State your lemon / buyback replacement experience here

[Vdubbtreg]

I finally voted. After waiting almost two months, I received my new 2005 Touareg last night. The replacment process was not that bad, however, it took a long time. Once VWoA made the decision to replace, there was very little inventory on V6's. I specifically asked for a later model 04 since most of the problems I had experinced were fixed throughout the model year. They did not have any left in the port. So I was offered a 05. They arrived. Then VW had a 'price hold' on the 05. Another week ... then trying to find one that had the same options as mine ... another week. I was tired of waiting so I oped to get one with out the TPS since that is not standard now.

I am happy that I have a new one with the color config I orginally wanted. Too early to tell if all is well. I have a total of 30 miles on it right now.

[lamontlawyer]

Ok, so i am in the final stage of buyback and it has been simple and easier than i imagined...they offered a new one instead, but I DONT THINK VW has done enough with the 05's to fix the crappy A/C and some other items that are pet peeves of mine on a $46K car...so i am opting for buyout...they are only docking me $380 for mileage...I probably should have argued that, but didn't want to deal with it...I am an attorney, so maybe they choose to make it easy for me rather than to get in a legal battle...

[Jack F]

Quote, originally posted by lamontlawyer »

I am an attorney, so maybe they choose to make it easy for me rather than to get in a legal battle...

So since you're an attorney they docked you for the miles. Interesting how that works. Mine was bought back and when i delivered to them on the last day I had about 2500 miles.

How many miles did you have?

I think more folks should opt for the buyback and then maybe, just maybe, VW would reassess a few things from their end. I was just happy to get out of the whole experience.

Good luck. What are you going to buy?

[sciencegeek]

bump for gina_and_ron

[mrod1975]

any 2005s bought-back or replaced?

[gina and ron]

any advice for me? my request to vw to buyback my 04 treg has been turned down after 9 trips and 33 days in the shop, for a vehicle that i have owned since may. i am sitting on some problems now, because i can barely stand another trip to the dealer. i would appreciate any help.
thanks

[TREGinginCO]

Time to hire an attorney!!!

[Martin H]

Any buybacks out there that have not voted.

I know this is an older post but it is the best one I could find without starting a new one. At this time I'm very concerned about my Touareg and have asked VW for a buyback.

[joeofthemountain]

Quote, originally posted by jsewell »

So far, we have 13 buy-backs or replacements. Although I know that VWVortex isn't a statistically significant sampling, this does seem like a rather high number. I also wonder if anyone has actually had to resort to legal action. <SNIP> So, has anyone actually taken VW to court for their Touareg? -J Modified by jsewell at 9:09 AM 7-18-2004

My court date is set for March, 2006 in Philadelphia.

[Jimbuffalo]

My early (9XXX) VIN 05 V8 was replaced by a later VIN (7XXXX) 05 V8.

VW and my dealer agreed that my episodes were not representative of a quality vehicle and should not be endured by a customer who spends good money in good faith. 2 thumbs up for these folks.

1100 miles...did not start....TSB for ground cable
7100....system fault workshop error...replaced main battery cable
7500...main fuel pump failure while travleing at 80mph.

At each episode, I calmly expressed my consternation and disappointment to the dealer owner and worked with service mgr to understand issues.

After fuel pump failure, I reached the end of the rope...no more Touareg regardless of financial loss, my pride, how much I was expecting from this purchase...whatever. I was done with VW Auto Group.

I met with VW Zone mgr. Very empathic and professional. At best, I figured I could hope to get my equity out of it and walk away friends. At worst, VW could have said "That's why there is a warranty".

VW offered to replace with an 05...no questions. The only option I gave up was locking rear differential. VW did not force me into the car...I could have deferred and selected another model...but this one was fine..and had a Teak interior to replace the lovely, yet hard to keep clean Pure Beige.

I was also impressed that VW did what they call an "asset transfer" within VW credit....totally painless..swap of VINs on new title and monthly payment coupon....so my payments, equity etc. continued even though the ride was new.

