2004 vw golf mk 4 gt tdi - paint blisters

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
View Threaded
Sat 16 Jul 2011 11:32
2004 vw golf mk 4 gt tdi - paint blisters - nigel pb

I have owned this car from new, and it has full service history ( first 3 years vw dealer), and it has done 69k. After discovering blisters to the front wing and both rear arches, I took my golf to the main dealer to see about repairs under the 10 year warrenty. They accepted the front wing was through corrosion, and offered me 70% towards the cost of repair, even though the warrenty is supposed to cover this! There excuse was had it been serviced at vw, they would have noticed the covering under the wheel arch was rubbing against the inner arch and therefore fixed it. They said the rear arches was due to stone chips. After many hours getting views from different paint shops they all basically came up with the same theory, that the car had not been prepared properly before painting at the factory and it had now started to come through. I paid £150.00 for a report from a company called PVWi 2010 who confirmed the blistering was down to zinc inclusions. These cannot be found at any service, and are not the fault of the owner by any form of neglect, they just take a long time to appear. After trailing through many websites and forums I have discovered that VW and Audi accept these zinc inclusions and have repaired many of their cars under warrenty. So why, are not every vw or audi that has these being repaired ? Anybody out there help?

Edited by nigel pb on 16/07/2011 at 11:33

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 23 Jul 2011 20:33
2004 vw golf mk 4 gt tdi - paint blisters - hcm

If the small print of VWs warranty states that the car has to be serviced at VW then they may be in the right, but i suspect that isn't the case.

Get some legal advice.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 23 Jul 2011 21:13
2004 vw golf mk 4 gt tdi - paint blisters - bonzo dog

Whilst the car does not need to be serviced at a VW dealership to maintain the mechanical & paint & bodywork warranty, it is a condition of the paint & bodywork warranty that this is inspected every X years so that they can prevent a minor blemish turning into a major one, as has happened here.

This inspection will usually be done free of charge during a service at a VW dealer.

70% sounds reasonable to me, given this.

As regards to the rear arch, your only option (assuming you have complained to the dealer & VW) is to go legal using the independent report as evidence.

Good luck

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 24 Jul 2011 07:58
2004 vw golf mk 4 gt tdi - paint blisters - Collos25

You are going down a very expensive road it has already cost you much time and a considerable amount of money on a meaningless report the money would have be better spent towards the repair and the longer you leave it the worse the rust will get.,

The 70% is meaningless the important figure is how much you will have to pay it maybe that the 30% you have to pay VW is more than the cost of the total job at an independant bodyshop after all its an old car not serviced by VW they have had no chance to do the routine body checks your on a hiding to nothing .

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 24 Jul 2011 07:59
2004 vw golf mk 4 gt tdi - paint blisters - Collos25

You are going down a very expensive road it has already cost you much time and a considerable amount of money on a meaningless report the money would have be better spent towards the repair and the longer you leave it the worse the rust will get.,

The 70% is meaningless the important figure is how much you will have to pay it maybe that the 30% you have to pay VW is more than the cost of the total job at an independant bodyshop after all its an old car not serviced by VW they have had no chance to do the routine body checks your on a hiding to nothing .

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 24 Jul 2011 08:06
2004 vw golf mk 4 gt tdi - paint blisters - Collos25

You are going down a very expensive road it has already cost you much time and a considerable amount of money on a meaningless report the money would have be better spent towards the repair and the longer you leave it the worse the rust will get.,

The 70% is meaningless the important figure is how much you will have to pay it maybe that the 30% you have to pay VW is more than the cost of the total job at an independant bodyshop after all its an old car not serviced by VW they have had no chance to do the routine body checks your on a hiding to nothing .

Reply | Report as offensive | Link