Goodbye Golf and VW

[Nauend]

Well, almost three years since I bought my first golf, first VW, and it's time to say goodbye.

It's been a great car to drive, spirited, comfortable, good for short and long distance. Fuel efficient. Slip it into S and, well just fantastic.

Hardly any problems with only one memorable, when the timing between the auto start and auto brake was out, and the car rolled backwards when I excellerated at a traffic light . Not using the auto brake fixed that and they bought out an update to fix it as well.

Experience with after sales service, well there are lots of posts about that, so no need to add more.

Good lesson about early adoption of a new model with things like sat Nav that cannot be updated when it has difficulty saying basic words correctly. Then a higher capacity engine and leather added as standard two years later. All cars evolve over their life cycle, tho that did seem a big step change compared to life cycles of other cars, tho I'm sure there's similar examples for other cars in the past.

Then came diesel gate. Satnav that can't be updated pales into insignificance. Good to see them offering US diesel owners another $5000 though the flow on impact for resale for other Vws may be a longer term issue for all. Naturally where and how you advertise, where the car is located and a whole range of factors are involved, but having a car on the market that gets absolutely no interest, others I know experiencing the same, and others not appearing to move, may hint at a bigger issue. Hopefully some are having a better experience…or will some years in the future.

I toyed with the idea of a new mk7 highline to replace this one. A test drive where I bought my current golf showed that leather, 'bigger' engine and CarPlay had improved on a good car. the salesman was surprised to find out my 2013 golf had a reversing camera as that's a key point on the latest one! Star/stop that stops the engine as you are slowing seems like an interesting change. A Comfortline might also be ok……

But the experience back in the dealership after the test drive left me feeling there was a high level of desperation to get a sale. A question on fleet discounts quickly escalating to very unpleasant pressure from a dealer principle (with three other staff bought into the conversation, and the original salesman standing back looking embarrassed!). Nothing like it at any other dealership for other cars.

Then I identify that VW dealerships’ half truths. An experience that helped me make up my mind, and decide to move away from VW.

So it's with a little sadness that I'll say goodbye to the golf and VW, and also wish you all well with your golfs. It's been great coming in here to read the ups and downs on life with the golf, and I expect I still will from time to time, but not with a golf in the garage.

[VW Convert]

So it's with a little sadness that I'll say goodbye to the golf and VW, and also wish you all well with your golfs. It's been great coming in here to read the ups and downs on life with the golf, and I expect I still will from time to time, but not with a golf in the garage.

Sad to see you go, just out of curiosity, what are you replacing the Golf with?

Cheers

George

[Eaglen00b]

TBH, I'm in a similar situation to the OP.

Was hanging out for the new Passat Alltrack to get to Oz, and had my heart on getting it once my lease on the CC finishes later this year. Read up on it, checked out all the reviews available on the web, youtube vids, the works. Full on research mode. Looks like a sure thing!! Only thing left to do was to wait for it to land in Oz, take a good look at it up close then take one out for a test drive before sealing the deal.

Then I saw one in the flesh, with the $3,500 Luxury Option (the ONLY factory option). WTF VW, a pissant perforated sunshade for the panoramic sunroof??!?!?!?? In AUSTRALIA with our sun??!?!?!? I can see light leaking through the sunshade from my MOBILE PHONE when I put it face down on the sunroof. Serious WTF!!!!?!? It's probably ok if there's a delete option for the sunroof altogether. Y'all got rocks in your head at VW.

Then, partial electric seats, another serious WTF. No Active Climate seats? Really? What. The. Flocking. Flock.

Those two things are the deal breakers for me. I thought the Alltrack would make a fantastic cross country tourer (already been on two road trips to NSW/VIC from WA in the past 8 months). Sadly, the Alltrack (and VW) has almost instantaneously gone from "Yep, for sure" to "Aww hell no!" after looking at the Alltrack in the flesh.

