Volkswagen emissions scandal
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Volkswagen emissions scandal
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Just to add to that. I took my work VW Caddy to the VW dealer in Pity Me for its first service and they were excellent. They double booked the courtesy van (call centres fault). But provided a spacious estate (can't remember what it was it was so bland).
In addition I had a 30min wait when I picked it up but was compensated by a bottle of wine and a box of biscuits.
Stark opposite of the SG Petch Fiat in Darlington were your treated with nothing but utter contempt.
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There is variability in any dealer network, however they were beaten by Fiat in last year's driver power survey. 2 years in a row...
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-ne.../car-dealers-the-best-and-worst-2014/page/0/1
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/driver-power/92307/best-car-dealers-2015
Oddly Skoda made the top ten but the 3 other VAG brands propping the table up isn't exactly a good result.
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-ne.../car-dealers-the-best-and-worst-2014/page/0/1
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/driver-power/92307/best-car-dealers-2015
Oddly Skoda made the top ten but the 3 other VAG brands propping the table up isn't exactly a good result.
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Seconded but with different dealers.
Bought my golf in August picked up in September, every step of the way the dealer kept me informed and updated with emails and videos every few days, even sending me a video of the car as it arrived off the truck.
They normally give out flowers to new car owners but gave me a £30 umbrella instead.
Since then they have been in touch to make sure everything is ok and to make me aware of software updates to the entertainment system coming in November which should give me apple car play (and android equivalent) I really couldn't ask for me.
Locally we have Desira fiat who are truly awful when it comes to customer service, MEP has written a novel on the poor service they provided with his brava. It's part of the reason I'd not buy a fiat again.
Interestingly in the news today it seems in the UK 1.2 million cars have been identified as effected. The 1.6 diesel models of which there are 400,000 require a software update and altered fuel injectors. The rest, all 2.0 diesel models just need a software update. No mentions of loss in power or economy at this stage.
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Someone I know works for an audi dealer, and he said that customers/potential customers have been giving them a lot of grief.
Not sure why you needed to quote me, or how that has anything to do with what i said? But well done trying to join in
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Not sure why you needed to quote me, or how that has anything to do with what i said? But well done trying to join in
Well, audi are part of vw, and you're discussing dealers.
No we were talking about our experience of vw dealers, which had both nothing to do with Audi or anything else you said.
If we're swapping stories my uncle ran round in a cloned polo for 12 months due to the dealer fitting the same plates to 2 identical cars that were delivered at around the same time, it was only picked up at the 1st service when they realised they'd serviced that car a week ago...
Nice touches are not the same as competence...although they are better than incompetentence and apathy combined I suppose.
Did your uncle not think to check the V5 when he bought his car? How did the dealer tax two identical cars with the same reg? One would have had the wrong tax disc. What about how dealership tag the keys and label them by the number plate of the car, did no one try to get in the wrong car?
My car came off the truck registered by VW uk not the dealer, number plates were on it when it arrived.
There will always be someone with a bad story about a dealership, especially when they want to prove a point. I tend to ignore analogies from a person when they are not telling it from the first person perspective, for example when I was a kid my best friend's mum had a brand new fiat tipo and it literally spent the first two years of its life at the dealership with faults so clearly because I knew someone who had this problem at an unspecified date in the past, I can now make lots of arguments against all fiats ever produced but as we all know that's not true.
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Indeed...also loving that my phone has added a whole new syllable to the word incompetence
Very simple the car was taxed and insured under V5 reg, physical plates were one digit out which no one noticed. Uncle never thought to compare the V5 to the actual plates on the car, he assumed the dealer had done it's job.I think they best thing you can do to resolve this is provide links to recent owner surveys that state VW is better than Fiat at customer service. That way you can prove your good experience wasn't a fluke and is backed up by the available data and I would then consider my argument void..however my point was not Fiat are better than VW, it was VW owners (yourself and Chris excepted) do seem to take a dim view of the marques dealers.
You've already posted links to surveys to back up your side of the argument but surveys like the JD power survey show a different view though.
That aside you can make all sorts of arguments that vw customers expect more than a fiat customer would. I know from many years ago Mercedes customers are a massive headache for the dealers because they will find the smallest mark on a car and expect it fixed. The fact of the matter is there is no comparison between manufactures as these are just the opinions of people who have bought a particular without necessarily having any experience of any other manufacturers.
