Who's fault is it?!

[en13]

my car is about 1.5months old and there is AN OIL LEAK. Yup. Brought it to my mechanic, he went under, found a leak and said he wasn't touching it.

Then we found out- I have a missing screw on my driver's door. Can you imagine? A missing screw?

And since he's so good with cars, he gave it a good look and found that my rear doors were lifted- with full wedge marks and all, almost as if to fit in an audio or do something to it. I have no options on my car so I won't know why they wanted to do that.

And while I'm on a rant..
- weird musking tape was left in between my tail lights. can't get out, gotta open the headlights to do that.
- 2 extra metal brackets were found in my rear passenger's side door. Didn't think much about it when I received the car but my mech was like "that's the bracket that holds things in. So hopefully it's not from your car".

Thanks Volkwagen Australia!

My question now is this- who's fault is it? Who should I be ranting at? My dealership (I don't really want to blame them because they're about a 5 hour drive away and can't do anything anyway), Volkwagen Australia (more probable cos they can twist some arms).... I'll send it in for servicing to a nearby dealership but they can't even see me till Wednesday so it means I'll have a car that's leaking oil for 2 more days and god knows what that will do to the car.

Very disappointing.
My mech added salt to my wounds by saying- are you sure this is a new car?

Right now, I'm not sure!

[les88]

This sounds very bad..On one of the forums they said that of lot of cars get damaged on the boat and are repaired before going to the dealers. I don't believe that should be allowed.. you pay for a new car thats what you should get. It happened to me on a Falcon when I took delivery the bonnet was a different shade. the workshop foreman said the bonnet was damaged and repaired. They wouldn't give me a new car.
les

[bailey78]

Mate - I know this is no help but that sound horrible and wish you the best......My last car was a huge lemon and I ended up getting the dealer to replace it for a new one, lawyers involved etc. Was messy.

Hope you can get it all sorted out.

[Mischa]

thats a shame pal hope it doesnt get too complicated...

[Logzy]

Get a letter off to VWA immediatley explaining everything, no use in waiting.
Sorry to hear of your troubles.
Good Luck.

[bailey78]

I know its stating the obvious but keep a record of EVERYTHING....calls made, ppl spoken too, confirm every call you made with an email etc.

[en13]

thanks guys i wrote to my dealer yesterday, she's been totally quiet for 2 days now. so i'm not holding my breath. i know it's not her fault either, after all, she didn't make the car right? but i will call in with VW and see what they have to say about it...

i don't really know what to expect- do you think it's unreasonable to ask for a new car? i mean, under what circumstance would they do that?

i've done 2700 on it...

[en13]

so I've called them. they're not giving me a new car although I have all those problems. I might try and wring an extended warranty on them or something... something needs to be done in compensation!

I've got the reference number, the name of the person I've spoken to... we'll see.

What sort of compensation do you guys think is fair? I'm more concerned about engine issues etc.

And I was initially concerned that it wasn't a brand new car but she told me- check the 10th number on your VIN, that will tell you the year of the car. Mine's an 8, so it means it's a 2008 car. Doesn't FEEL like a new car though

[gerhard]

"weird musking tape was left in between my tail lights. can't get out, gotta open the headlights to do that."

I presume you mean masking tape. Whatever, you appear to be unable to remove the masking tape between the tail lights, but you say you have to open the headlights to do that.

I think you are a fruitcake, trolling this forum.

If you aren't, I have to advise that opening the headlights will never give you access to masking tape between the tail lights, no matter what car you drive. Perhaps cold turkey would suit.

[Logzy]

"weird musking tape was left in between my tail lights. can't get out, gotta open the headlights to do that."

I presume you mean masking tape. Whatever, you appear to be unable to remove the masking tape between the tail lights, but you say you have to open the headlights to do that.

I think you are a fruitcake, trolling this forum.

If you aren't, I have to advise that opening the headlights will never give you access to masking tape between the tail lights, no matter what car you drive. Perhaps cold turkey would suit.

Does someone need a cuddle today.??
The OP has about 60 more posts than you and is also the OP of the thread so somehow i dont think he is a fruitcake just trolling.
I would like to apologise on behalf of all of us here for asking questions and posting about our cars.

[gerhard]

Does someone need a cuddle today.??
The OP has about 60 more posts than you and is also the OP of the thread so somehow i dont think he is a fruitcake just trolling.
I would like to apologise on behalf of all of us here for asking questions and posting about our cars.

Don't want a cuddle, just find it weird that the headlights have to be opened to try and remove tape between the tail lights. You can take that on board and ask forgiveness if that makes you feel complete. You clearly think that makes sense, but I don't.

Quantity of posts does not necessarily = quality posts. That's a bit like saying I'm old and stupid now, but I used to be young and sensible, so I must really be sensible now.

Feel free to think, I say

[99gti]

Clearly there is some confusion if the tape is on the head lights or the tail lights.

Rather than carrying on like kids, let's ask en13 which one they meant.

[en13]

sorry guys it's inside the tail lights but a little comes out, so it's not reachable unless it's opened. not that it's the most urgent issue at hand anyway...

went to the dealers today and after a few hours, they called, saying that the leak was from the gearbox and the vehicle is 'undriveable'. they can't provide a courtesy car, VW Australia won't take responsibility for it either and apparently my best bet is to write to VGA and see if they will consider reimbursement for my hire car, since my car will probably be in the workshop for a week.

ARRGGGGHHHHH!!!!

that's not the worst thing.
they say they're not sure if the gearbox leak is actually a manufacturing issue or whether i did something to it.

my mech says they're talking rubbish and it's their fault so i shouldn't let them get away with it and i shouldn't have to fork out anything for the car.

on my part, i haven't been in any accidents or had anything lodged under my car (as far as i know) so i'm just really puzzled. i'm hoping that i don't have to fight all the way with this.
called DOCEP to find out if reimbursement is something that VW should compensate for and apparently it's not. i won't quite mind if it were a normal servicing issue but this clearly isn't, and from my perspective, is a manufacturer's problem so why should i have to pay for a rental car while they're refixing something that wasn't my fault in the first place?

does anyone else agree with this logic or is it just me in my rage?? i'm just keeping my fingers crossed right now.

the irony of it all is that VGA called my house this morning congratulating me on my purchase and presenting with a free year of roadside assistance.

[Logzy]

I fully agree with your logic and have exactly the same view.
Sorry i cant offer any answers or solutions that will help.

The only thing i can think of is to ask VW to put the car on the hoist and show you exactly where the leak is coming from.
I dont know how it will help but its what i would do.

Good luck.

[en13]

thanks logzy.
unfortunately even if they did (hoist it up) that i won't have a clue about what that means or what they can derive from the leak- i.e. is it a manufacturing issue or whether something unfortunate happened (wear & tear).

is anyone familiar with gearbox leaks? i ran a search and it seems to be something from mk4 but nothing much about how it is caused.. i'm just interested to know the mechanical side of things so that if they come back and say i've done something to it, i will know if they are being reasonable or they're just trying to get me to pay up...

and would anyone be able to speculate what would need to be done (from my point of view) to get the gearbox leaking? like what sort of impact/accident are we talking about because i certainly have no recollection of anything odd happening during the course of my driving...

*sigh*