Am i being Scr*wed?

Redders825

Hi all,

I left my car into a local VW dealership in Sligo and im just wondering if i being scr*wed.

Its a 06 VW Golf Sportline and has about 60,000miles on it. has been well looked after and has been serviced on time over the past three years. i brought it to be serviced the last week of july as a number of the emergency lights were coming on and when i got it back it seemed okay but then a week later they were coming back on - the handbrake light, ABS braking light, steering wheel light, etc and i knew something was up. i was away for 3 weeks and brought it in last thursday to get looked at and they informed me today that it has something to do with the control unit and it will need to be replaced which is going to cost €1,500!!!!

to be honest, i cant really afford to pay that much and surely after 3 years a whole control unit shouldnt be failing? there are cars out there that have 150,000 miles and working fine!!!

Just wondering if any of ye have thoughts that could suggest if it seems pretty high or any suggestions on how to getting it fixed cheaper?

Thanks

Darsad

If it is as you say and has a full service history ask the dealer to request goowill from the distributor, If you get no joy there get a detailed description of the problem and the necessary parts and write to VW yourself I would be pretty confident they would do something for you !

blahblah06

Exact same thing has happened my partners sportline 05 model 65000km been onto vw and they couldn't be bothered with it saying not known as a common problem.

Did u not take out extended warranty? Lucky enough we did and will be leaving it in next week. If we didn't I'd be putting a claim in under the sales of good act as it's not fit for it's purpose after so little driving.

Google is ur best friend when it comes to finding plenty of people with the same problem to support your case.

There is actually nothing wrong with the car except for the lights do it actually is drivable. Hers past nct and everything

Kid Nothing

Control units can easily go after 60,000 miles, it's above average for a 3 year old car so I wouldn't find it unreasonable for the unit to be gone at all.

I can't comment on the price as I don't know what the unit is but it could easily cost that much.

Redders825

Hi,

no extended warranty on it due to the fact i bought it from my brother a year after we got it so he mustnt have taken the extended warranty on it.

The dealers said they have applied for goodwill warranty, but i know they will come back with something like "they will knock a 100 off it!" which still makes it pretty expensive!!

colm_mcm

Maybe try getting a used one. (that said, that might go too!)

mickdw

Kid Nothing wrote: »

Control units can easily go after 60,000 miles, it's above average for a 3 year old car so I wouldn't find it unreasonable for the unit to be gone at all.

I can't comment on the price as I don't know what the unit is but it could easily cost that much.

VW should certainly be helping out with this. Its in their own interest. If I had a 3 year old car that needed major money like this spent on it, I would certainly change manufacturer the next time whereas if vw paid most of it, I would probably go around recommending them saying it was a great car and that when something did go wrong, vw covered it well out of warranty.
If it was a uk import, it could well still be under warranty.
Is there an extended warranty for vw/audi in ireland? Can I buy it at the dealer or it is some insurance company?

EPM

I know the abs control unit is around that price alright. I'd fight hard for a goodwill gesture if its got a full history with a main dealer. 60k is not a lot of mileage and for a car that wasn't cheap to buy in the first place for it to fail so soon is not acceptable. You'll of course need someone from the dealer that is willing to help you pushing them

BrianD3

Kid Nothing wrote: »

Control units can easily go after 60,000 miles, it's above average for a 3 year old car so I wouldn't find it unreasonable for the unit to be gone at all.

It is completely unreasonable. A control unit/ECU is not a wearing part and it should not fail after either 3 years or 60k miles.

There was a huge thread recently about a Nissan just out of warranty and with a broken door handle. Many of the posters argued that it was an unacceptable failure. And that was a 60 quid part, not a 1500 quid one.

To the original poster, tread carefully with this one as many main dealers are incompetent when it comes to diagnosing electronic problems. It's quite possible that the control unit is not the problem. Try to get a 2nd opinion from an independent diagnostic specialist and look at getting 2nd hand parts from a scrapyard.

Drummerboy08

Just as an example to the OP - We recently took a 05 318d back, with almost 200,000kms on it. It had the abs light on, and needed a new Traction Control Unit.

The unit itself is almost 4k, but BMW covered it. The only thing we had to pay was 500 quid labour.

Now I know its two different manufacturers, but if it is a well known issue, then VW will cough up.

R.O.R

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

Now I know its two different manufacturers, but if it is a well known issue, then VW will cough up.

Good Luck - trying to get anything out of VW is like getting blood from a stone!

We have multiple failures of the same parts on various VW's and only very recently have we managed to get any goodwill. The GM is heading over to VWGI at some point this week to have a shouting match with them about costs on the 06 Passat's.

OP - it's worth asking for goodwill, but I wouldn't hold my breath on anything coming from it. Things haven't really got any better since VW took over from MDL as the importers. Up until this year they had no need to be nice to the customer as the many sheep out there will still buy the product because of the badge, nothing to do with customer service.

Nonoperational

Kid Nothing wrote: »

Control units can easily go after 60,000 miles, it's above average for a 3 year old car so I wouldn't find it unreasonable for the unit to be gone at all.

I can't comment on the price as I don't know what the unit is but it could easily cost that much.

You must be joking?

blahblah06

I think he must be

baldyback

This is worth a read

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=66972