Who Here Has Written To VW About The BS Issue?

aja8888

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In my previous 2005 Passat wagon, the BSM was done at 60K. Then I drove it 70K more miles and sold the car. The new owner has it now at ~150K and it's running fine, except he told me recently the transmission is shot.
 

Montezuma

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Seemed there has been a decent turnover of these and they are getting the age of bsm failure or replacement if it was not earlier(like mine). I thought with all the attention the government is giving to automakers in regard to recalls, I thought it might be a good idea to let them know that we are still here.
 

Montezuma

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Then again....
 

Montezuma

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Thought I read the new passat was getting recalled and it was <200 times, so I thought maybe they are getting more sensitive then in the past, wanting to avoid the bad hype that toyota is going through.
 

leicaman

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Here is the really the problem. In the two year run VW imported what 12,000 examples total or something on that order. It is nothing near what GM made in the Ion, Colbolt range that is part of GM's recent fail. Plenty of these Passats are either boneyard items or they have been converted etc. There now is not much reason for them to recall. Just be happy at this point they had some better parts in the parts bins.
 

PlaneCrazy

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And those still on the road are between 8 and 10 years old. Ours turns 10 this year. It has 267k km on it and is starting to feel its age.

Mine is converted but assuming it wasn't converted and it tooefed at this point in its life, it's unrealistic to expect any kind of recall at this stage. Old cars quit on the highway for any number of reasons, and a balance shaft drive fail is no different. The HPFPs on common rails cause the same issue: dead on road. The problem is that this is happening still to new cars, hence all the NHTSA attention. That, plus there's way more of them. Yet VW still has not issued a recall, probably because there's no specified series of "bad ones". They die randomly, and the replacement parts are identical.

VW missed the boat on the BS issue, because there is a redesigned module, that should have been part of a recall. But it would have been one hell of an expensive recall. Assume (at VW shop rates) about $2500 per unit, for 10,000 cars (assuming some attrition), that's $25m. It was probably better policy to deal with it on a one-on-one issue. Ours was replaced by a VW dealer with 75% participation by VW Canada, at 181k km (about 110k miles). It required months of negotiations.

At this point VW will laugh at anybody trying to get reimbursement for this issue.
 

Dimitri16V

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VW may laugh all it wants , when they have abysmal sales which is already happening since the "golden" period of 99-06 , then we will see who laughs best. all the rest of the automakers are recovering since the recession and VW is lagging behind

The local VW rep laughed at me when I asked him to replace a fender on my 01 , that was the tipping point for me. If VWoA was the No1 automaker in the USA , I could understand the arrogance .

I work for a German company and we control 85% of the global market in my division. We never became arrogant , ignored the customer or trying to cheat them
VWs business philosophy is toxic and it has for years trickled down to the dealers

Remember , your power lies in your pocket
 

oilhammer

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There are just too many to list....
Lagging behind? I beg to differ. Volkswagen was one of the few companies that really wasn't struggling with any recession. While other companies were selling off or killing of brands or going bankrupt, VAG was BUYING brands like Ducati and Scania. Volkswagen sales have done very well. Hardly anything to worry about.

They have no worries about US sales, because even if they stop selling cars here completely it would barely be a blip on their radar screen.
 

aja8888

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I think VW wants to have sales in this country to maintain its international brand rating and status. Other than that, not a huge corporate goal. I am sure, like OH states, they are doing well, especially with China sales.

On another note, the longer a car company can hold off on a recall, the more cost effective it is. How many people do you know that will bring their Cobalt in for the GM recall? If VW was to crater at this time on the BSM issue, how many would actually roll into a dealer for that recall?
 

thundershorts

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It usually takes blood on the highway to get NHTSA to force a recall. The GM airbag thing involves I think 11 cases. With over a million vehicles involved @ $$$ Airbag + labor, it could get quite expensive and thats why GM is attempting to skid on this one and say its the "old GM" problem, not theirs.
 

leicaman

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I think VW wants to have sales in this country to maintain its international brand rating and status. Other than that, not a huge corporate goal. I am sure, like OH states, they are doing well, especially with China sales.
On another note, the longer a car company can hold off on a recall, the more cost effective it is. How many people do you know that will bring their Cobalt in for the GM recall? If VW was to crater at this time on the BSM issue, how many would actually roll into a dealer for that recall?

At this point, I would just like VW to comp me the price of the parts. It would not kill them. What $1200-1400.00? I'd stop complaining then. ....about this problem....
 

aja8888

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It usually takes blood on the highway to get NHTSA to force a recall. The GM airbag thing involves I think 11 cases. With over a million vehicles involved @ $$$ Airbag + labor, it could get quite expensive and thats why GM is attempting to skid on this one and say its the "old GM" problem, not theirs.
You mean the ignition key falling out causing the air bag not firing problem in an accident that involved 13 or more (possibly 26) deaths, I assume. Even NHTSA sat on their hands on that one since the deaths started being reported a decade ago.

Such as it is, GM kept it pretty quiet thru the bankruptcy and may not be liable now. They may "do the right thing" and fix a few cars, and maybe also pay off the 13 victim's family's.
 
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oilhammer

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outside St Louis, MO
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There are just too many to list....
Isn't the current GM, LLC or whatever they are called today, skated out on the old company's responsibilities, and those have fallen on the US gov't? Seems like I read that somewhere.
 

aja8888

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Isn't the current GM, LLC or whatever they are called today, skated out on the old company's responsibilities, and those have fallen on the US gov't? Seems like I read that somewhere.
From what I read, claims or potential claims made in the pre-banruptcy years are not the responsibility of the current GM company (New GM). The old company exists but probably have a mile long list of claimants that will probably never be paid.

Berra may "bend" and resolve some of the claims associated with this recall (even that was probably not necessary from a legal standpoint). This will be all done to foster Goodwill, which the New GM will place as an asset (the cost) on their balance sheet!
 

DezlDan

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And those still on the road are between 8 and 10 years old. Ours turns 10 this year. It has 267k km on it and is starting to feel its age.

Mine is converted but assuming it wasn't converted and it tooefed at this point in its life, it's unrealistic to expect any kind of recall at this stage. Old cars quit on the highway for any number of reasons, and a balance shaft drive fail is no different. The HPFPs on common rails cause the same issue: dead on road. The problem is that this is happening still to new cars, hence all the NHTSA attention. That, plus there's way more of them. Yet VW still has not issued a recall, probably because there's no specified series of "bad ones". They die randomly, and the replacement parts are identical.

VW missed the boat on the BS issue, because there is a redesigned module, that should have been part of a recall. But it would have been one hell of an expensive recall. Assume (at VW shop rates) about $2500 per unit, for 10,000 cars (assuming some attrition), that's $25m. It was probably better policy to deal with it on a one-on-one issue. Ours was replaced by a VW dealer with 75% participation by VW Canada, at 181k km (about 110k miles). It required months of negotiations.

At this point VW will laugh at anybody trying to get reimbursement for this issue.
I agree with this. From a strategy perspective, this makes the most sense. I'm just glad that mine was 100% paid for. I was one of the lucky few, but by the same token, it did cost me the value of an extended warranty.
 
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