March 2007
From What Car? (story dated today)
Volkswagen is ordering a review of its own quality procedures following a series of embarrassing low scores in recent surveys.
The move was ordered by VW's new boss, Martin Winterkorn, because he feels any perception of low quality will affect VW's international competitiveness.
Part of the way VW is tackling this is to replace the current head of quality at VW, Falko Schling, with Hans-Joachim Rothenpieler from Audi: Audi's reputation for quality is unrivalled in mainstream motor manufacturing.
As part of the drive to renew confidence in its cars, VW has already replaced the proposed door seals on the next-generation (Mk VI) Golf, which is due out next year.
The next car to go under the quality microscope is the Polo - VW is reviewing the trim materials used for its dashboard.
www.whatcar.com/news-article.aspx?NA=224439 Read more
A car has been seized after police found as many as 10 people crammed into it in Newbury town centre.
www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID...3
I managed to cram 8 people (including myself) in a Mk1 Astra once, not including the boot space, I hasten to add.
I'm sure someone can better that score though. Any takers?
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"I'm sure I could fit a slim young lady on my lap if it was a safety issue."
How safe would she be, and safe from what?
Had a look over the motor today. Thought the exhaust was blowing. When the bonnet was lifted and hand revved it sounded like a a sharp intake of air ripping from up near the injectors (She is a Rover 414 16v)
Cheers
Micky Read more
Found that noise btw it was the down pipe and flexi coupling rattling like a goodun on revs. Very hard to see on my own and they dont tend to rev it on the ramps at Kwik-fit!
I reckon it could do with another rubber mount around there to be honest.
hi ive lost my main key to my audi, ive a spare but it only lets car run for matter of mins how come?wil it be an expensive job to get replacement key or is there anyway i can get spare key to work? Read more
hi guys,having a bit of trouble with my 420 sli.the red srs light on the dash is flashing ,anyone got any ideas what to do?thanks Read more
Hi jakman, sounds like an airbag problem, get it checked a.s.a.p. if this is the case, cheers, Graham.
I had a slow puncture and decided to get 2 new tyres on the front.
A nationwide tyre/exhaust company did 2 Avon tyres for the price of one costing a total of £77.00.
Steel wheels 185/65/14.
I did not have the tracking checked when the new tyres were fitted.
Since the tyres have been fitted the car has been veering to the left and shaking at around 70mph.
I have been back to the tyre co. twice.
The first time they rebalanced one wheel and adjusted the tracking. It was adjusted from 3.0 to 0.5.
The second time they said that one wheel was slightly buckled and put the new tyre on the spare rim and the spare tyre on the buckled rim and told me everything should be fine now.
The shake is much better but still apparant.
The car is still veering to the left.
To keep the car straight it is necessary to hold the steering wheel off-centre.
If I let go of the steering wheel it centres gradually (5-10 secs) and the car veers left.
Should the tracking have been done so that the steering wheel is dead centre when going in a straight line or would that require the steering wheel to be removed?
The car was previously fine on it's firestones.
Is it possible that the new tyre(s) could be causing this?
The tyre co. have been helpful so far but I am not sure what to do next. Read more
Thanks for the replies
No potholes or kerbing. I am the only one that drives the car.
I have swapped the tyres front to rear to fully eliminate them.
I did check the wheel temperatures after a 15 min drive both were relatively cool.
I can hear friction on the brakes on both sides when the wheels are rotated with the car jacked up.
Someone on the Primera forum has suggested
"It could be worn bushes, king pin or ball joint and they should all be checked before attempting to set the tracking. "
hi all,
does anyone know what the bhp is on the rare 1.6 306 xsi?
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im not rate handy when it comes to cars tho, so it'd proberly have to be a garage job
A friend of mine bought a 12 month old Laguna from a franchised dealer that was advertised with just 3k on the clock and a bargain at £7,995. Turned out the car was a lemon with a catalogue of repairs required under what was left of the original 3 year warranty - very inconvenient as the car was off the road for weeks on end but at least no hard earned changing hands for my friend.
The shocker came when the dashboard electronics failed and, having lost faith in the first dealer, he brought it to another who quickly diagnosed that, according to the part records, the original dashboard had previously been replaced and could he verify the true mileage of the car. Back he went to the first dealer for an explanation and after a time of purchase). But they offered their profuse apologies for the 'oversight' in not divulging this minor detail at the time of purchase but it was still a bargain!. No-one could remember what mileage was on the car before the original dashboard was trashed except that the previous owner was a company car driver which didn't suggest low mileage.
