Sad owner of new Tiguan

[Captain Bungers]

Try the ACCC

[Umai Naa!!]

I hear what you're saying, and raiding other new vehicles has been done before, but essentially, would you buy a new car if it had shown signs of major work, such as bolts being loosened and re-tightened (witness marks)? It's bad enough when a customer bails out of a deal at the last minute because the car was built (tagged) on December 31st, and not the very next day. Trims, and other small parts, yeah. But not transmissions, engines, and the like. From a management point of view, it's inconvenient, space-cunsuming, and you're doubling-up on labour.

It's always been a case of supply versus demand. Not just here, but globally. VW do a very good job of designing, building, and selling cars. Unfortunately, it seems they always bite off more than they can chew, by not being able to generate the numbers on the production line.

On a global scale, Tiguan is a huge seller for them. They've kicked 3 other model lines out of their production facility in Wolfsberg, and dedicated the whole plant to Tiguan, to try and meet the demand. As Tiguan shares a LOT of compentry with other models, parts supply will always be an issue.

Once again, I hope this matter doesn't drag on any more than it already has.

[phantomcamel]

On a positive note, VW Parts in Sydney is relocating and doubling there capacity this month, so this should help with stock levels once their are done shifting.

[Transporter]

I hear what you're saying, and raiding other new vehicles has been done before, but essentially, would you buy a new car if it had shown signs of major work, such as bolts being loosened and re-tightened (witness marks)? It's bad enough when a customer bails out of a deal at the last minute because the car was built (tagged) on December 31st, and not the very next day. Trims, and other small parts, yeah. But not transmissions, engines, and the like. From a management point of view, it's inconvenient, space-cunsuming, and you're doubling-up on labour.

It's always been a case of supply versus demand. Not just here, but globally. VW do a very good job of designing, building, and selling cars. Unfortunately, it seems they always bite off more than they can chew, by not being able to generate the numbers on the production line.

On a global scale, Tiguan is a huge seller for them. They've kicked 3 other model lines out of their production facility in Wolfsberg, and dedicated the whole plant to Tiguan, to try and meet the demand. As Tiguan shares a LOT of compentry with other models, parts supply will always be an issue.

Once again, I hope this matter doesn't drag on any more than it already has.

It never came to my mind that VW would take the transmission out of the car and then sell it as a new car again. I understand that it is much more expensive (doubling labour is a valid point) to take the part out of the new car and then wreck it or use it somehow else, but again VW should figure out that it is cheaper to fly the component to Australia than anything else. Don't you agree?

After all, the car buyer should be their no.1 customer and it's satisfaction with their end product should have the highest priority.

[Corey_R]

And, if that's no good either, how about to use the airplanes instead of the boats?

I couldn't agree more.

Volkswagen Group Australia need to wake up to themselves and reevaluate this policiy.

I've had to wait for 6 weeks for parts to arrive for my Volkswagen before, and that's fine. It was just rear suspension mounts for my Polo and it was still driveable. But when a car is off the roads due to a warranty claim, sending the part by ship is NOT ACCEPTIBLE. The least that Volkswagen could do is airfreight it. Yes, even if it's a gearbox or an engine.

Given the situation on a car which is completely brand new, using airfreight should be no-brainer and I can't believe that we even need to point this out to VGA...

[CSR]

Guys, as a a profitable company VWA think about cost first.
Especially if they have to foot the bill. Seafreight is a lot cheaper than airfreight.

I wouldn't be surprised however if the freight "policy" is enforced at VW itself and VWA can't do anything about that.

We all would like parts next day and other cars wrecked to save ours, but that is not the way you think in business.
I have to admit however, the phrase "the squeaky wheel gets the oil" works VERY well, especially when you bust the same one person's balls 3-4 times a day. We've had people like that in our industry and after a month we ended up pulling apart our product to give him a spring - and then had to sell the other product with a 20% discount.

It's just not good business.

[Transporter]

Well, in 2002 I was driving MB Vito and MB dealer delivered within 2 days the gear shifter cable by airfreight from Spain to my door step when it seized after just 10,000km.

The point is that they should keep the reasonable stock in Australia. I bet you that they had shipped only one DSG, living the stock at nil and the next bloke with the same fault will go through the same again.

At the beginning of this year, someone in the forum had a problem with MK6 Golf, faulty ECU, he was waiting for a long time too. Was the parcel with the ECU too expensive to fly it here, as well?

We shouldn't be the devils advocate, instead demand a better service.

[VWSceptic]

Guys, as a a profitable company VWA think about cost first.
Especially if they have to foot the bill. Seafreight is a lot cheaper than airfreight.