Net net was a newer Touareg and 10K of wear and tear absorbed by VWoA. I figure this action on VW's part to be worth about 10% of the 50K+ purchase price. Pretty nice. Certainly reasonable.

Changes in VIN production? Better side mirror housings...to correct reported side mirror whistling, P Scorpion Zero over Conti 4x4 (improved IMHO), DVD vs CD Nav...much improved over multi-CD set up (although no in-dash CD feature is pretty dumb), some changes to MFI and radio controls. I hear different noises etc...I am hyper sensitive to any repeats of Touareg #1, but the car definitely seems better built.

Delivery quality was okay...I have a punch list of things to address...no hitch plug, no hood liner (under engine hood) and a couple other things...but the new ride feels better, drives more smoothly, and still is the right SUV for my purposes.

VW and my dealer are alright. The perfect car has yet to be made by anyone. The measure of a company is what they do when sh*t happens. In my case, VW did the right thing.

cheers

[TREGinginCO]

Jim,

Great write-up! I'm glad to hear VW took care of you... I think they're really trying to make things right with owners.

"Aircooled" is going to be starting his buyback process and I'm hoping he gets to experience the great side of VW, just as you and I have.

By the way, you're in Chautauqua Lake, NY?? We had family friends who lived there and I visited there quite a bit as a child... only great memories and a beautiful place.

[aircooled]

It has begun. Car is stuck in the shop with 4wd problems. I had the center diff lock up on me at highway speed in the corners. Fun.

[SSP]

I ended up selecting to go thru lawyer route after VWoA rejected my request for a buy-back/swap.

4 visits to correct Brake Assist Workshop warnings/binding. Been thru 3 stepper motors and 2 Control Modules and still the same.

I hope this clears up asap.
SSP.


Modified by SSP at 7:35 AM 9-9-2005

[Grvlguy]

Just sent my buy back letter and will let you know my experience!

[NMoore]

Painless, like a winning lottery ticket in my case. They ordered me a new 2006 about two weeks ago, after offering me a new car in late May. I think they checked around after each shipment since then for an available identical one, but never located quite the right one.

We bought a 2004 V8/PPS on July 3, 2003 the day after the launch. The only fault that ever stopped me driving the car, was one single day when it emerged that the amp for stereo stopped powering down when the key was pulled and drained the battery--oddly enough I have a very early 996 that did the same thing. No big deal, jumped it and fixed after one day.

At the service intervals changed a couple of wood trims for cracked lacquer, stuffed some felt in the instrument shroud, new stepper motor, key antenna fixes, and over time pretty much every component in the TPMS as those parts were improved. In other words, neither more nor less than one should expect on a complex first year vehicle.

Earlier this year the KESSY system started to intermittently fail to recognize that it was installed on the car. That is, no "key not detected" on the screen, no opening or locking from the outside door handles, nothing. Reported the intermittent problem at 24,011 miles and got the car back working, but with the INCREDIBLY irritating new 2005 controller with the ignition key height test.

For about two days, then back to intermittent. Back to dealer, this time they offered me a rental SUV so they could work on it for a few days--fine by me, and my 4-year old daughter loved the "tipsy way back" third row seat. Parenthetically, they have offered me a loaner car various other times to work on the car, but we normally don't need it and this adds a lot of bother since BART is right there.

This time they--and I will point out "they" is Dirito Brothers in Walnut Creek--had changed out every part in that system with "known good" ones from a brand new 2005. Worked when I picked it up, failed when I got home.

After this--possibly before, it has been a while--one false start when the tech says it works, but naturally quits once it's out of his shop. Fortunately right in their parking lot, this time. So the VW Zone technical guy gets scheduled to check it out. Ultimately VW Zone tech guy checks out the car himself, acknowledges there are two other cars worldwide with the same issue including one teardown at the factory ((anyone know if this is true?)), acknowledges there is no known fix. The Dirito service people begin dilligently documenting everything, trouble ticket open 43 days.

