Need some help with an approved VW previous damage

devotee

My OH has bought an approved golf from a VW garage about two years ago. He also bought an extended warranty for extra two years, so he has three years warranty. The golf was serviced regularly at VW and had a big service just a couple of weeks ago.
During that service my OH was informed that some fan was chipped in the front and that the front bumper is bent from the inside (?) or something like that.... basically he was told that his golf was involved in an accident! He was informed that to get that sort of damage the car would need to go over 20mph so a slight bump when parking for example would not be sufficient to cause it. The light on the dashboard does not say that anything is wrong so that was only found when the service was done.
The damage is expensive to repair and he was told to contact his insurance company and get it covered by them.

My OH hasn't had any accidents, the front bumper is intact and the whole thing is very confusing. We have a friend who used to work for VW and he had a look at the car and confirmed that the car was involved in an accident, the front bumper was replaced and resprayed and also the bonnet was replaced. This was obviously done before my OH bought the car. The car wasn't cat damaged so when we did a search we found nothing.

Now VW claim that for the fan to chip like that the accident would have be recent as they say they would not miss it. We obviously think otherwise as we didn't have an accident and would find it unfair to have to claim for insurance for some sort of imaginary accident and lose the no claims bonus.

Is there anything we can do regarding this? Thanks!

harveybobbles

How did the friend comfirm the bonnet and bumper had been replaced? So is he saying the replaced bumber is also broken? You'd be surprised how flexible bumpers can be and they hide w whole list of damage behind once they pop back. So someone could have bumped into your OH's car in a car park.

The bonnet could have been resprayed due to anything from a vadal scratch or bird muck staining. The bumber could haveb een replaced due to various scuffs from everyday driving etc.

the chipped fan could have happened recently as they say, this could be stone damage or the like.

I'd just go to bed tonight and forget about it all.

devotee

harveybobbles wrote: »

How did the friend comfirm the bonnet and bumper had been replaced? So is he saying the replaced bumber is also broken? You'd be surprised how flexible bumpers can be and they hide w whole list of damage behind once they pop back. So someone could have bumped into your OH's car in a car park.

The bonnet could have been resprayed due to anything from a vadal scratch or bird muck staining. The bumber could haveb een replaced due to various scuffs from everyday driving etc.

the chipped fan could have happened recently as they say, this could be stone damage or the like.

I'd just go to bed tonight and forget about it all.

Hmm, the friend inspected the car and saw what was replaced as he's a mechanic and worked at VW for a long time. Also the paint is peeling on the front bumper and not anywhere else. He told us that the paint is very slightly different to the original one and they didn't use the primer on the bumper, hence the peeling.
The car only had 16000 on the clock when OH bought it and was less than 3 years old, so I wouldn't think someone would damage it that much in every day use and the paint should last longer re bird muck.
They never mentioned a stone chip, they exclusively said collision and that's why we thought that was wrong.

harveybobbles

Bird muck can burn thru paint in days. Right thru to bare metal.

Just because a car is less than three years old doesnt mean its never had a bump or a push here and there.

They also said "collision" to scare you in to coughing up to having the front end replace.

devotee

So we should just forget it and not do the job as it's not necessary?

harveybobbles

Get the fan replaced perhaps.

devotee

Yeah but that's the problem, apparently you can't replace the fan as it hits something (engine I think), that's why it's expensive.

devotee

Found the service notes!

Here's what it says:
Intercooler broken and fan hitting engine. Unable to replace small fan due to front end damage.

devotee

Help someone?

plane_boy2000

Presumably the fan has worked in the last two years, so I dont see how this damage could have been there when you bought it???

Sounds to me like the two may be unrelated - i.e. it had a bit of front end paint before you bought it and susequently something has been thrown up into the fan - down here the roads have a lot of potholes after the bad weather so there is quite a few lose bits of stone / tarmac kicking around.

For what its worth though if the servicing garage is the same one you bought it from then it might be worth making some noise about undecalered damage. Whats VW's paint warranty these days and how old is the car?

devotee

plane_boy2000 wrote: »

Presumably the fan has worked in the last two years, so I dont see how this damage could have been there when you bought it???

Sounds to me like the two may be unrelated - i.e. it had a bit of front end paint before you bought it and susequently something has been thrown up into the fan - down here the roads have a lot of potholes after the bad weather so there is quite a few lose bits of stone / tarmac kicking around.

For what its worth though if the servicing garage is the same one you bought it from then it might be worth making some noise about undecalered damage. Whats VW's paint warranty these days and how old is the car?

What worries me that fan is hitting the engine so it can be just a straightforward swap. The car is almost 5 years old. The paint was ok in the front it just started peeling now. There are no scratches on the bumper either.
Yeah it's the same garage that we bought it from, well the VW is office is down the road from the VW service.