Some might suggest a Toureg? $68,000 drive away in base model (i.e. poverty pack) ? Yeah no. I'd rather go with a 7 seat Hyundai Santa Fe in Highlander top spec for $62k drive away with standard 5 year unlimited kms bumper to bumper warranty, or even a 7 seat Kia Sorento in Platinum top spec for the same $62k but with 7 year unlimited kms bumper to bumper warranty. Both Koreans include adaptive cruise, lane assist, blind spot assist etc etc etc and the Hyundai even parks itself. Yes the Koreans are smaller, but not by much (specially not the big Kia). Toureg with the same spec level to the Koreans would be somewhere between V6 Tdi with options at $96k and $68k for base 150 tdi. Yeah. NO. So what's the premium for? "Euro snobbery"? Newsflash VW, y'all ain't "PREMIUM EURO".

Closest competitor to the Alltrack is the Subaru Outback. And it ticks all the boxes for me except perhaps fuel economy (hence touring range) and service intervals. Plus there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that it's pretty much bombproof. It's also cheaper than the Alltrack by about $5k ($59k for Alltrack driveaway with Luxury Option vs $54k driveaway for top spec Outback 3.6R).

Sorry VW, I love your CC (I'm contemplating buying out the lease and keeping it instead of handing it in) and its beautiful lines, fit, finish and driving experience, but it's looking like you won't be on my shortlist for my next purchase later this year (or for the foreseeable future).

Since no one from VW will ever read this, let alone take the feedback above onboard, I guess this is pretty much the best we can expect from VW.

[Amalgam]

Closest competitor to the Alltrack is the Subaru Outback. And it ticks all the boxes for me except perhaps fuel economy (hence touring range) and service intervals. Plus there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that it's pretty much bombproof. It's also cheaper than the Alltrack by about $5k ($59k for Alltrack driveaway with Luxury Option vs $54k driveaway for top spec Outback 3.6R).

+1 for the Outback.

The last car was a 2007 Gen 3 3.0 Premium. Great car. We only bought the Passat because the Gen 4 was UGLY. The Passat has been a great car.

The Outback was bullet proof, and never broke down. In the 6 years we owned it, it only needed regular servicing and a set of new tyres at 70,000km. The battery was still original.

The diesel Outback has good range but is only 110kw and the 3.6R has some mumbo when pushed. Just pay particular attention to the CVT auto. Even though it is the best CVT out there it is not a DSG and behaves differently. Not better or worse, just different.

If you haven't seen it, here is a review between your 2 contenders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo2t6a2mcvA

[Sunny43.5]

Eaglen00b your story is what I have been saying about parts of VW's stupidity , all the crap about being a world car is rubbish . Those perforated blinds in VW's Tiguans and Audis etc are keeping me in business . They will not last in our climate as the bonding along the sides lets go after a few years because of the heat ,they should have fitted the same ones as in the BMW x Series solid two piece blinds that do not let light through when closed . The there are the other things that fail because of our heat and then stupid mistakes in new vehicles because they do not bother to do local research . I looked at a new Transporter T6 a couple of months back what sort of fool puts drink holders in the top of the dashboard for god's sake , might be fine for coffee in Europe's cold weather but a can or bottle of soft drink here would be nicely increased from cold to hot in around 60 seconds !! . I could give you many other examples of lack of local knowledge by the Germans that have lead to expensive failures due to our road and climate conditions . On our early T5 they put a diesel fuel cooler under the floor on the passengers side directly behind the passengers front wheel , guess which wheel goes off the edge of the road in a RH drive car yep that one . Result for us was a stone punched a hole into the cooler and spewed diesel all over the road causing us to do a neat 180 degree spin in the middle of an intersection as we did not realise it was punctured earlier . Then add the lack of auto transmission cooler and no servicing due to Sealed For Life policy and it adds up to stuffed transmissions because the fluid inside gets burnt and loses its viscosity . Oh and the best one I can hear the designers at VW say lets put the filter INSIDE the auto and then tell dealers not to remove the sump cover to replace it ,first prize for that gem . Finally the DSG comes out in 2010 and suddenly VW have an about face , filter is OUTSIDE and they will service them every 60000 km . Problem for us is that the VW is the only van on the market that fits the needs for us carrying two disabled kids in their wheel chairs so I have to tolerate their nonsensical ideas .

