The Itty Bitty NOVA VW Committee

[Evan]

what the fuck is going on here? The dealer screws him over several times and you donkeys are saying he shouldnt leave a bad survey because the dealer might get grumpy?
I get it that you dont want to fly off the handle the first small problem, but Taylor has given the dealer many chances to fix and they have not so clearly the nice guy routine isnt working.
At this point, Id give them bad surveys smeared with dog poo until my $30k new car is in the condition of a $30k new car.

But then again, I drive a Mazda and in 6 years I've only ever been to the dealer for oil changes and inspections (which are both free, btw). So what do I know.

[Jake]

Yeah. I drive to Fairfax because 1) they always give me a loaner out of their 100+ car fleet of loaners, 2) they listen to my complaints, 3) they fix them right the first time under warranty.

It's not hard to just go after work.

[ScottyB]

what the fuck is going on here?   The dealer screws him over several times and you donkeys are saying he shouldnt leave a bad survey because the dealer might get grumpy?

saying it based off his commitment to not going anywhere else.  they seem shitty enough it wouldn't do him any good.

[Senor_Taylor]

I get off work well after service departments close (although this may be changing, depending on how my interview tomorrow goes).

All valid points if Fairfax VW will give me a loaner when I go. Otherwise I'm changing a stop on the way home from work and a short walk from the office into a 45 minute drive in rush hour traffic or burning more PTO.

I'll talk to my SA today to see what we wanted to talk about. VW Corp is calling tomorrow.

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[WRXtranceformed]

You may have already burned that bridge player. No amount of convenience / proximity is worth dealing with a trash service department. I have had to "hire" and "fire" several service departments across many makes of cars over the years, it's just part of the lovely experience dealing with dealerships. Find a good one, give them your business, you'll find a way to fit it into your schedule (most service departments have Saturday service hours now, for example)

[ViPER1313]

All of this is why I sold my VW. No matter how good the warranty is, the time it takes to set up an appointment at a dealership, argue and manage advisors and techs and then wait days for the car to be fixed is incredibly inconvenient, even if you are given a loaner. I also went through 2 service departments during my VW ownership. Both were less than accommodating and bordered between incompetent and intentionally dishonest.

God speed sir.

[Jake]

All of this is why I sold my VW. No matter how good the warranty is, the time it takes to set up an appointment at a dealership,  argue and manage advisors and techs and then wait days for the car to be fixed is incredibly inconvenient, even if you are given a loaner. I also went through 2 service departments during my VW ownership. Both were less than accommodating and bordered between incompetent and intentionally dishonest.

God speed sir.

I thought you sold your VW because it was massively unreliable. 

You can have poor service experiences with any brand.

[ViPER1313]

It had several small issues like Taylor’s and a few larger ones, the main one being a leaking transmission that required 5 visits at 2 dealerships to remedy.

Visit 1 - “that’s not transmission fluid, it’s engine oil from an oil change that never happened”

Visit 2 (after they cleaned it up) - “it’s leaking, but not enough to warrant a repair”.

Bitched out service manager and DM, told him my 150k mile Ford didn’t leak a drop of transmission fluid and my 3k mile VW shouldn’t either.

Visit 3 - put dye in trans to verify leak. No loaner.

Visit 4 - verify that, in fact, it was leaking . Bear in mind this was obvious from just looking at the trans case. No loaner

Visit 5 (after waiting a month for parts to come in while I still had the car) - remove / rebuild trans. It took the better part of a week and I did get an loaner.

After the transmission was rebuilt, the car had an intermittent no-start issue (which was almost certainly caused by the repair job). I gave up on that one after 2 visits (could not reproduce, no action taken) and sold the car.

Edit: this was in addition to a visit for the airbag light (my fault there), a visit for rattles and a visit for an air box that ate through my top radiator hose. 9 or 10 service visits total.

[WRXtranceformed]

I have found that the luxury makes (Audi, Lexus, Jaguar) also have far, far superior dealership service visit experiences (assuming you've found a competent dealer) than even the best of the plebian makes' dealerships. A big reason why my brother sold his Grand Cherokee (along with the many recalls) was because Jeep's warranty and overall service experience was an absolute dumpster fire no matter where he took it. One time, they lost his keys and couldn't find his car for 2 hours after it was done. His experience with his Audis has been like night and day.

