in pinheads of rust.

So. I was expecting the repairs to be a likely source of problems in later years, hence trying to get documentation, but no way did I expect every single piece of metal they touched would be showing signs of rust six months later

I'll be having a chat with the insurance company on Monday...

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Not good. Not good at all

 

[udtrev]

That is appaling, talk about bad workmanship (still)

Hope the insurance company get it sorted for you.


Trev

 

[JD82]

I haven't replied to this yet but since I read it a few days ago I have been horrified. I think too much damage has been done and you now need to just reject this car. They have turned a brand new car into a rusting shed

 

[Geddes]

It seems I was mistaken about the rust on the tailgate
Turns out it's some brown stuff that just looks like rust. Here's a convincing lump of it on the plastic bumper...

Boot floor has genuine rust though.

 

[pdtrewern]

Really hope you get some action, it must be heartbreaking. Its good that you have been keeping an eye on it, as most people wouldn't bother.

You deserve results with your persistence!! :bang:

 

[Geddes]

OK. Had it looked at today. Not as bad as all that. Turns out to be various bits of metal filings and guff that weren't cleaned up and got stuck in the paint and started to rust, so it's not going from the inside out.
Anyway they're going to fix it.

 

[Geddes]

Meh!
Came across a time-delay cockup this morning...
Tried to open the boot and there was a sad little 'chink' as the lock mechanism came apart.
Turns out they hadn't bothered to attach the clip that holds the catch actuating rod to the lock...

BTW if you ever can't open your boot from the outside there's a handy little lever on the lock body you can get at from inside.

 

[JD82]

How has your been generally since all the repairs? Apart from this have you been happy with the final attempt to repair it?

 

[Geddes]

I wouldn't say I've been overjoyed.
It's 'ok' now but you don't have to look too hard to spot the repair. If I wanted to sell it today it would definitely cost me money. Luckily by the time I plan on changing it depreciation will have absorbed the difference.
Also since they aren't a Fiat approved repairer I no longer have an eight year corrosion warranty on the back end. Being an insurance approved repair it's covered by a warranty, but that's only five years.