New Polo...Yet another fault....anybody else?

[Ballyhoo]

Well as a few of you on here will know I have had a new Polo for about 3/4 weeks now and it has had no less than 4 problems/faults!

Now to my sheer annoyance another part has failed! Well to be precise one of the 'repaired' faults has broken again!!!!

I am talking about the 'actuator' the locking petrol cap part..what I would like to know is that if anyone on this forum has had the same problem or severeal problems with their new 9n's. I like my car but I'm getting fed up with silly things failing or breaking...its getting to the point where I'm considering moving into my local VW garage..at least if anything elese went wrong I wouldn't have to take it far!

Alo, at what point doyou start threatening rejecting the car...well I've mentioned this to them that if anythign else went worng this is what I would do but, I like my car and don't want to have to do that...aggghhh!

[dxg]

It depends if you want to work with your dealer, or against them. I choose the latter option, but here I am, eight (almost) months later still having problems. However, I can say that my dealer have remained supportive of me and have never questioned any of my quality-related issues. They have never tried to "get out" of repairing a fault and, of those, there have been so many.

I'm not going to send this thread off in the direction of moaning about the quality of the new car, as I'm sure it's been done to death - here and elsewhere.

I'm actually suprised that you're having problems as the quality issues had gone quiet for a few months and people we begining to settle into getting on and enjoying (read: moding, for some ) their new cars. I had been assuming that VW were getting on top of them.

Anyway, two very big factors in your ability to reject the car:

1. Is it on finance (if so it's not yours to reject and you can't). But your finance company can. You need to involve them in all correspondence. In this case, you are acting under the Supply of Goods Act (1973 I think), not the Sale of Goods Act (1979), as amended.

2. Have the dealer attempted to repair faults. If so, your ability to reject the car outright has probably been lost. You will now be in the domain or trying to get the car to qhat it should be.,

Also, you only have a "reasonable time" in which to reject the car. Although there's no legal definition of what this is, it is what a "reasonable man" would consider to be "reasonable" - in other words 28 days.

Three things a product must be when sold:
1 - "As described" - not a problem
2 - "Fit for purpose" - well, you can drive it and use it as a car, I guess, so doesn't apply to you
3 - "Of satifisactory quality" - this is likely the slant to go in on - VW being a semi-aspiration brand, and all.

What are the nature of the other three problems?

If it's just the fuel cap solienod that's gone, that I would take it on the chin and get the dealer to repair it.

I'm lucky through, my dealer is just 2.5 miles from my house, so it's relatively easy for my to put the car in for these sorts of minor repairs.

Oddly, lately, I'm putting the weight back on, which must mean that 2.5 mile walks to/from the dealerare getting less frequent!!

Anyway, if you're really unhappy, go to your CAB. They'll likely just refer you to your local Trading Standards office (that's all mine did, anyway). Lodge a complaint against the dealer at Trading Standards if you feel that strongly against it. I simply spoke to them, they gave me lots of really good legal advice (esp. the stuff about supply of goods vs. sale of goods). I didn't formally report the dealer to them.

I did fight VW UK for compensation and got some!! But any issue of rejection is btwn you and your dealer (this is why is might not be the best idea to fall out with them) because that is where the contract exists.

Deek.

[dxg]

Also, I now have quite a good relationship with the Service Manager in my dealer. Fair enough, I shouldn't need to have one (buying a new car to drive off into the sunset and all that), but it is helpful.

I think my approach at the outset helped.

Basically, I wrote a letter to him personally (after findout his name). When to speak to him. Sat down with him and talked through the issues on the car.

Here's a trick - look to see if he has a VW lapel badge on his (her?) suit, or if he has a shirt that has a VW logo on a tag sown into the pocket - the dealer staff have to pay for these out of their own money. So you can start a conversation about how he/she must feel about the VW brand and how they've paid their onyl money to wear it. Then lead that into your perception of the brand and how your experiences with your car are tainting that.

Worked for me anyway...

Deek.

[Ballyhoo]

The problems are trivial and have not yet affected the engine, but I am now waiting for the next thing to fail and frankly it should not especially with the respectability of the VW image...this is what they trade on.

One fault has now occured twice and although the problems are trivial, they are still occuring. I would just like a car that does not keep failing.

I love it, but I'm getting increasingly annoyed.

In terms of the service staff, thay have been very helpful and one particular member of staff has been extremely helpful and does his job very well. I don't want to fall out with the garage as it would make this difficult but I simply don't want to have this repaired and then have to re-visit the garage in say 2/3 weeks again!

I bought a VW not a Ford!!!

[dxg]

It was your comments that sparked off my thread about Design DNA.

I'm intruiged by what it is about our cars that makes us like them so much and be willing to work through these sorts of niggles. It's obviously not something in the product itself - it's not perfect. So it must be something about the relationship we form with them. Something on an experiential and emoitional level. I guess it's different for everyone.

I've previously said on this forum that I will never buy another VAG car again. But, frankly, I'm beginning to appreciate what the whole VW thing is about (yet I still can't get it into words). The switchblade key does it for me though! Find myself playing with it when I'm nowhere near the car.

I will seriously think about the Polo GTI when it (I'm sure it will) comes out. If it's a diesel per the Fabia RS and Cupra R, I'll definately pay it close attention.

It doesn't sound like you have much to worry about really. You've got a good dealer and that's the main thing. I wouldn't go jumping around and risk jeapordising(sp?) that. So feel free to disregard the above comments!!

I keep asking myself, if I had these problems with a new Ford, would I receive the same level of support from their dealership?

Somehow I doubt it, and we should be thankful for the quality of the people that VW employ (well, in their dealerships - not so sure about in their supply chain!!).

Deek.

[Ballyhoo]

Fustrating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Faults!!!!!!

[Ballyhoo]

Doing well now, it not been in the garage this weekend so far and fingers crossed! Touch wood!

With regards to what you were saying about, why we are so passionate about our cars namely all of us with Polo's. Well fro me it goes back to the beetle...I have always liked it and I've grown up with VW's(now Audi's) and well they are built well(see I'm still saying it, it 2nd nature with VW's), they have lots of history and well the marketing is somewhat amusing, especially the TV/Ad campaign...it make me laugh(perhaps I'm sad...) but really I think VW have a sense of humour and that kind of comes across in the cars...I mean a 3.2 litre in a golf...nice! Its like we're proud to have VW's and it is/or can be viewed to be an aspirational brand. From what I've noticed people who drive VW's are a certain 'type' of person, they are the people who'll let people out at a road when other would even look. It’s very hard to cite why or what we like but to try and nail it on the head I think it the connotations of VW (Polos) they can look mean, subtle, friendly and just simply a car..But they have character and these days not a lot of cars have that. I also think they also connote what their drivers are like e.g. the mods that are done, where as a lot f Nova's(yuk!), tend to look somewhat the same and usually untidy!

Long live VW's!