Having just left the VW dealership £230 lighter in the pocket. I feel that I need to vent my spleen somewhere.
I am annoyed that a headlamp can be smashed completely by a stone on the motorway, it has never happened to me in any other car. I have read reports that this is not uncommon on the golf. Is there a design fault?
Then i get a bill for £116 for the headlamp and £78 labour plus the VAT.
I questioned the garage, who told me that they had to remove the bumper to fit the new light. I was then told to invest in headlamp protectors. I don't need these for any other car, why do I need these for the golf?
Does anybody have any similar experiences, should I take this up with VW customer service or am I just wasting my time.
Cheers
Matt
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It's only a design fault if you believe (as I happen to rather strongly, but the industry doesn't) that ease of maintenance should be an important consideration during design.
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The manufacturer only has to pay for maintenance for the 3 (5 if you're lucky?) year warranty period I suppose. So once that's up I can see why they wouldn't care. And if the car dies after 10 years because the necessay repairs to whatever went wrong are too expensive / impossible, then that's good for the manufacturer too. In their position I would probably do the same.
But I can imagine a lot of design engineers, for whom the real art is combining practicality AND style (so you can replace the funky headlight without needing to remove the snazzy bumper, for example) in very frustrating and unsatisfying jobs.
GJD
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Just to point out that the car is still under 3 year warranty, but this is not covered as it is stone damage ( I think to an inferior quality product)
Matt
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My head lamp has been broken too, and my car is new. If i decide to get it fixed by someone else, (garage). Does it affect the warrenty. Please advise ????
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In the space of a year I had a fog light and two windscreens smashed by flying stones due to a design fault by Surrey Highways. The stretch of dual carriageway about half a mile either way off J11 of the M25 (Chertsey/Woking) had a central reservation which was simply filled with large stones as a soakaway. Lazy HGV's and other drivers simply U-turned over it at night or when the road was chocker with traffic dragging stones onto the carriageway.
Last year the council fitted barriers along the central reservation, in my opinion, admitting some responsibility. I submitted a claim to the council complete with bills, dates and photographs only to have them deny responsibility.
Currently have a MK3 Golf, so thank goodness SCC have now cleared up their mess and reduced the risk of me breaking more glass.
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