Dirito advises me to to turn the problem over to VW Customer Service and "tell them what you want." At that point I was becoming accustomed to using the buttons on the key fobs again, as on most every other car in the world, only actually furious (livid) about the ignition switch height test. Some weeks later KESSY quit for good.

So I notified VW over the web, and asked them how to proceed. I did not say what I wanted, since in any negotiation the first one to name a price usually loses. And I wasn't really sure what to ask for. I even interviewed my friends at Range Rover service (everyone with a Land Rover knows the service people like family--talk about job security) during my weekly visit what I ought to do about this sort of warranty claim. They have their share of "can't fix it" problems since BMW never has coughed up a lot of technical stuff on the motors they sell to Ford. They figured having the manufacturer pick up a few payments while they worked on the issue was about right. There are no payments, but this did not seem unreasonable, although I had a major concern about diminshed value if and when I decided to sell.

After the standard two day interval, some poor soul in a call center (sounded like Minnesota) who is probably not allowed to order pencils herself, called to ask me please do not take the car back to the dealer again, and what did I want VW to do? Fix it, or tell what me we have to do to proceed.

New email to VW, pointing out this was my fourth VW purchase in five years--2 Beetle upgrades--and call me back with answers not questions, you idgits!! After this I get a call back informing me the problem has been escalated, and much more importantly, I start to get a call once every week saying "nothing much new, still getting all of the paperwork together from Dirito and Zone, just letting you know we actually are working on it." Cool, I am not mad anymore, but you know even if a dog did start the car it would still be in park with the e-brake on. And my daughter can't reach the brakes and the shifter at the same time, there is not a problem cured by her also not being able to reach the brakes and key at the same time.

Immediately after all of the documentation was in order, VW's first and only offer to me was a new replacement at no cost. When I finally spoke with the charming but utterly unreachable fellow who sent the letter, he told me that if he could not find a correct 2005 in a timely way, he could order a 2006 if I didn't mind waiting.

So we are switching to Wheat Beige/Teak from Offroad Gray/Teak, and paying to move up to 2006 package #4 (everything) from PPS. The car now has 31,000 miles and counting, so you could basically drive a base Beetle through the exchange of values here.

Most of you probably are aware that at 22 months/24,000 VW had no such obligation under CA law or the warranty, and since it is only about a $500 system that failed, there is a faint possibility--we will NEVER know--that I might have settled for slightly less and been perfectly happy.

I should add that except for some shine on the driver's seat and steering wheel, the car looks and drives exactly as new, pretty impressive. No squeaks or rattles, the paint, carpets, and all the plastic bits still look new, and thanks to the composite body panels not even any dings.

[MicKay7]

Has anyone had a buyback experience in Arizona?? I just had an offer from VW and in it they want to dock me $7,500.00 for "usage" , my "Egg" only has 17,00 miles on it, doesnt this seem excessive??? I did check the federal guidelines for lemon law buyback and it meets that standard, however, I saw a buyback in VA. that was just 16 cents a mile(mine is over 44 cents a mile). Any attorneys familiar with AZ?? Is this right??? Thanks in advance!
mickay7

[MicKay7]

Has anyone had a buyback experience in Arizona?? I just had an offer from VW and in it they want to dock me $7,500.00 for "usage" , my "Egg" only has 17,000 miles on it, doesnt this seem excessive??? I did check the federal guidelines for lemon law buyback and it meets that standard, however, I saw a buyback in VA. that was just 16 cents a mile(mine is over 44 cents a mile). Any attorneys familiar with AZ?? Is this right??? Thanks in advance!
mickay7

[TREGinginCO]

Take a look at this website --- it's how I got in touch with the attorney who handled my lawsuit with Ford.

http://www.lemonlawamerica.com/

[4x4s]

Not sure about AZ, but generally the mileage charge should be based on the mileage when you first took it in for the problem, not the current mileage. So the usage charge should not be for 17,000 miles, but something much less.

