Massive VW re-call

[Twiggy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24940238

 

I wonder how this will affect VW`s reputation...

[Sloth in a bowl]

Well the first part of solving any problem is to admit you have one. In this case I think it's a step forward for VW.

[saucedoctor]

Two stage recall - "Today Europe, tomorrow the world"

[londonm]

'Problems with lights, leaking fuel lines, and the wrong type of engine oil'. On this basis, if this was 1979 Britain, every BL car ever manufactured would have had to have been recalled.

 

It won't affect VW's reputation one jot, deserved or not.

[Justin Case]

Are the gearbox problems with DSG gearboxes, which have two wet plate clutches? If so wrong type of oil suggests cheapskate owners not using the correct oil(I assume it needs changing from time to time) Also VAG PDI engines are very sensitive to the oil used, no Aldi special offers here .

 

Another case of 'all new cars are....etc, etc.?'

[Lacquer Peel]

I wonder if they are issuing a recall because automatic gearboxes are popular in a litigious part of the world.

[Spiny Norman]

It won't affect VW's reputation one jot, deserved or not.

They've been clogging up the hard shoulders for the last few years and do worse in all the customer surveys than Fiats and Fords and that hasn't hurt them, so a few gearboxes going pop is unlikely to dissuade the sheep that buy them.

[Felly Magic]

You should see the mindless Skoda 'sheep' that whenever you mention the words 'piss poor reliability', and ooh look another with a blown engine (1.4 TFSi), they do the 'lalalalala I'm not listening bit', as they've been brainwashed to think VAG products are the best thing since the sliced loaf. 

[Barry Cade]

Leaking fuel lines... Never mind- damped grab handles and rock solid residuals  will take your mind off your arse being on fire...

[rml2345]

I like how leaking fuel lines and potential gearbox implosion are described as relatively minor but Toyota sticky throttles and carpets were OMGKITTENDEATH because some Americans couldn't turn their cars off when it went a bit frisky.

[Barry Cade]

I like how leaking fuel lines and potential gearbox implosion are described as relatively minor but Toyota sticky throttles and carpets were OMGKITTENDEATH because some Americans couldn't turn their cars off when it went a bit frisky.

Audi are past masters at this the 5000 (100) was subject to a big investigation for exactly the same issue years ago in 'merica..

 

"

A flood of lawsuits was already washing over Audi, not to mention a tsunami of bad publicity. Audi took a questionable stance: they didn’t blame the drivers for the problem, even after the NHTSA report came out. Hey, the customer’s always right, and we sure wouldn’t want to make our American customers look stupid. Anything but that.

So the German automaker took it on the chin. Audi sales collapsed, from 74k units in 1984 to 12k by 1991. The timing added insult to injury; sales fell exactly during the same years when Lexus arrived to battle for the hearts and wallets of America’s up-scale consumers. Lexus quickly became the latest suburban driveway prestige symbol.

As a final kick to the near-corpse, Audi’s suddenly wanna-be-Lexus drivers launched a class action suit charging lost resale value. No wonder the brand almost abandoned the U.S. in 1993. It’s a killer market."

[Richard]

I like how leaking fuel lines and potential gearbox implosion are described as relatively minor but Toyota sticky throttles and carpets were OMGKITTENDEATH because some Americans couldn't turn their cars off when it went a bit frisky.

 

Didn't the Toyota issues turn out to be mostly fictional?

[fordperv]

All new carz iz shit

[RedSparrow]

It won't effect their reputation at all.

 

They're generally bought by the same people who have iPhones; even if Apple said on their adverts 'ha ha our phones are inferior to other brands but are twice the price' people would still buy them as they are perceived as a desirable brand. Morons.

[Cavcraft]

It won't effect their reputation with me. They'll always be over-rated toss.

[Pillock]

Great BBC reporting as usual - apparently it's the "wrong engine oil" in the gearbox.

 

Go on the VOSA website and see how many recalls every single mainstream manufacturer has. For a laugh, see how many Renault have that could potentially end in death. This isn't news, this is someone at the BBC has bought a VW, it's shat itself somewhere and they're getting revenge. 

 

Remember kids..... All new cars is shit.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Every other 2.0 diesel Passat advertised seems to have; 'New injectors fitted by VW should have cost £3,000'

 

Was this a recall ,or just a sneaky one- off* goodwill gesture to thousands of Passtit owners?

And when is there a Watchdog expose on Audi 2.0 tdi plastic oil pump gears breaking or generally on the wonderful Multi- shititself gearbox?

[Pillock]

There is a recall on the 170hp 2.0TDI VW engines, the piezo injectors fail and you're talking well into four figures for parts alone.

[HillmanImp]

Its ever since the hoo-ha with Toyota proved such a popular and lasting news story that the people doing the news latch onto anything like this. I think its the 4th of 5th similar story I have seen on the BBC website in the last few years.

 

Like Pillock says, recalls are quite normal and its just news for the sake of news not public or consumer interest really.

[Spiny Norman]

Remember the Mercedes A class 'elk test' PR disaster form a few years ago?

