Faulty Car- only had it a month!

C

Cassie1978

Guest
Hi,

I’m looking for some advice. I bought a 4 month old VW Golf at end of Oct from a well known VW dealership in Dublin. A few days later the EPC light came on in the car (which according to the manual means ‘fault in engine mgt system’). The car was driving fine but I brought it back to the garage and they diagnosed that there was some problem with the accelerator and they fixed it. A few days later the light came back on, I brought it back to the garage again and they diagnosed there was again something wrong with accelerator and they replaced the accelerator. The light came on again for the 3rd time and when I brought it back to the garage they admitted they weren’t really sure what was wrong with it. They contacted VW head office who told them to take the car in and do a full check of all the wires etc. The car is going back in to them on Monday for this for the week however I drove it last night and another light (along with the EPC light) has now come on. This new light says ‘ Fault in Catalytic Converter’ and the car is now chugging. I phoned them and they said they’d look at it when they’re trying to fix the other problem...

My question is, the car is only 4 months old (it was a VW demo model and had 9k km on the clock), I’ve had it since 29 Oct and its been in to get fixed every week since I’ve had it. Do I have any come back? The car is under VW warranty for another 18 mths but I cant be dropping it in to get fixed every week….If these 2 problems aren’t fixed next week is there any way I can go back to them and say I want a refund on the car or get them to change it for a new one??
Does anyone have any advice or similar experiences?
 
I'm not 100% on this but pretty sure that you have to give the garage reasonable opportunity to fix the problem. I think you've done this.

I would simply tell them if they can't fix it, take it back. The longer that you tolerate a car that isn't fit for purpose, this will be deemed as acceptance. In other words, don't hang about. VW should be able to fix the car: they made it.

The latter problem you describe could be many things, including a dodgy emissions sensor.
 
what you should do is put things in writing and keep all receipts, are you paying anything for those repairs? A car that age should not display problems such as you describe. You should be getting an independent technical report, try AA. You have been sold a pup. Contact VW in Germany and make them aware and yes get your money back and if that garage was any good they would refund you immediately. VW will take it back as they do not want bad publicity. And when the EPC light comes on it is unsafe to drive it.

and i hope you got sorted
 
this is an update, did a google and found this for a vw golf gti

" I dropped my car into the dealer this morning. They told me that there was a recall on the car to replace all the coils and update the EPU software free of charge. Turned out it was just that causing the errors. No more lights and they cleaned the alloys all up, sparkling too which saves me the trouble."

Delighted

here is link

[broken link removed]
 
Thanks for all the replies. My dad is dropping the car in to the garage this morning and they're keeping it for the week to try and get it sorted. My main worry is that as I didn't buy it brand new (it was a VW demo car) they will just tell me tough luck...I have kept a log of all the times it's been in. Collected it on 29th Oct and this is the 4th time its been in with them...If the light comes on again I will send in a letter to VW. By the way no i'm not paying anything for the repairs as its under warranty until July 2013.
 
It doesn't matter that you didn't buy it from new ,it must still be fit for purpose. Follow Sue Ellen's advice, they will tell you all you need to be doing now to best position yourself should you need to take things further in the future.
Leo
 
Thanks Leo. I've sent an email to the National Consumer Agency. Hopefully they will come back to me with some advice.
 
Cassie1978 said:
Thanks for all the replies. My dad is dropping the car in to the garage this morning and they're keeping it for the week to try and get it sorted. My main worry is that as I didn't buy it brand new (it was a VW demo car) they will just tell me tough luck...I have kept a log of all the times it's been in. Collected it on 29th Oct and this is the 4th time its been in with them...If the light comes on again I will send in a letter to VW. By the way no i'm not paying anything for the repairs as its under warranty until July 2013.
Click to expand...

A few things ring familiar here. Firstly, unless there's been a huge attitude change since my time of VW ownership, I wouldn't waste my time writing to VW in Germany. They just pass stuff back to VW Ireland, who don't care less. I've been down this road myself.

Regarding the garage keeping the car for a week, I hope it works out but it sounds very 'showy' on their part. They don't need the car for more than a morning to figure out what's wrong with it. I had the same "give it to us for a week" business only for the fault to re-appear on driving the car home (garage in question is now a garden centre!)

I will admit my views are very biased by my experience, but I very much doubt that these people were unaware of all these faults when they sold you the car.
 
We are part of europe now, VW just cant ignore it but if you dont tell them anything they can defenitely say we never knew. That link I posted shows this is not an isolated incident. The garage should be made aware as well, if there is an inherent fault with the car it is not the garage that is responsible its the manufacturer. Imagine the light coming on at 120km/h!! I would write to garage copy to vw and ca of ireland and mention you googled the fault, they cant turn round and say this was a brand new occurrence.

good luck and let us know how you get on. By the way a garage keeping a car for a week its one of the oldest tricks in the book, ie we spent all week blah de blah. I have first hand experience with a nissan dealer, leave for week, garage overlooked by a friend, car never moved in the week. there was a few red faces when they were made aware of this fact. car was fixed that day, correctly.

are you getting a courtesy car? have you said you want a refund? garage could be trying to make a case you accepted car had a minor fault.

lets hope we are all too cynical and the fault is found and fixed correctly
 
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