[Virginia Belle]

Joe,

Please explain why you have a court date with VW. There doesn't seem to be a consistent pattern to VW dealing with their lemons.

My 04 V8 Touareg won't maintain an alignment-despite 9 attempts one observed by VW!

I called VWOA and told them I couldn't deal with it anymore,that I had a lemon. They "researched" the problem and replied with "we will address it as a warranty issue".

I hired an attorney, who sent out the request citing Virginia's Lemon Law.
VW responded with they didn't see a problem.

Attorney is filing a lawsuit which should go out within the next few days. He may elect to send a draft copy to VWOA. so we wait about 3 weeks.

Any suggestions,comments,advice? I am quite interested, obviously, in your experience if you would share it please.

Thanks ever so much.

Best Regards,

Virginia Belle

[joeofthemountain]

Virginia Belle,

It's pretty straight forward, really,

After six months of baloney from them, I gave them a 30 day deadline to address my long standing problems. After 60 days, I heard nothing... so I called a lawyer specializing in VW Lemon Law claims.

The lawyer contacted them with my complaints; VW blew him off; so he sued.

He noted that this is common practice by VW, that they will wait until a few weeks or so before the first hearing to settle out of court--and they almost never go to trial.

Makes me even angrier to know that they are playing these games. It is an extension of the way they treat VW enthusiasts who "dare" have a VW logo on their website, or who resell old VW parts... it's a certain guarantee to hear from VW's vultures with a cease-and-desist order.

As a lifetime VW/Audi/Porsche driver and buyer, I've about had it with this outfit!

Best--
Joe


Modified by joeofthemountain at 12:59 PM 9-23-2005

[ni7irs]

Mine is an 04 w 24,000 miles. The only thing it doesnt have is the parking sensors and four zone climate control- otherwise, it has everything. They are now offering me the "appraised" value of the car plus $5,000 toward a 2005. This car went into the shop the day after delivery because the air did not work when I picked it up. I estimate it has had 30 visits in excess of 40 days. It has gone through about 3 stepper motors and it has had a perpetual problem with the trailer lights malfunctioning. I think the service department is snippy with me now. Should I take this deal? I am inclined to say no.

[Grvlguy]

About the same BS they gave me, mine has been in the shop over 40 days, the list is to long to go into. I followed all procedures, they sent me a letter offering a $2500 offer to trade mine in for a new one. I told them to forget it. They then raised it to $5000. I told them to forget it. To break even on my 04 to the same 05 would take more than double that. All I wanted was to break even and move on. They told me to jump off a cliff. This to a guy that has owned VW's for over 30 years. They will not budge or move in any way. I looked on the website and they are offering $7500 toward the trade for a new 05! Hell they are offering the ones who have suffered from the this POS with poor quality control and service less than they are offering the general public! God this is close to fraud but is really just crappy ethics. VW of America is worthless in my view. I owned four VW's less than seven days ago. I decided life was to important to deal with these *******s. So I now own not one VW. I traded my POS Touareg, and my kids VW's last week for other cars or SUV's. After 30 years, I will NEVER own another VW period. End of discussion. The relief I now have from never dealing with this company again is greater than anything else I could have done. I feel great. Now I am sending a letter to each of my 500 employees telling them how VW treats it's customers and they can make their own choice. The 1.4 Billion VW of A lost this year will be nothing compared to what they will lose by treating customers like crap. Yes, the old line, when I spend $50K for a car I expect service applies here. I did not get it so they will not only no longer have my business but I will tell every person I know how they treated their customer. That is what they deserve.

[MicKay7]

Hi Grvlguy,
I am in negotiations with VW, and they want to charge me over 44 cents a mile for a mileage knock of almost 8K, I checked the web site and couldn't find the offer of $7,500 that you mentioned, could you direct me better to that site or tell me how to find that info.? My egg (bad egg!) is a 2004 with just 17,000 miles on it and it does bother me that I should loss over 8 K for driving a high maintainance vehicle.
Thanks

[Grvlguy]

The offer was on my local dealer website over the weekend but is not on there now, will check again this weekend. The VW site is currently offering 2.9%. You need to check the lemon laws in your state and see what they can legally charge you, that is what they will use for guidelines. TN is one half of the IRS allowable allowance. Check your state.

