GTI+ Stolen, Recovered, Manhandled by Insurer's Garage - Need a VW Garage

[hamslice]

The topic title is the short of it...
We had our brand new (well, dealer demo) GTI+ stolen after only 3 weeks.

Amazingly enough, it was recovered, but with damage of course.
Our insurer steered us towards their partner garage, and they proceeded to make a meal of the repair.

Strong words and an independent engineer report later, we have a list of the additional damage that the insurer's garage has inflicted and the insurer has agreed to repair.
We just have to chose our own dealer/garage.

So can anyone advise on a good(great) VW garage in the greater London area that can handle paintwork, interior part replacement and general refurbishment and detailing to a new car standard?

We're not really optimistic, but gotta try...Thanks for any advice in advance....

[monkeyhanger]

Can't help you with a specific garage, but I wouldn't necessarily make a beeline for a VW dealership's bodyshop.

I've had my worst ever car repair at a VW dealership's bodyshop (Benfield Scotswood Road, Newcastle - now Lookers) when my 2 week old car got hit by a bus while parked.

Their standard of repair was shocking. They had all the parts in after 10 days, but after 6 weeks they hadn't touched my car. I had to escalate a complaint.
After 7 weeks I got my Golf back, it was pitch back and lashing it down. The brakes felt funny, but they'd been rebuilt.

The next morning in the daylight, I noticed the oily handprints on the headlining, the steel shards all over the interior from where theh cut in the new rear quarter panel, everything out of the boot missing (tools and a North Face rain coat - never to be seen again).

The brake caliper on the rear drivers side was hanging off. In for remedial straight away, took 2 attempts to get the brakes right and every 3 months the new rear quarter panel rusted up due to the abysmal paint thickness and finish.

All the time I was back for remedial, there were few others in the same boat. VW UK were very poor at making things right. Hated that car thereafter.

The other Lookers bodyshop is better. Did a great job of scuffed bumper respray, but they forgot to hook up the pipework for the headlight washers.

The best place I've had a repair was at a BMW garage. It isn't VW approved, but insisted on new parts instead of reusing, the job was done quickly, to a very high standard.

Reputation over affiliation with a VW dealership, every time - ask around!

Not sure you'll have any luck with getting detailing paid for though.

[Aube]

Hi,

I’m lost for printable words about the shocking behaviour of the repairer selected by the insurer. The link below may help you.

http://volkswagenapprovedrepair.co.uk/

Also I have great faith in Portslade Panels who I’ve used to repair a few of my cars even though they are some miles from me, collection wasn’t an issue.

http://www.portsladepanelworks.co.uk/


Good luck

[S_94]

Really sorry to here that. Their are some absolute scumbags in the world today.

Do you know how they managed to steal the car?

[hamslice]

Thanks for the Kind words and advice all...

Monkeyhanger (hartlepool?), Sorry to hear of all your trouble.
Yes, I am starting to see the issues with that, as they are expensive and reviews are terrible.
I would prefer reputation first, as it is our choice now (no pressure!)

At this point its not really bodywork needed - all dents are gone, but scratches and poor paint job need to be fixed, as well as a litany of scratches in interior. As long as they can replace parts and paint it well, I think we should be ok. That's what I meant rather than detailing....

Aube - the insurer and repairer are feeling it, I can tell you. Thanks for the link - Hove is not impossible at this point!

S-94 - they broke into our house, ransacked it, and found the spare key

At this point the car is pretty much ruined for me, so I'm just going through the motions and hoping for the best...cheers guys

[johnpolo2]

Sounds bad.
Yes how did they steal it. Was a relay device used?

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[johnpolo2]

Just read post.
Awful!!

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[hamslice]

Aube,

With your help, I found Fleetwood:
http://volkswagenapprovedrepair.co.uk/a ... t=national

47 5 star reviews!
https://www.google.com/search?q=fleetli ... e&ie=UTF-8

This has to be worth a try - thanks Aube and all!

[hamslice]

Bed now... job done

Will update as I go along for feedback...

[S_94]

Gutted for you mate. Really hope yourself/family weren't harmed.

Hopefully things can be sorted for you.

[SRGTD]

@hamslice; really sorry to hear this. I hope the perpetrators are caught and get what they deserve - sadly, with police budget cuts and insufficient resources, they’ll probably get away with it.

They sound like amateurs and joyriders; if they’d gone out with the sole intention of stealing a car (to order) with keyless entry and push button start, I’d have thought they’d have been equipped with relay amplification equipment - so no need to break into your house and ransack it (another indication they were amateurs - to make a mess ransacking your house?).

