What's a 'reasonable' length of time for a safety component to last?

teb558

My car recently had a failure of its SOS Emergency system.  A trip to the main dealer and a £373 bill later and it's all fixed.  The component was a back-up aerial, which I assume would be used if the main aerial was damaged in a collision.  The part cost was only £5.70, but the rest was diagnostics and fitting.

The car is a 2021 plate VW, and is out of warranty, but I've heard Martin say that regardless of warranties and the like, goods should last a 'reasonable length of time'.  This obviously depends what the item is.  In my case it's a critical emergency component and I would have expected this sort of thing to last a lot longer than 4 years.  This is a common failure with VWs.

Is 4 years reasonable in this case?  Should I bother writing to them to see if I can get my money back?

eskbanker

If you want to exercise your rights under the Consumer Rights Act then the onus is on you to demonstrate that a fault was present at the time of sale, even if a latent one caused by a manufacturing or design flaw, i.e. CRA doesn't act as an indefinite warranty as such.  In order to demonstrate this, you'd probably need to have it inspected by an independent expert who'd be able and willing to report accordingly.

Rodders53

Sure it's an antenna (aerial)? and not a battery to power the system in the event other battery(s) power sources fail/are disconnected in the crash.

A backup antenna is a non-moving non-powered part that should have an extremely long life unless physically damaged.

I suspect that, had you investigated the VW forums and/or Googled the problem, you could have found out how to fix it yourself for relative peanuts.  That said, it might still have needed a dealer visit (or reputable indie) to reset fault codes and enable the replacement.  

The batteries seem to be rechargeable Lithium ion type and genuine VW items on eBay are 10x your dealers charge...  I'd not expect one to need replacing ever if the charging circuit and supply in good order though.

Check out with Dealer on part (google part number on invoice) and check VW forums for your specific model and how common the issue is ...  You may be able to ask VW customer services for a goodwill contribution even if out of warranty.

paul_c123

Why is it a critical safety feature? 

Car_54

paul_c123 said:

Why is it a critical safety feature? 

Good question. How did we manage for a century without these systems?

Baldytyke88

I believe it's partly down to the manufacturer to decide what is reasonable. A good brand might help with the bill after 18+ months, but not likely 4 years.

flaneurs_lobster

Car_54 said:

paul_c123 said:

Why is it a critical safety feature? 

Good question. How did we manage for a century without these systems?

Not even the Critical Safety System, this widget is part of the Backup Critical Safety System. 

RandomTourist

Car_54 said:

paul_c123 said:

Why is it a critical safety feature? 

Good question. How did we manage for a century without these systems?

We managed. However I'm aware of two incidents where a car left the road and the driver was seriously injured; the fact that the car was missing of course took a while to become obvious. Searches for the car were fruitless for some time as it had gone down a bank/into bushes/whatever. When the car was found, the driver had died from their injuries despite the crash being survivable. The emergency system - had it been installed - would probably have saved two lives. 

Bigphil1474

OP, it's always worth trying to get your money back. 

Grumpy_chap

teb558 said:

My car recently had a failure of its SOS Emergency system. 

it's a critical emergency component 

If I understand correctly, the SoS Emergency System is a button in the car that calls the emergency services and / or automatically calls the emergency services if a severe collision is detected.

I don't see how that meets the definition of a "critical emergency component".

teb558

Grumpy_chap said:

teb558 said:

My car recently had a failure of its SOS Emergency system. 

it's a critical emergency component 

If I understand correctly, the SoS Emergency System is a button in the car that calls the emergency services and / or automatically calls the emergency services if a severe collision is detected.

I don't see how that meets the definition of a "critical emergency component".

If it was you in that accident and you were incapacitated it could be critical to your survival.

We're splitting hairs though. It's a safety feature, like many others (eg airbags, seatbelts).  We managed without them before, but we have them these days.