[woofy]

TBH, I'm in a similar situation to the OP.

Was hanging out for the new Passat Alltrack to get to Oz, and had my heart on getting it once my lease on the CC finishes later this year. Read up on it, checked out all the reviews available on the web, youtube vids, the works. Full on research mode. Looks like a sure thing!! Only thing left to do was to wait for it to land in Oz, take a good look at it up close then take one out for a test drive before sealing the deal.

Then I saw one in the flesh, with the $3,500 Luxury Option (the ONLY factory option). WTF VW, a pissant perforated sunshade for the panoramic sunroof??!?!?!?? In AUSTRALIA with our sun??!?!?!? I can see light leaking through the sunshade from my MOBILE PHONE when I put it face down on the sunroof. Serious WTF!!!!?!? It's probably ok if there's a delete option for the sunroof altogether. Y'all got rocks in your head at VW.

Then, partial electric seats, another serious WTF. No Active Climate seats? Really? What. The. Flocking. Flock.

Those two things are the deal breakers for me. I thought the Alltrack would make a fantastic cross country tourer (already been on two road trips to NSW/VIC from WA in the past 8 months). Sadly, the Alltrack (and VW) has almost instantaneously gone from "Yep, for sure" to "Aww hell no!" after looking at the Alltrack in the flesh.

Some might suggest a Toureg? $68,000 drive away in base model (i.e. poverty pack) ? Yeah no. I'd rather go with a 7 seat Hyundai Santa Fe in Highlander top spec for $62k drive away with standard 5 year unlimited kms bumper to bumper warranty, or even a 7 seat Kia Sorento in Platinum top spec for the same $62k but with 7 year unlimited kms bumper to bumper warranty. Both Koreans include adaptive cruise, lane assist, blind spot assist etc etc etc and the Hyundai even parks itself. Yes the Koreans are smaller, but not by much (specially not the big Kia). Toureg with the same spec level to the Koreans would be somewhere between V6 Tdi with options at $96k and $68k for base 150 tdi. Yeah. NO. So what's the premium for? "Euro snobbery"? Newsflash VW, y'all ain't "PREMIUM EURO".

Closest competitor to the Alltrack is the Subaru Outback. And it ticks all the boxes for me except perhaps fuel economy (hence touring range) and service intervals. Plus there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that it's pretty much bombproof. It's also cheaper than the Alltrack by about $5k ($59k for Alltrack driveaway with Luxury Option vs $54k driveaway for top spec Outback 3.6R).

Sorry VW, I love your CC (I'm contemplating buying out the lease and keeping it instead of handing it in) and its beautiful lines, fit, finish and driving experience, but it's looking like you won't be on my shortlist for my next purchase later this year (or for the foreseeable future).

Since no one from VW will ever read this, let alone take the feedback above onboard, I guess this is pretty much the best we can expect from VW.

I have a Santa Fe Elite, have had it for 4 yrs now from new. If I could somehow replace it now with the Skoda Kodiaq, I would for sure. If in any way I could keep my 2008 Octy RS and our just delivered Octy RS wagon this week I would and get rid of the Sante Fe. The Santa Fe is OK, but reality is that they are still a long way from any Mazda I have owned and not even close to our 2008 Octy RS which makes it seem like crap. My wife is already lamenting it after it became her car two days ago, and asking how I lived with it the past 4 yrs. I won't mention the servicing charge Hyundai do even with fixed priced now. Easily double what our Octavia is, we get done over by them here just as much as any ofher company. Kia are better in that respect. The grass isn't always greener and there are plenty of ex Santa Fe owners and Sorrento owners in the Skoda forums who didn't keep theirs as long as we have an plan to. They are getting better, but don't be under any illusion they are in the same class. I can't afford the exhorbitant cost of a Toureg so hoping the Kodiaq comes in a reasonable guise and price here.

[Nauend]

Yeah, VW do have a funny way of cutting corners. The entertainment system that will be on a different input each time you start the car...... Anyway, the golf is gone now, and only two week till the new Mazda arrives.