I'll add that despite my disdain for GM now, the Cadillac service experience was freaking fantastic. They had a bar and grill in my dealership where you could order a full meal while you waited for your oil change

[Apoc]

BMW is great.
Audi was shit.
Subaru was good.
VW was fine, but I've only had one oil change since I've owned it.

The same is true for non-dealer shops I've used. IMO, it's all in the ownership.

[WRXtranceformed]

Speaking of GTI, Facebook must have been listening because a VW ad came up in my feed, followed by comments of people who got branded by the VW logo on the steering wheel of their GTI when the airbags deployed:



Another girl complained that it actually branded and scarred her on the chest. That would be a little worrying

[joey_admin]

Fuck, that's metal.

[WRXtranceformed]

Fuck, that's metal.

Do you ask VW at that point to pay you for life for the advertising?

[joey_admin]

Pay ME?! I'm walking next door right now to ask them to shoot one at me in the wind tunnel.

[Sijray21]

I guess that beats Honda in shrapnel all over my face. I hope I never get to experience an airbag going off...

[Goodspeed]

Possibly relevant

https://jalopnik.com/brand-new-volkswage...1831242214

[Scott]

what the fuck is going on here?   The dealer screws him over several times and you donkeys are saying he shouldnt leave a bad survey because the dealer might get grumpy?  
I get it that you dont want to fly off the handle the first small problem,  but Taylor has given the dealer many chances to fix and they have not so clearly the nice guy routine isnt working.  
At this point, Id give them bad surveys smeared with dog poo until my $30k new car is in the condition of a $30k new car.

But then again,  I drive a Mazda and in 6 years I've only ever been to the dealer for oil changes and inspections (which are both free, btw).  So what do I know.

This.  Screw the dealer if they are treating you terribly, they deserve the truth on the survey and you take your business elsewhere.

---

So, VW reached out to me and just straight up asked "What would you like?"



Uhhh... a Golf R?

I don't know.



Edit:

Let me be clear. I don't care as much about the dealer as much as having a car that's broken ever 6 weeks.

So after reading the last several pages, what you want is for VW to take the car back and walk away from the brand.

[.RJ]

Here's the deal on the surveys - they arent what you think they are. Everything about that survey is used to ding the service writer on their pay if every one is not '5 star', even if it has nothing to do with how the service writer is doing their job. The whole system of it is pretty fucked up, but it is what it is.

Either go to the dealership GM or take your business elsewhere and leave a review on yelp/google/etc.

[Senor_Taylor]

So I'm not sure if I'm getting anything out of this except them fixing the speaker and the lights.

So here's where I'm at.

I don't feel the dealer has really wronged me too terribly. Sure they sucked at diagnosing the lights and speakers, but I'm MORE mad at VW for such shit workmanship on the vehicle itself.

Let's propose VW took the car back. I have no idea what I'd want to DD more than a GTI. What's even out there that competes at the same price point? The SI,WRX,FoSt are miles behind the GTI.

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[WRXtranceformed]

Here's the deal on the surveys - they arent what you think they are.  Everything about that survey is used to ding the service writer on their pay if every one is not '5 star', even if it has nothing to do with how the service writer is doing their job.  The whole system of it is pretty fucked up, but it is what it is.

Either go to the dealership GM or take your business elsewhere and leave a review on yelp/google/etc.

This ^^

The easiest way to get what you want out of service-based professionals is to understand how they get paid and how you influence that.  When I am looking for new service departments I will bluntly find out if service writer surveys impact their personal KPIs.  If they do, I tell them I will make sure to fill them out 5 stars or whatever it is if they take care of me.  On the other side of it, if things aren't going well I have "held" a survey and told a service department that I'm willing to hold it and return it with 5 stars if they fix my issue.  That usually works if feet are being dragged.  If they don't care about getting poor ratings (ie. if they don't care about doing a good job even if it affects their livelihood) I have no problem blasting someone on a survey if its warranted and taking my business elsewhere.

I have had service writers look the other way and do a LOT of free stuff for me when they know that I know how I can help them get paid.  I have also brought donuts / pizza which helps stay on their good graces.