VW on lease - Car unsafe and not fit for purpose - my rights? 13 October 2022 at 11:36AM in Consumer rights 4 replies 372 views

emmach89

I have been leasing vehicles for many years with no issues. I have always bought VW as i enjoy their vehicles and until this point have always been good quality cars.
I leased the Mk8 Golf GTI in March this year, after 2 years problem free with the Mk7.5 GTI.
Right from the beginning i knew something wasn't quite right the ACC and Driving assist tools on the car, it wasn't as good as my old one - however I convinced myself it was a new car and I needed to 'get used to it'
The issues i have had are below:

• Driving assist errors switching on and off
• Driving assist setting road speeds completely different to the actual speed
• Sat-Nav placing my car in fields when driving or claiming my car was driving backwards - rendering the satnav completly useless
• Parking sensors either not working or working correctly - nearly resulting in my reversing into my partners car
• Wing mirror sensors not working on occasion leaving lights and beeping on in the vehicle
• Lane assists not working as it should - trying to place me between lanes
• being told i wasn't driving in the centre of the lane - cause the above note
• Emergency braking when nothing was in front of me or cars on opposite side of the road came past/stopped

7 months down the line the issues got worse - i booked in the car to be looked at with my local VW dealer. However, 3 days ago my car started emergency braking on me while I was driving - which was incredibly scary and dangerous. There was no reason or cause for the braking and my lane assist kept trying to move my car into the middle of the road. I stopped and called the emergency roadside assist that I get with VW who sent an AA vehicle out to recover. The car was delivered to a local dealer - Turns out the issue was a faulty camera, radar Senors, firmware issues and vehicle location issues. Now they have had to order some new parts - with no timeline as they are on back order an my senses from the service manager is this is going to be a long time....

My car was sold to me faulty and dangerous and could have potentially killed myself, my family or other road users. I am now driving a hire care (which VW have let me down with - Kia Picanto!) via the Roadside assist service - through my local car hire company. While I'm paying my monthly fees to drive what should be a comfy safe vehicle for my 2 hours round trip to and from work each day. I have no idea how long this will go on for, given the parts issues we commonly see with VW now - my car is on a 2-year lease.
What are my rights/options in regard to the informing the finance company? Can i get my contract scrapped and return the car - i really don't know what to do. I'm very disappointed in VW but at the same time I paid for a car to be safe and to be used. which is not happening.

any one else experienced this with a lease vehicle? 

TELLIT01

I don't own VW but have had at least 2 instances of emergency braking when nothing around, it is scary and dangerous.  Thankfully I haven't had that happen for a few years now so presumably a firmware fix was applied.  The car is now 6 years old.  The satnat issue with driving through a field isn't a fault as such, just down to the information in the sat nav being out of date.  I don't know how updates are done on the VW, but on my car it is on SD card which is only updated about once a year and the information is over a year old by the time the update is released.

Driver assist is intended to do just that, assist the driver.  It does not mean the driver doesn't have to check things for themselves such as the position of other vehicles either when driving or reversing.  The only truly potentially dangerous thing you have raised is the automatic braking which you also say is being addressed.  I would be surprised if the problems described would be classed as serious enough to warrant being able to reject the vehicle, but you would need to speak to a solicitor to get a valid legal opinion. 

Switching off Driver Assist and using your own eyes is a preferable option in my humble opinion anyway.  I was given a courtesy vehicle with all the knobs and whistles and very quickly turned them all off as I found them far more of a distraction than a help.

daveyjp

I'd be onto the lease company and get them involved.

emmach89

Thanks all. Obviously I always use my own senses when driving but in regards to the reverse camera I just happened to notice it said I had a long way to go before I was close to the other vehicle. In my mirrors I could see differently hence I stopped the vehicle and realised I was about an inch away! They are normally a lot more sensitive which makes me realise it wasn’t quite right.
I have since been in contact with VW U.K. who have assigned me a case manager to help speed things up for me.
the roadside assistant team have also approved for the hire company to offer me a better car that is more like for like - which makes me feel much better now. 

I’m just more annoyed that VW know these things are happening with these cars and yet still selling them to unsuspecting buyers. The finance company have also been made aware as I’m not too pleased to be paying monthly for a premium car and potentially be driving a less premium car for the foreseeable.
fingers crossed it’s resolved swiftly. 

HillStreetBlues

TELLIT01 said:

Driver assist is intended to do just that, assist the driver.  It does not mean the driver doesn't have to check things for themselves such as the position of other vehicles either when driving or reversing. 

I've never had driver assist,  but if I have to check everything that I would do without it, it sounds pretty pointless