Adding a hitch to new car (VW)- will it affect warranty?

cbisto

Hi

Im expecting delivery of a new VW Golf in the next couple of weeks (last minute scrappage!). I am toying with the idea of adding a hitch to the car as I do a bit of cycling and would often be transporting 2 bikes in the back of a car. This uses up too much space for longer trips to have them inside and I don’t want to be ruining the inside of new car with oily bikes!

VW dealer is quoting me €500 to add the hitch. Says that legally if they fit a hitch they must wire for a trailer even though I dont require this functionality.

I have been quoted €230 by some other (Non VW) garages. My question is if I get the hitch attached by another garage will this void my 2-year VW warranty.

Any other advice from people in the know?

Thanks

rcdk1

€500 for a hitch is ridiculous! Even from a main dealer I wouldn't expect to pay more than €250-300.

To be honest I don't have an answer to your question but I would think that it could affect the warranty. Maybe you could ring around other VW dealers and see what kind of prices they're quoting and if they'll do it without affecting the warranty?

keithclancy

Bloody dealer will take it off and never mention it when selling it anyway.

Del2005

cbisto wrote: »

VW dealer is quoting me €500 to add the hitch. Says that legally if they fit a hitch they must wire for a trailer even though I dont require this functionality.

You'll need a trailer board if carrying bikes, as they are blocking your lights and more importantly your number plate don't want you avoiding fines!!

But €500 is crazy as there's at most €10 worth of wiring for a tow hitch, including labour.

Contact VW direct and ask them, no point in asking dealers as they'll just lie.

Cookie_Monster

why not just spend 70 quid on a bike rack?

vectra

As far as I know it is not a simple case of joining wires on the VAG cars,
There is some special "box" has to be installed because of the canbus system,Then the car has to be coded for the extra lights..Something along that line anyhow.
But I do think it it a bit pricey @ 500.

Also

You can buy a new car and get it serviced anywhere...providing the chosen garage uses the specified oil etc, then it does not void affect your warranty.

Same goes for the hitch.Once it is done using correct parts/procedure then it should not affect you warranty.(Though I could imagine VW trying to worm their way out of it should it go wrong)

R.O.R

rcdk1 wrote: »

€500 for a hitch is ridiculous! Even from a main dealer I wouldn't expect to pay more than €250-300.

Del2005 wrote: »

But €500 is crazy as there's at most €10 worth of wiring for a tow hitch, including labour.

Contact VW direct and ask them, no point in asking dealers as they'll just lie.

Isn't it great we have the amount of experts on this forum that we do :rolleyes:

Only factory option for a Tow Bar is a detachable one @ €850 (VRT band A). That is ridiculous, but official parts are expensive.

I've no idea how much the VW part is for the Golf Tow Bar, but there is also the wiring loom bypass and up to 2 hours labour involved in the fitting.

€500 from VW is actually a fairly reasonable price, but an aftermarket unit would be much cheaper.

We've put a fair few aftermarket Tow Bars on new cars, and it's not given us any issues with warranty - except after 3 years on a 5 series, and the driver got that bar (badly) fitted himself.

cbisto

Hi again

Thanks for all the replies - some useful tips there.

R.O.R could you clarify what you mean by an 'Aftermarket' unit? Is this a second hand hitch?

Sorry for the stupid question !

cbisto

R.O.R

cbisto wrote: »

Hi again

Thanks for all the replies - some useful tips there.

R.O.R could you clarify what you mean by an 'Aftermarket' unit? Is this a second hand hitch?

Sorry for the stupid question !

cbisto

Aftermarket is a non VW part. The ones we usually fit are Thule in Dublin and I think it's Brink in Cork.

Tow Bars are made specifically for the cars in question, it just doesn't have a VW badge on it, so it's not overpriced.

Where are you based?

mgbgt1978

You don't say where you are in the country but if in, or close to, dublin try Indespension or Malcolm's Caravans (sorry you will have to google contact numbers yourself). They are both Witter towbar suppliers (and fitters).
There are four main towbar manufacturers, Bosal, Tobo, Brink and witter.
The VW supplied towbar will probably be manufactured by Brink, but certainly not by VW themselves.
As far as warranty is concerned VW will have stipulated the towbar mounting points and all the manufacturers will use these to attach the towbar.

As already said why not just get a strap-on bike rack, or price a set of roof bars (not at the main dealer......try Halfords.ie for a ballpark figure).


edit; Thule also make towbars as R.O.R just said

cbisto

Hi

Im based in Cork (city). I've gone through all of the other bike transport options and settled on the hitch as the best for me. Have used the racks with straps before and have found they can loosen during the journey and can lead to car scratches - for long journeys I find I dont fully trust the rack. As for the roof bars I just wouldnt trust myself to remember I had them on :eek:!

Appreciate all of the advice here. I will make some enquiries with other VW dealers with the hypothetical question about getting it fitted myself and see what sort of a response I get.

Thanks again
cbisto

mgbgt1978

I would agree with you that a towbar mounted rack is probably the most secure option.
If possible I would go for a "flange ball" type towbar rather than a swan-neck one.....although they don't look as tidy the flange ball type will let you choose from a larger range of bike carriers.
From memory Murray towbars in cork would be a good starting point...you do not have to go to a main dealer to have this supplied and fitted, in fact a lot of the main dealers usually send their cars to a towbar specialist anyway.

