Up until 3 days ago I was a proud owner of new passat ( well demo, 8K km, 2006 3.6 passat sedan). What happened 3 days ago made me completly regret my purchase to the point that I will post this car for sale.
History:
3 Weeks ago car was purchased at VW dealer in Montreal area. I even opted for recertification for additional $1000.00 for extra 2 years warranty on top of original 4 years.
For the first 2 weeks, it was absolute pleasure to drive this car even with small occasional hickups ( gas cap light would randomly turn on/off, window lock would randomly sometimes lock and sometimes not do anything when pressed, reading light would flicker when car is idle)
Then, at the end of week 2, steering column yellow light came on and stayed on throughout the weekend, at which point I've decided to take the car to the dealer.
At the dealer I got standard song and dance by the salesman, "it's probably battery since the car was parked on their lot for a year without being much driven".
That was on Monday, after 5 days at the dealer garage and not being able to solve the problem I've decided to take the car to another dealer.
During those 5 days dealer provided me with a courtesy car (Beetle). I was assured by the dealer that car (passat) was safe to drive and to make another appointment. As expected, after 20min steering light came on. I drove the car for another 50-100km during weekend.
What happened on following Monday made me rethink and regret my purchase. On my way to new dealer, after entering mayor intersection, that yellow warning light for steering column changed to red, beeped once or twice,car suddenly stopped, steering wheel locked, car turned off. At this point I was 5min away from hitting highway.
I just received a call from a dealer where my car is at, to inform that they "found" the problem and they "hope" by changing steering column and rack and pinion will fix the problem.
First question: how can you say "we found" and "we hope"?
Second question: what would have happened if I was driving 100km/h on a highway and a car locks like that?
Am I being "anal"? I think not. VW puts a lot of emphasis on passat security features so it's only normal to expect nothing short of perfection or at least that things like above do not happened.
I did call VW Canada and made official complaint which I doubt will result in anything positive. Person that I spoke to even said that "there was no injury so at this point we can only fix the car through the warranty"
Surely those were not the words I was expecting to hear from VW Canada.
Thank you
History:
3 Weeks ago car was purchased at VW dealer in Montreal area. I even opted for recertification for additional $1000.00 for extra 2 years warranty on top of original 4 years.
For the first 2 weeks, it was absolute pleasure to drive this car even with small occasional hickups ( gas cap light would randomly turn on/off, window lock would randomly sometimes lock and sometimes not do anything when pressed, reading light would flicker when car is idle)
Then, at the end of week 2, steering column yellow light came on and stayed on throughout the weekend, at which point I've decided to take the car to the dealer.
At the dealer I got standard song and dance by the salesman, "it's probably battery since the car was parked on their lot for a year without being much driven".
That was on Monday, after 5 days at the dealer garage and not being able to solve the problem I've decided to take the car to another dealer.
During those 5 days dealer provided me with a courtesy car (Beetle). I was assured by the dealer that car (passat) was safe to drive and to make another appointment. As expected, after 20min steering light came on. I drove the car for another 50-100km during weekend.
What happened on following Monday made me rethink and regret my purchase. On my way to new dealer, after entering mayor intersection, that yellow warning light for steering column changed to red, beeped once or twice,car suddenly stopped, steering wheel locked, car turned off. At this point I was 5min away from hitting highway.
I just received a call from a dealer where my car is at, to inform that they "found" the problem and they "hope" by changing steering column and rack and pinion will fix the problem.
First question: how can you say "we found" and "we hope"?
Second question: what would have happened if I was driving 100km/h on a highway and a car locks like that?
Am I being "anal"? I think not. VW puts a lot of emphasis on passat security features so it's only normal to expect nothing short of perfection or at least that things like above do not happened.
I did call VW Canada and made official complaint which I doubt will result in anything positive. Person that I spoke to even said that "there was no injury so at this point we can only fix the car through the warranty"
Surely those were not the words I was expecting to hear from VW Canada.
Thank you
