VW Dealer Woes

BevLos

Recently bought a 1yr old Golf from VW in Newark. Went down and picked it up all seemed well, 30 miles down the road the radiator pipe came off on the Motorway. AA came out and fixed it and said the pipe hadn't been put on correctly and went off on my way. Another 40 miles later I got a coolant level light on the dash but no leak anywhere.

Took it to VW in Manchester when I got back where they told me that Newark had replaced the head gasket before I picked it up and not done the job properly and that the coolant drop was the engine clearing air pockets in the system.

Before I picked it up they told me they were replacing the ECU and they were on back order, however it turns out I had been lied to and that they were replacing the head gasket on a car with only 20k miles! After some forum searches I found there have been a few cases of early gasket failure on this model.

I am willing to keep the car but I want compensation but unsure how far to push it. They let me do a 100 mile journey (which ended up taking 7 hours) in an unsafe car lied to me so I was unable to make a proper decision when buying the car and I would never have known it had been done unless I forced it to go to the VW garage of my choice.

Any advice on how far I should go with this and what course of action to take??

tykesi

What have they said about this when you've spoken to them? How do the manchester dealer know they've done a HG replacement?

BevLos

Spoke to them and they said they are willing to:

A: Change the car for another
B: Give me my old car back
C: Me keep the car and them compensate me to a suitable level

Manchester spoke to Newark after investigating the issue to see if any work had been done. At which point they told them they had done a HG replacement. Newark have now also admitted this to me.

Zola.

I would change to a car that hasnt had its head gasket gone after so few miles personally, and I would want some sort of cash re-bait for all the hassle!

Horizon81

BevLos wrote: »

Spoke to them and they said they are willing to:

A: Change the car for another
B: Give me my old car back
C: Me keep the car and them compensate me to a suitable level

Manchester spoke to Newark after investigating the issue to see if any work had been done. At which point they told them they had done a HG replacement. Newark have now also admitted this to me.

Get your old car and your money back and spend it on something other than a VW.

Strider590

Another broken VW Golf thread, anyone would have thought the age old reputation was little more than idle gossip.........

Sounds to me like the coolant leaked, you kept driving, engine overheated, blew head gasket, AA dude refitted the pipe and refilled the system, but the damage was already done.

Alternatively, maybe they're telling a half truth, but the gasket was actually never changed, rather someone did half a job and only got as far as loosening the bottom hose to release the coolant.

Whilst the Golf is not a particularly reliable car, I would not expect a head gasket to blow for no reason, let alone at a rate faster than a Rover K series.
I haven't really found any references to this happening on this year of Golf.

If it did genuinely blow and was replaced before, then i'd be concerned about how it was treated or mistreated by it's last owner. At 1 year old it's most likely to have been kept at a dealership and used by the sales staff as a run around, in which case it'd have done 20'000 very hard miles.

OddballJamie

Strider590 wrote: »

Whilst the Golf is not a particularly reliable car, I would not expect a head gasket to blow for no reason, let alone at a rate faster than a Rover K series.

I'd take a K series over most modern engines, they get a bad rep for HG failures but it's a relatively cheap fix to have the uprated parts fitted. A mate has had a ZR since it was six months old, had the uprated HG and bolts, cam belt, pump and gubbins done for about £300 last year.

Strider590

OddballJamie wrote: »

I'd take a K series over most modern engines, they get a bad rep for HG failures but it's a relatively cheap fix to have the uprated parts fitted. A mate has had a ZR since it was six months old, had the uprated HG and bolts, cam belt, pump and gubbins done for about £300 last year.

I'm not slagging off the engine, in the early days it was a good engine, one that was even shared with Honda back in the 90's.

In truth it was the later cost cutting that lead to the failures, the usual idiots in suits making decisions they were not qualified to make, probably ignoring protests from those who really knew their stuff. If they let the engineers have more say, then MG Rover wouldn't have ended up in Nanjing.
It's telling that when my brother worked there, the companies apprenticeship scheme consisted solely of management apprentices.

Regardless, it just happens to be one of the worst/best examples for early HG failure and will forever go down in history as the 40'000 mile time bomb. So when someone says their head gasket failed after 20'000 miles, I have to wonder how the hell that's possible.

fivetide

Strider590 wrote: »

Sounds to me like the coolant leaked, you kept driving, engine overheated, blew head gasket, AA dude refitted the pipe and refilled the system, but the damage was already done.

Alternatively, maybe they're telling a half truth, but the gasket was actually never changed, rather someone did half a job and only got as far as loosening the bottom hose to release the coolant.

Except the OP specifically said the selling garage had confirmed the change and the HG hasn't blown, it was just pushing the air back through the system. Unsurprising really.


Bit harsh to try to blame the OP in this instance


Also there are a couple of coolant issues mentioned on HJ and one specifically with a HG problems http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/volkswagen/polo-v-2009/?section=good

Strider590

^^

I'm not blaming the OP........ I'm saying what might have happened, you have to realistic about these things, because dealerships are often trying so hard to cover their own a**, that the customers needs go straight out of the window.

Johnmcl7

BevLos wrote: »

Spoke to them and they said they are willing to:

A: Change the car for another
B: Give me my old car back
C: Me keep the car and them compensate me to a suitable level

Manchester spoke to Newark after investigating the issue to see if any work had been done. At which point they told them they had done a HG replacement. Newark have now also admitted this to me.

Which engine is it?

John