What I find especially interesting in this tale is that the service history of the car does not show what work has been done or parts that have been replaced under warranty. Is this common practice? Surely the customer has a right to this information before purchase so that the quality of the product can be fully assessed? I for one would steer well clear of a 'real bargain' if it has a history of woes, warranty or no warranty!
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When I was speaking to a BMW about the *service* history of my car, one of the items was a new engine. The dealer then pointed out (and faxed receipts) showing that this was done under warranty. So they didn't make any secret of it.
Simple question really. I'm not after opinions on either, just a one word answer which will be "Golf" or "Scenic".
Choice for company car is VW Golf 1.9TDi 105 S, or Renault Grand Scenic 1.5DCi 106 Dynamique.
Which would you choose?
Cheers,
DB Read more
Not the exact scheme that we use, but pretty close....
www.europcar.co.uk/busprog/minilease.html
Thanks for all your opinions...!
DB
Hi guys,
Got a VW Bora 2002 1.6 16v with 47k on the clock.
seem to have a intermittent fault on the temperature gauge. Sometimes the needle rises to the middle of the temperature gauge on the interior panel as you'd expect then the engine is at operating temperature. on the other hand, when the engine is at ambient temperature, the needle stays at 50 degrees.
the antifreeze is at max, and i have a feeling it might be the temperature sensor located at the bottom of the expansion tank where the antifreeze is topped up. Am i right in thinking this?
Thanks for your responses in advance!
Skiddy
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I had this problem with my old octavia - intermittently, the needle would rise as the engine warmed up, then drop down and stay there.
Having identified your engine as an AZD (mine was ALH), you should be able to get a Haynes manual and confirm where the temp sensor is, then you need to identify it on the car. If the external, visible part of the sensor is black plastic, it is almost certainly the problem - the revised ones are green.
A browse of briskoda.net or one of the vw forums should provide you with the part number ('fraid i dont have it as I dont have the skoda or the bora any more), and also sadly confirm that the sensors cost about £20 over here but as low as $7 in the States. If you get yourself a new sensor, make a point of getting a new O-ring as well - it comes as a separate item, and you will have to ask for it.
speaking for the ALH engine, it takes a bit of fiddling to disconnect the electric cable, but you must do this first. Then there is an external circlip round the sensor, which pulls off with a downward motion. It should then be simple to ease out the old sensor and bung in the new one quickly before yuo lose to much coolant, replace circlip, re-connect wiring, top up the coolant with the ready-mix you got from Halfords beforehand, and Robert is, as they say, your mothers' brother
Hope it works for you !
--
Go on, get out of the car...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk
Browse
Martin, many thanks for a - er long response with many points to discuss.
Firstly my facts on VAG platform and component sharing are gathered from a couple of friends who are designers at Bentley and work very closely with Audi so I am pretty confident they are reasonably accurate - either that or my friends & their colleagues would benefit from a day's training from you on what their company really does with it's component and platform strategy. I'm sure you could teach them alot judging by your last post.
On the subject of the 'poor sod' who chose to share his/her views on VAG ownership on the web - well I am not going to lower myself to talk about someone who is not here to defend him/herself other than to say that clearly they have had some impact on your life that you feel strong enough to remember & bring them up when I assume they are not participating in this discussion - but also as oilrag states the web is a great leveller and gives the 'poor sod' an opportunity to share his/her bad experiences with your good ones.
You stated in a response to Aprilla that you 'kick up a right fuss' when it suits you - is this 'poor sod' denied this option ?
The reason I raised the Japanese Vs German issue was as a follow on discussion from Aprilla's point about Subaru quality. You are quiet correct Martin Winterkorn did not raise the subject specifically and I did not realise that precluded the rest of us from using it as a comparison. Given that the Japenese usually set the benchmark in the automotive world for quality and reliability then to use them on a quality subject posting seems fair to me.
Although you seem against me raising the Japanese Vs German point you then go on to spend alot of time detailing the sales figures of these companies in the UK - which only tells part of the story. If you look globally at the sales figures for these companies then clearly the Toyota/ Lexus brands sell many more cars than VAG could ever wish to. I would just add to this that the UK market is heavily biased by Company car owners who don't really care if the car goes wrong in the same way a private buyer would - hence the strong German car presence on our roads.
As you say we all choose cars that suit us and given the opportunity on a forum such s this to then share our experiences in my view is great.