VW is not the People’s Car

VW does not provide cars suited to the climate and refuses to acknowledge common issues as faults, despite all the technicians alluding to the issue being extremely common.

My 2013 VW GTi has had 3 water pumps in its short life. It’s also had two electrostats and a radiator. This vehicle has been serviced and maintained by VW at great expense. When it needed a fourth water pump, 6 months out of the 12 month warranty on the last repair (R17k) VW ignored my requests to cover it under warranty. The dealers won’t look further than what the computer says and if there are no faults, then there’s no issue.

What’s more surprising is that other brands will honour warranties well outside of their limited span for these sorts of common issues (that suggest a design flaw). My 5 year old MacBook had a service program that lasted 4 years after the standard warranty. I guess that’s the difference between a brand that cares about their customers and their own brand reputation.

My bottom line, don’t buy VW if you plan on keeping the car out of the warranty period and don’t buy a second hand VW. If you must, don’t use the dealers because they just replace parts.

To add insult to injury, the water pump that failed 3 times on my car has been quietly replaced with a new, “superseded” pump, but that’s got nothing to do with the shocking lifespan of the old part, right?

It blows my mind that VWSA doesn’t