I think in your shoes, I’d be looking to review my home security and upgrade it if appropriate.

As for repairers who’ll do a high quality repair job back to factory standard; unfortunately I’m not in your area so can’t recommend on specific repairers. However, it might be worth asking some of the prestige garages in the London area (garages that sell top marque brands such as Porsche, Bentley, RR etc.) who they use for bodywork repairs, and then go and visit a few for repair estimates. It should also hopefully give you an opportunity to see the quality of their work and give you the confidence over the standard of repairs. You may find that some of these repairers are also VW approved repairers. You don’t have to use a VW dealership body shop, nor do you have to use one of your insurer’s approved repairers, although some insurers impose additional terms (like an increased excess and they may not pay for a courtesy vehicle) if you elect not to use one of their approved repairers.

Good luck. I hope it all works out OK for you. Please keep the forum updated on progress.

[Andy Beats]

They sound like amateurs and joyriders; if they’d gone out with the sole intention of stealing a car (to order) with keyless entry and push button start, I’d have thought they’d have been equipped with relay amplification equipment - so no need to break into your house and ransack it (another indication they were amateurs - to make a mess ransacking your house?).

A warning to all those who like the thought of those 'protective pouches' for their keys.
In this instance maybe amateurs that didn't have the scanning equipment.
Could equally have been professionals who did have the scanning equipment, but got annoyed when they couldn't find a signal.
No car is worth my house getting ransacked.
Of course, the next worry is they know where the car is now and the buggers could come back.
My uncle had to give up on motorbikes because joyriders kept nicking it and he kept getting it back, only for the same thing to happen again.
When they found out he'd got rid of the bike, they vandalised his car!
As others have hinted at, house security is the best deterrent.
CCTV is pointless, they cover their faces.
The one thing they all hate is noise, so get your house alarmed, ours has a very visible alarm box with flashing green lights and we have stickers everywhere.
If they think those are bluffs, they'll find out when they break in or tamper with it.

[RUM4MO]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, I'm surprised, though pleasantly surprised that this forum is not brimming with people losing their GTI and GTI+s. I have a 2011 Audi S4 and the horrible truth is that even that age of S4 is still regularly being "taken away" - which dulls the ownership experience and means it sleeps out of sight most of its life in my garage.
Using main dealerships to repair cars, I've only ever needed to get a newish car repaired once, and it was at my request that it was done at the nearest (Ford) main dealership to where I worked, actually across the road which was initially purely for my convenience at initial drop off and collection and because I wanted that work carried out using genuine parts - what happened was that pattern parts were used as it was an insurance job, paint only applied to the outside surfaces and hatch opening sealing strip carved up because they stretched it so it shrunk and caused leaks. In other words, apart from the convenience of easy drop off and collection, I completely failed to get that car fixed up back to where it could/should have been, and it was all of my own choosing/making! So I'd say its really up to finding a place that bothers to perform well while doing insurance jobs using main dealers to minimise risk does not seem to always work - but like most people that is on a sample of one!

Lots of people will say that your being unrealistic and that it is just a tin box and you'll be changing it in a few years time, so bashing out the dents and giving it a lick of paint is all that is needed - but I'd think that most people that deliberately buy a higher end spec'd car think/want more than that from owning it.

Edit:- I paid out of my own pocket to get some damage removed from my S4 at an approved, but now not Audi approved (because they could not repair aluminium bodies yet) body shop and I had issues with the job that was done, very annoying, silly small things like visible new/old paint boundaries and many logged faults from having a mirror and a door removed and logged faults not checked/cleared - though the logged faults part was easy to fix using VCDS, still very annoying though.

[Andy Beats]

I have a 2011 Audi S4 and the horrible truth is that even that age of S4 is still regularly being "taken away" - which dulls the ownership experience and means it sleeps out of sight most of its life in my garage.

A colleague in Manchester had his Subaru ownership experience dulled by it being stolen a few times.
Then, the one time it was finally written off, the replacement was nicked too.
He had to make the decision that the area he lived in simply wasn't conducive to having a nice car, so he now drives an ancient Peugeot 206.
Crap car, but no more stress.

[S_94]

When I've been exiting the GTI+ I've been pushing the little notch on the handle in to stop the car listening for the keyless entry. Means the next time I go to the car I have to use the fob.

Gives me a little bit of comfort but still on edge with the whole keyless entry system and people boosting signals.