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Originally Posted by driven646 Wow - just Wow, so you're looking at 2.16L worth of Repair work in total. That's just unreal - besides the Flywheel replacement all I've spent on my Passat has been for the Annual Services and to change the brake pads. I've really enjoyed my Passsat and was contemplating upgrading to the new Passat sometime this year - but your experience really scares me. |
Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love my Passat. My main complaints are about the patchy reliability and inconsistent service experiences with the authorized dealer. It just hasn't matched up to the Japs (Toyota and Honda) in my garage, on the reliability and service front. Apart from the normal wear & tear items + services, I have had a lot done to my car as is evident in this thread.
I love the new Passat and will be test driving it as well. But I am very very anxious about dealing with similar issues again. On the other hand, I'm not sure of what to buy as a replacement.
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Originally Posted by jalajprakash Would suggest you to get an FNG to take a look at your car and determine what is wrong. The dealership seems to be out to fleece you. |
I'm a little nervous about taking a complicated car like the Passat to an FNG. Plus they don't give any guarantee on their repairs. Yes, authorized workshops are WAY more expensive, but I can pull them up if the job done is not up to the mark and VW gives a 2 year warranty on the replaced parts.
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Originally Posted by baskar That is a lot of money to shell out for 6 year old car. Definitely my next car is not going to be a Passat. while it is great to drive, beyond a point, it gets scary to own and enjoy. The only good thing is that whatever parts that are replaced are good and they seem to be made with the same build quality. |
I am considering selling my Passat at the moment. Even though it is 6 years old, it's not run much (got 49,750 on the ODO currently) compared to my other cars. However, I'm not sure what to replace it with? Camry Hybrid and Accord don't make sense at their price point. We don't like the Skoda Superb. C-Class/3-Series/A4 are more expensive and not as spacious. Only alternative is another Passat (which I really like), but I am very nervous about dealing with the patch reliability and service again. The good thing about the new parts is that they come with a 2 year warranty.
Update:-
Got the car back on the 24th of February (bit more than 3 weeks off the road). After many phone calls and pressuring, they gave us a courtesy car (diesel Vento Comfortline) to use on the 17th of February. This greatly reduced our inconvenience for the remaining time my car was off the road.
When my driver went to receive the car, the handover was anything but perfect. All the engine noise had been sorted out. But, he found the headlamp washer bottle to be leaking water and the TPMS + Traction Control light to be glowing in the instrument cluster.
I don't know what checks are carried out before delivery, but I fail to understand how they don't bother noting and investigating such issues which were not there when the car was given to them! I was furious at them for wasting my driver's time and making him wait despite telling me that the car was ready for delivery.
The SA looked into these issues again and finally returned the car after multiple attempted fixes and test drives. My driver spent a little over 2 hours at the workshop going back and forth with me over the phone about the problems.
To cut a long story short, some clip seems to have been broken that is causing the washer bottle to leak. The SA has promised to rectify the problem FOC once the parts arrive after 5 - 7 days. Before returning the car, they did something to make the warning lights go away. Happy with the result, my driver collected the car and returned home. Total charges for all the work carried out was approximately Rs. 1,43,000 (parts + labour + taxes).
The car now sounds and drives like normal. Unfortunately, the Traction Control light is back on again and so is the TPMS. I couldn't do anything by pushing the Traction-Control button as well. The Auto-Hold function doesn't seem to be responding as well.
As for the TPMS, I will have the tyre pressures checked tomorrow morning and reset the system. Hopefully that should solve that.
Got a feedback call from the service center and told her about these issues. I have been asked to send the car back again after Holi to have these checked. Told her I would like these issues to be addressed when I send the car back for the washer-bottle repair.
One issue that I forgot to tell them to look into, was the electric hand brake. Every time I engage the hand brake, there is a loud squeak from the rear-right wheel. Nothing abnormal happens while dis-engaging it. Hopefully it isn't anything serious. Let's wait and see what happens during my next workshop visit.
P.S. - Will be keeping an eye out to see if the starting problem resurfaces. Nothing so far.