A journalist trying a manoeuvre that few, if any motorists would attempt managed to turn the thing over and (IIRC) do nothing more than break his arm. No customers had similar crashes and it was claimed that several other cars would fail the same test. Mercedes did the decent thing and went back to the drawing board.

 

Couple of years afterwards, all the new 'Audi TTs were quietly recalled for modification to the rear suspension and a new rear spoiler after a few of them had actually killed paying customers who were silly enough to drive these alleged 4x4 high performance sports cars round Autobahn bends that their BMWs or Mercedes had been taking at the same speed for years, only to discover that they let go halfway round and couldn't be recovered.

 

Audi got out of jail free with that one, very few people remember it.

[Junkman]

'Problems with lights, leaking fuel lines, and the wrong type of engine oil'. On this basis, if this was 1979 Britain, every BL car ever manufactured would have had to have been recalled.

 

No big deal though, since most BL cars didn't have any quality issues. They weren't built in the first place.

[rml2345]

I remember both the A class "Elk test" and the Audi TT thing quite well. The PR circus that attached itself to the Merc problem was way out of proportion and did MB quite a lot of harm at the time. On the other hand the TT became the darling of folk with more money than sense and it's handling 'quirk' was of more interest to the motoring press at the time than the actual media.

Do many folk really care about this sort of thing though? I remember when the Mondeo was launched and it spent months on Watchdog for its apparent readiness to pull left when not required and it still sold really well.

[Chas4545]

The daily Torygraph motoring correspondent has been banging on  about the DSG wet  clutch gearbox problem for a few years now, he says that the  warranty in China and other big VW export markets has been extended to 10 years but here, we just get the standard three years, and  a £250 mandatory change of gearbox fluid at every other service.

This  is going to be a biggy I think. Such a shame, as the original 6 speeder was a great gearbox, mostly.

Nearly chopped my V70 100k miler in for one, sooooo glad I didn't. I am running my own personal experiment to see just how far the V70 will go before it expires.

My first post so be gentle.

[Negative Creep]

Well I for one will not be buying a VW after reading this, clearly their reputation has OMG IT'S GOT BLUE DIALS AND SOFT TOUCH DOOR HANDLES! WHERE DO I SIGN?

[Station]

Perodua recalled the Nippa in 1999, due to the speedo drive on the gearbox over reading a bit. Mine does it, so I assume it was never taken in.

I remember the furor when I found that out.

ORL MALAYSIAN CARS THAT WERE ORIGINALLY BASED ON A JAPANESE DESINE R SIHT!

[Pillock]

Recalls happen purely for commercial purposes. Recalls happen when the cost of the recall is less than the cost of compensation to affected customers, so it takes into account the probability of it going wrong, and if you'll be injured or killed since those claims will be substantially more.

 

The elk test was found to be a bit of a con wasn't it? I'm sure I read that the only way the A-class would tip is if you had a smaller diameter tyre on the opposite side to the direction of the turn.

[Barry Cade]

Remember the Mercedes A class 'elk test' PR disaster form a few years ago?

 

 

Couple of years afterwards, all the new 'Audi TTs were quietly recalled for modification to the rear suspension and a new rear spoiler after a few of them had actually killed paying customers who were silly enough to drive these alleged 4x4 high performance sports cars round Autobahn bends that their BMWs or Mercedes had been taking at the same speed for years, only to discover that they let go halfway round and couldn't be recovered.

 

Audi got out of jail free with that one, very few people remember it.

I do- I was in Germany at the time, and remember the mass hysteria small article on page 4 of the newspaper about a certain bend on a certain autobahn. Audi took all the TT's back to the factory and fitted a tiny rear spoiler and played with the suspension. I still have the launch brochure.. Should have kept the "launch" article..

 

Just had a little groffle- was at the services changing the back wheel on a Transit, when the branded snobby VAG breakdown service turned up, to a 63 plate A2. Wipers were'nt and lights were going batshit. Double wheeler Transit done and dusted in the time it took to hook up the corporate laptop, even with bouncing kids, rusty wheelnuts and a duff jack.

[londonm]

It won't effect their reputation at all.

 

They're generally bought by the same people who have iPhones; even if Apple said on their adverts 'ha ha our phones are inferior to other brands but are twice the price' people would still buy them as they are perceived as a desirable brand. Morons.

I beg to differ there, doing what I do for a living Apple is the only way. Also, every phone I've had is like a toy compared to an iPhone.

[HillmanImp]

I beg to differ there, doing what I do for a living Apple is the only way. Also, every phone I've had is like a toy compared to an iPhone.

 

I don't remember Citizen Smith having an iPhone last time I watched it. 

 

His iphone usage has probably been covered up by some sort of massive BBC conspiracy at the taxpayers expense orchestrated by the lizards that secretly run the British government in order to make people think global warming is real. 

[willswitchengage]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24940238

 

I wonder how this will affect VW`s reputation...

 

Well, didn't Honda and Toyota each recall a bazillion cars? People who bought GMs, VWs were briefly smug then their cars all broke down again, and the sensible money stayed buying Japanese stuff. 

 

Everybody recalls at some point, but the same manufacturers top the JDPower survey every year. Who remembers the recall scene in Fight Club?