I wouldn't be surprised however if the freight "policy" is enforced at VW itself and VWA can't do anything about that.

We all would like parts next day and other cars wrecked to save ours, but that is not the way you think in business.
I have to admit however, the phrase "the squeaky wheel gets the oil" works VERY well, especially when you bust the same one person's balls 3-4 times a day. We've had people like that in our industry and after a month we ended up pulling apart our product to give him a spring - and then had to sell the other product with a 20% discount.

It's just not good business.

I am in the market for a new car. The Tiguan is on the list. I have a mate who has one and likes it a lot. I have, however, heard so often of the poor service from VW when things go wrong. The statements by CSR that VWA thinks of costs first because that's "good business" exemplifies the point. An expensive car that is undrivable for two of the first three months of ownership (because of unavailability of parts or for wahtever reason) is to my mind goods that have failed. If I was the owner I would certainly regret buying it.
I would think good service is good business. Though I suppose while VW sells it is not prompted to provide good service.

I have owned two mazdas in the past and always found the dealers very good to deal with, though admitedly I never had any major problems. I currently drive an Audi A3. I had only one problem in warranty that was promptly fixed. Parts seemed to be available.

I am very nervous about buying a tiguan or other VW because of things like this.

[Blitzen]

I keep saying it... VW make very enjoyable and fun cars, but the customer service of the dealers and VWA are friggen atrocious, and the cost of the dealer sourced spare parts market is abysmal... I can totally understand why a potential first VW buyer would be put off by reading alot of this...

This forum is great for learning where to go to get problems sorted, where to buy good, cheaper aftermarket gear, and people with the knowhow and training to help you out, and having VW techs as members are a great asset... I just wish VWA had the nouse of VW USA and VW Europe to be able to sort things out, and I really wish we had the USA's Lemon Laws to really stick it to the car manufacturers to get their **** sorted...

[gavs]

Straight up, as a person who has dealt with VGA, please please please go to the media because the first thing VGA does with the media, is panic. Now, the have blown so much proverbial smoke up their own behinds with 2 car of the year awards in 2 years, now they are trumpeting about how brilliant they are for getting the scirocco here.

Time for a reality check for them and when you get on the tv about this, I am sure nearly every member on here that has bought a new or in-warranty VW can write in to flood said media show with complaints about the pitiful service provided by VGA and their representatives being dealerships. I've already said too much now, good luck

[Quokka]

Update

Thanks everyone for your advice. To update you, I finally got the car back last week. They ended up having to replace the entire gearbox (DSG) which I only found out when I picked it up. I know that this is a new type of gearbox but I can't believe it would take that long to get a part to Australia.

The car seems to drive okay (but then again I know next to nothing about cars) but they have driven it over 1200 - 1500 kms in the over two months it has been at the service centre. They said that VWA asked them to make sure the transmission was fixed.

There is also a 4 cm scratch on my leather seat but John Hughes said they would cover/replace that seat. I haven't checked for any other damage but I assume that it will be noticeable underneath/inside that some major repair work has been done on the car, ie, scratching, dents etc.

I just worry that its a brand new car that now has been driven over 2400 km (I usually only drive maximum 12000km/year) and had major repair work. The Service Manager also spoke to VWA but we haven't heard back from them about any compensation. The lack of service is truly appalling as twice they told my husband they would get back to him within 1-2 days and both times he heard nothing back.

I think I will write to the Managing Director of Volkswagen and cc to John Hughes and hopefully this will help get the matter resolved. If I don't hear back then maybe I will have to write to Money Magazine and Australia's Best Cars who gave the Tiguan the awards this year as well as some online car sites.

Thanks again.

[Corey_R]

I think I will write to the Managing Director of Volkswagen and cc to John Hughes and hopefully this will help get the matter resolved.

I think that's a good course of action.
I think it's good that it's been resolved, but I think that the time taken is disagraceful. VW really need to change to sending parts by airfreight in new/cars completely off the road situations such as this.
The other thing is the km's they've put on it. It's good to be thorough, but 1200-1500km... I don't know.

[anthony]

And the scratched seat goes to show how much respect they gave your car whilst it was in their care,I would have gone CRAZY.

[kaanage]

Or, there is a hint; No spares? Than use one of the new cars for spare parts. That would be certainly a better solution then risking a bad reputation, and if it was only one of, then it shouldn't hurt too much the global car manufacturer like VW to wreck one car for the spare parts or perhaps, keep it for testing in here.

I got bollocked for suggestting this very thing in a thread where the owner had a failed ECU

[worx]

I would have handed the car back, that just sounds insane what they did to you.