[mikew968]

I just got my '06 about 2 weeks ago as a replacement for my '04. So far so good!!! The '06 is minorly better in all aspects. Nothing real outstanding but just small tweaks. VW really took care of me well and at this point I am thrilled.

Mike

[stevenlea]

My 2004 T-Reg has been plagued by problems-Failed A/C, Alignment, Total Air Suspension failure- you can see my other posts. It is in the shop again for noise in the AC and Emission System Warning light this weekend- the day it came out of the shop- ironic. The T-Reg is a great vehicle to drive on and off road- unfortunately, the build quality of my 2004 was not up to my expectations for a $48m vehicle. I am seeking an exchange from VWOA, but haven't heard much from them at this point after almost 2 weeks.
My dealer, Rod East VW in San Antonio is working with me to resolve AC problems and communicate to VWOA. Service Manager and Service Consultant are very responsive and helpful, and always have been. I am not sure where this will end up, as VWOA has not responded or made contact with me to discuss exchange. I remain hopeful of a satisfactory, client oriented resolution from VWOA, as the "negative goodwill" generated by my inability to make a positive recommendation on Touareg will result in more lost sales for VW than what it would cost VW to exchange my vehicle. I noted in the Wall Street Journal yesterday the VW's Truck Sales are down 36% YTD. Higher gas prices and reliability issues can't help. Nonetheless, I just picked up a 2005 New Beetle Convertible Dark Flint Edition at Fletcher Jones Imports in Chicago yesterday. It is SWEET and the dealership was great. I haven't lost faith in VW.

[spockcat]

Quote, originally posted by stevenlea »

I noted in the Wall Street Journal yesterday the VW's Truck Sales are down 36% YTD.

ABC news mentioned that Ford Explorer and Expedition sales were down over 60% in September from the prior year. Obviously $3.00 per gallon gasoline found its mark. Funny that $2.70 per gallon is only 10% less and that didn't hurt sales anywhere near as much.

[joeofthemountain]

Elasticity of demand will change from market segment to market segment, in this example depending on disposable income.

There may also be a psychological effect of $3.00 akin to "Dow 10,000" etc.

[astroz]

For those of you getting replacement vehicles, are any of you leasing? If so does this extend your lease term? I expect to get my buyback offer from VWOA within the next day or two (they called on Friday saying they would have a final decision within 48 hours) and wouldn't mind replacing my lemon 2004 with a 2006, but I have only two years left on my lease and don't want to commit past that.

[Tregger]

Hi Astroz,

VW is offering me a new 2006 ordered from the factory. I have a 48 month lease and nothing will change with my payments, residual, etc.

Only problem is they want a $7K mileage deduction to replace it since mine has 32K miles.

This is too high in my opinion, but after repeated calls to arbitration/mediation they will not budge on the mileage deduction. I may get an attorney.

[Tregger]

Too everyone being offered a replacement with a large mileage deduction. Maybe we should all get together and file a Class Action lawsuit to get VW to wakeup and get us replacements at a reasonable charge or at zero cost on mileage deduction.

2004's had wayyyy to many problems to warrant the kind of money they are trying to charge us.

[watson007]

Being a non-litigious person by nature I really hate to admit that your suggestion may be the only thing that changes their behavior when it comes to getting customers out of a lemon luxury car.

[Tregger]

Watson007,

I have told them a lawyer is my last resort and lets work this out without getting them involved.

Seems like they want it to go that route so I can get what I want. I'm sure they're goal is to settle with someone for something advantageous to VW before it goes to court.

[MicKay7]

HI Tregger,
I live in AZ. also, could you e-mail me with a phone #? I have some info. you might be interested in! e-mail to mickay7@cox.net