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Can't fault the BMW dealer but at £100+ an hour labour rate I'd expect nothing short of perfection.
Expectations certainly play a part, but why shouldn't you have higher expectations of a marque that charges 10% more or so than the direct competitors? One that for many years ran the strapline "if only everything in life was a reliable as a Volkswagen" and sells it's cars heavily on them being better designed/engineered than direct competition (think parachute/climbing rope advert and "like a golf").
Also the main complaint (as with many manufacturers in fairness) would be "failure to identify the fault". So the car that been sold on the strength of its reliability and engineering has gone wrong, and then the dealer can't put it right, the customer may well be a lot less forgiving I know I would be.
The independent Fiat dealer I used to use were great and very helpful.
The independent Ford dealer I use now are great.
Twice I've been into a Skoda garage and looked at like I was inconveniencing them.
Chain garages tend to be not so good at customer services.
Been into the Audi garage by me a few times for various bits on the A3 cab, service has always been good, immaculate premises and videos as mentioned - extortionate pricing though!!
No experience of VW so can't comment.
The independent Ford dealer I use now are great.
Twice I've been into a Skoda garage and looked at like I was inconveniencing them.
Chain garages tend to be not so good at customer services.
Been into the Audi garage by me a few times for various bits on the A3 cab, service has always been good, immaculate premises and videos as mentioned - extortionate pricing though!!
No experience of VW so can't comment.
According to that and many other surveys vw have expensive labour rates, so combined with everything you've said above; yes w owners will be a lot less forgiving that fiat owners at the fiat dealership.
But as previously pointed out the results of such a survey are only as reliable as the people taking the survey and there are some pretty stupid inconsistencies such as the fiat 500 apparently having better in car technology than a Jaguar F-Type. A ford galaxy has a better ride quality than a BMW 5 series, a Kia cee'd and a Vauxhall Adam apparently handle better than most Audis such as the A3 A5 and A6, I'm not saying these things are completely impossible but more like very unlikely. Overall It's not a fare comparison of one car or manufacturer versus another.
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A Ford Galaxy probably does have a better ride than a 5 series especially a run flat equipped one...
Handling can be a misconception - Vauxhall fit 'pointy' steering racks to the Corsa/Adam giving a perception of sharp handling however they are not great handling, whereas the A3's rack is devoid of feel and steering is to light but grips substantially better than....
My impressions off topic....
If you think of it as a measure of how the car lives up to expectations it makes sense. If anything what the ownership surveys are a measure is "does it live up to the hype?" People don't expect as much from an Adam or a CEED or any of the lower end cars in general so if it is good they will praise, if your car is marketed as the last word in everything and then isn't, well that's not customers fault is it?
Overall I'm sure the Jag has more Tech inside than a 500 but to someone has used an I drive (which is likely at that level of the market) it may seem clunky while if you've never had in car Bluetooth before the 500 system might seem brilliant. They aren't marking systems overall just how it works compared to how they thought it would.
Back to the original subject - the emissions scandal.
VW announced last week that there is a website on which you can enter your vehicle's VIN code and be told whether it is affected or not.
My daily driver is a Seat with the 2.0 tdi engine, of the right generation, so I assumed it would be affected. The website said "your vehicle is unaffected". Which I thought was odd, but maybe due to the fact that they have different output versions of this unit.
So imagine my surprise to open the post just now with a letter from Seat to tell me that it is indeed affected, but not to worry as the vehicle is safe and legal, and further more the technical remedy (when they have worked out what it will be) won't cost me anything! Which is nice isn't it?
VW announced last week that there is a website on which you can enter your vehicle's VIN code and be told whether it is affected or not.
My daily driver is a Seat with the 2.0 tdi engine, of the right generation, so I assumed it would be affected. The website said "your vehicle is unaffected". Which I thought was odd, but maybe due to the fact that they have different output versions of this unit.
So imagine my surprise to open the post just now with a letter from Seat to tell me that it is indeed affected, but not to worry as the vehicle is safe and legal, and further more the technical remedy (when they have worked out what it will be) won't cost me anything! Which is nice isn't it?
