VW Finance

[bathgatebuyer]

Grrrrrr. Nasty letter from them yesterday telling me that a payment from July 06 was outstanding - despite the fact that I had written to them advising of a recent return to work and requesting that they take additional sums from my monthly direct debit to clear any arrears. So, why then is something outstanding from July?! Why then also get a 'Pre-Litigation' letter telling me that the conduct of my account is poor and that I'm not to use my car during that time?

Do you think it is a coincidence that the car is soon to be paid up and they are trying to get it back while there's only 3 or 4 loan payments outstanding so they can flog it for about £6k? Yeah, exactly what I thought too.

They didn't seem so keen to discuss the small matter of their obligations unde rthe Sale of Goods Act - namely that a car that wwas 3 weeks out of the dealer should not have it's head gasket blow up on the motorway leaving a lone female driver stranded at the roadside at 1 am for 3 hours. Neither should they then leave her without a vehicle for 3 weeks because their ususal courtesy car is already out to someone else. Nor should they allow someone who has purchased a vehicle from them to have the ESP warning light showing for 2 years and denying that there's anything wrong - yet a rival dealer then manages to resolve the problem by actually fixing it instad of mumping that 'it should be ok to drive, we just don't know if your traction control is working'. Oh, also remembered when the car went in for one of it's many repairs and the dealers told me they had no way of offering me a lift anywhere, so I had to cross the dual carriageway to get home while on crutches (broken ankle). Great fun dodging the cars while on one half decent leg!

As the car is out of it's loan by the end of the year (WOOOOO HOOOOOOOO!), I'll be holding onto it for another 5 or 6 months before looking for a new one. And I certainly will not be buying another VW. The service was shocking and the letter from their 'Pre-Litigation' person has just soured the relationship even more - particularly as I went out of my way to write to them, phone them and put in place a payment arrangement which they agreed to.

[Tel916]

Jesus H. ... sound like a lovely bunch of people.

If it's an authorised dealer, I'd write to the UKHQ with details. I've said it before to people, but the top echelons are generally very understanding, and in cases I've dealt with, can be very good at sorting problems quickly and finally, I'm sure they'd be interested to hear of your experiences with the dealer. Address it to the MD personally.

Personally, that's about all the advice I can give you, but certainly, leaving the ESP light on, on a Mk4 Golf (I'm guessing) is terrible, I could be wrong, but given that the sensors are usually tied in together, that could also denote ABS failure, potentially very dangerous. Even the real cowboys I know would sort that, rather than just remove the bulb.

Terry

[MARTIN3030]

I worked for VAG for many years,and am sure that head office would assist you.
In fact I would take it to the very top.
Here is the e mail addy for the CEO


VolkswagenBernd Pischetsrieder, Chief ExecutiveBernd.Pischetsrieder@volk swagen.de