R.O.R

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

I would agree with you that a towbar mounted rack is probably the most secure option.
If possible I would go for a "flange ball" type towbar rather than a swan-neck one.....although they don't look as tidy the flange ball type will let you choose from a larger range of bike carriers.
From memory Murray towbars in cork would be a good starting point...you do not have to go to a main dealer to have this supplied and fitted, in fact a lot of the main dealers usually send their cars to a towbar specialist anyway.

And that's who I use for Tow Bars in Cork - they'll see you right.

Jonny303

Del2005 wrote: »

You'll need a trailer board if carrying bikes, as they are blocking your lights and more importantly your number plate don't want you avoiding fines!!

But €500 is crazy as there's at most €10 worth of wiring for a tow hitch, including labour.

Contact VW direct and ask them, no point in asking dealers as they'll just lie.

Way off the mark here, for a start you need a multiplex wiring box. €500 is a little dear but not off the wall. There is at least 2-3 hours work involved.

bucketybuck

Having handling Warranty for multiple dealers in my career so far (service advisor/warranty handler/service manager), I would say that having a towbar correctly fitted would not automatically invalidate the warranty.

Remember, most dealers WANT to carry out that warranty work, after all, what business wants to turn down work. Dealers reclaim the costs from the manufacturer, so they are unlikely to strain themselves looking for the hassles of exclusions.

This is not exclusive however. If you get a towbar fitted, then be very careful trying to claim repairs such as rust spots at the spare wheel or the floor at rear. Those types of repairs need pre-approval with supporting pictures, so you could meet trouble there. A second problem would be electrical faults caused by wiring in the area of the hitch. These types of faults are hell for dealers. They take serious labour hours to diagnose and repair, and they are very difficult to reclaim from the manufacturer. Many dealers would prefer to claim that the hitch was incorrectly fitted and which was the cause of the fault. (they would very often be right too, be damn careful if you ever get paneling fitted to the interior of a van, the idiots always drill right through wires they dont even know exist)

In general though, if you have an engine warning light that turns out to be a faulty ECU/injector/EGR valve, the service advisor wont give a rats ass if there is a towbar fitted, and will certainly never try to claim that it completely invalidates the manufacturers warranty.

bucketybuck

On a related note, it bugs my ass people whinging about "€500 euro, what a rip off, bloody dealers". It kneejerk bull****.

Take this job. I bet the dealer in question will have done about one of these in their history, so the electrician will never have sorted the wiring for these. He can do it, but he will have to take it carefully to make sure it is done right. After all, the same people will bitch to high heaven if it is not right first time from the "dealer".
People will say "sure it only takes an hour to do one of them". The same people couldnt do it in an hour of their life depended on it. Those bloody electrical jobs always ALWAYS take longer than you expect. And if he also has to reprogram the lighting control module, well theres another ****ing hassle that never is as simple as just connecting to a computer and pressing the "program" button :rolleyes:.

These types of jobs always run into 3/4/5 hours, and at 60-100 pounds an hour, you meet that quoted 500 figure very quickly let me tell you.

In my opinion, you were quoted whats seems a high price of €500 because the dealer does not actually want the job. It is a one-off job that frankly will cause more hassle than its worth, and they would rather concentrate on other areas.

-Chris-

I'd get the dealer to fit it, because I'd want to be able to only deal with one person.
If the dealer fits it then at least if VW warranty refuses a warranty claim then the dealer will have to step up.
If you get an "outsider" to fit it, then it's easy for both sides to point fingers at each other in the case of a warranty claim and you'll just get stuck in the middle.

I wouldn't pay €500 though, get a price off two suppliers and ask them to match it.
If the best price you get is €230, I'd be happy to pay €330 to the dealer (they'll want a hassle tax) just to give me peace of mind.

rcdk1

R.O.R wrote: »

Isn't it great we have the amount of experts on this forum that we do :rolleyes:

I'm basing my post on the fact that two friends recently fitted tow bars. €300 for a Mondeo and €250 on a Kia C'eed, both from main dealers. I don't see why VW should be any more expensive.

-Chris-

rcdk1 wrote: »

I'm basing my post on the fact that two friends recently fitted tow bars. €300 for a Mondeo and €250 on a Kia C'eed, both from main dealers. I don't see why VW should be any more expensive.

WRT to VW - do you know that they're not more expensive, or are you presuming?

rcdk1

-Chris- wrote: »

WRT to VW - do you know that they're not more expensive, or are you presuming?

?
Well obviously they are since cbisto was quoted €500 and R.O.R. is saying the factory option is €850.

But that's not to say that €500 is reasonable for a tow bar. The dealer probably thinks that cbisto won't go elsewhere in order to keep his warranty intact or that in relation to the overall cost of the car cbisto will just blithely agree to the bill.

As I said in my first post I reckon the best course of action is to contact other VW dealers and and see if he can get the tow bar fitted for cheaper while retaining his warranty. I've not dealt with VW but over the years I've found huge variation between dealers of the same brand for the same part.

If, as you say, cbisto wants to keep everything with one dealer, cheaper quotes from other VW dealers would put him in a better haggling position.

DublinDilbert

Yea like most cars a module has to be fitted / plugged in & coded. One of the reason is that the there must be diagnostics on the trailer lights (eg bulb out detection).

The control module would cost vw €25 and trailer plug/harness would be say €5. Both of these would simplify the instal greatly, literally plug and play.

A user above says that electrical jobs can take hours, this could be true of fault finding, but for this it should be done in a few mins, if the engineers at the car company have done their job.

The total price is high, but doesn't suprise me...