My car is still stuck at the dealer shop (already been 2 months)

My car has been in the local dealer's shop for over 2 months. I originally went in for to have them replace a broken window regulator. My CPO warranty is about up, and this was going to be the last thing I got fixed for free. They fixed it, and then, as they took my car thru their wash, they discovered what was described to me as a deluge of water coming from the pano-roof area that soaked and ruined the headliner. So they fixed the sunroof leak, but the headliner is on back order, with no ETA thus far.

Here is my point: This seems like a crazy amount of time for a car to be in the shop, and no end in sight. Is there anything that I can do, or get VW to do for me?

I don't think lemon laws apply as I am the second owner, but within the year I've owned it, the car has been in the shop 2 other times, both to replace the pano-roof shade. All together, I estimate my car has been at that dealer for 1/3 of the time I have owned it.

They gave me a new Jetta as a loaner which is fine for commuting, but I miss my car just in general and for the wagon utility.

Many thanks!!!!

Unless you can find all the parts somewhere within the dealer network, you're basically on standby.

I'd just drive the car and enjoy the free mileage/maintenance while it's available.

That sucks and unfortunately you have to deal with this, but there is nothing they can do if they don’t have the parts. Drive the heck out of their loaner and at least it’s not miles on your car. I was in the same situation as you a few weeks back, with my car at the dealer for basically 6 weeks. I hated it, but it was fixed and I have it again. Be glad you bought a CPO, unlike me, who needs to pay for broken stuff.

Thx for the feedback, I kinda figured I was just going to have to wait it out and, while I do, rack up miles on the loaner (3000+ so far!). I'll try to post pack when I actually get the car back, cos I got a feeling that its gonna be a while.

Oh yeah, lets see what you say after hearing my infamous story, 5 failed HPFP’s from Sept 26 2018 which was my birthday.......(!!!!!) to Early 2019.... one day mechanic was like lets check the fuel tank and behold! Mold was in the damned tank all along. It was the worst nightmare I ever had.

She has been running beautifully like a new car. Got her at 27k on last week of Aug 2018 and now 46k.


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Mold is from long term storage.... my car sat 2 years approximately. Forgot to add that.


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calimustang, would you do it over again? My 2013 Sportwagen, that I'd decided to keep, got totaled 2 days ago. It did dawn on me that I could just pick up another of the same car. But your mold story scares me.

Well now we know...... you have nothing to worry about because we now have the KNOWLEDGE of what happens after sitting for a good while so therefore we force them to clean the tank if past 1-2 years of sitting and mold showing in the fuel tank.

No need to be scared. Sorry about your car


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Ha! My 14 Jetta TDI has been at the dealer for 5 weeks now. For what you ask? The windshield washer squirter. Yep, they can’t figure it out. Threw new parts at it for 3 visits then wanted me to leave it so they could get VW Tech involved. I did buy the extended warrantee but it doesn’t cover diagnostics. That’s bad. Haven’t heard a thing from them in two weeks. The only good thing about this is the free loaner they gave me. A 2019 Audi A4 Quattro with all the bells and whistles and 2k on the odometer. It’s a cream puff. And yes I’m driving it like I stole it. All for a windshield washer squirter. If anything actually really goes wrong with my Jetta I can’t even imagine how long that might take. VW has made these cars so complicated no one can work on them. Sometimes simple is best. I could put a door bell button on the dash, run two wires and make that washer motor work. And it would work until either the motor died or the car was ready for the junk yard. Oh man, you just can’t make this stuff up.

LOL just wow! Your windshield squirter! Unbelievable loaner you got ha!


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calimustang said:

Well now we know...... you have nothing to worry about because we now have the KNOWLEDGE of what happens after sitting for a good while so therefore we force them to clean the tank if past 1-2 years of sitting and mold showing in the fuel tank.

No need to be scared. Sorry about your car

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Thanks for the sympathy! This community knows how much that hurts... she was really special to me -- and in fact this forum was a big help in deciding to buy.

Anything else I ought to look out for on a used TDI? THANKS!!!!

Look out for rusted bolts and screws, especially the underside.

Oilhammer recently posted a great thread about doing a pre-purchase inspection showing the amount of rust possible on cars that have sat in storage outside during the emissions fix fiasco.

Luckily my CPO was a California car.

Another thing to watch for is that many owners turned their TDIs in around the 35-45K mile mark without ever doing a DSG service. Unless clearly documented, that would be one of the first things I'd make sure to do.

Also check out tires for flat spots, dry rot or cracking, especially if they're the original tires.

I feel your pain OP! I purchased my CPO JSW back in late January and found 3" of standing water in the wheel well just 1 week after taking it home. Brought the car back to the VW dealership I purchased it from and they wanted to replace the headliner. 11 weeks(!!) later, still no sign of the headliner. At the 8 week mark I had reached out to VWOA and opened a case with them. Even then, my case manager couldn't provide me with an ETA on the replacement headliner. Seems they're non-existent for these cars.

The dealership ended up reconditioning my headliner (after replacing the pano sunroof tray and seal). It looks great and I honestly don't know why they waited 10 weeks before suggesting the recondition as a possible solution.

I had a loaner GSW (TSI) for the entire time but it sure did make me miss my TDI. Especially seeing as I had my new-to-me car for just 1 week before having it in the shop for almost 3 months.

Good luck OP. I'd reach out to your dealership and ask if they're able to recondition your original headliner. If not, see if they can button it up so you can at least drive your car until a headliner come is. I'm going on almost 5 months since starting my headliner journey and the dealership still hasn't received one in and I don't know that they ever will...

The headliner backlog is kind of concerning - the '11 in my signature has a headliner failing and we were going to hang tight until the 2 yr CPO was about to run out. Its only starting to de-laminate around the sun visors so nothing crazy yet. Might push that forward to the 1 year mark since it sounds like it might take a year to get installed.

As for tank mold/mildew. It was a concern of mine initially but no longer. I ended up doing a full bottle of the Powerservice Clear Diesel (water remover and tank cleaner) over the course of 4 tanks along with some Powerservice silver bottle to start. ~3k miles later no issues. 2011 has about 3k on it since purchase with only one tank having a dose of PS Silver and no issues there either. I believe both cars were stored in the southeast ('11 was a South Carolina car originally, my '12 was bought new at the dealer I subsequently bought it from) - high humidity and high heat during the summer.

BikingTDIGuy-
Did VWOA close your case? Was there ever any talk of an alternative to replacing the headliner?? I wonder at what point would they would somehow find a totally different car for me, or something like that. I would not mind getting into an MK7 TDI wagon, just saying...


One thing I forgot to mention is that I had just finished upgrading to the GTI Bi-Xenon headlights the weekend before I took it in. All that work and I only got to enjoy it for a couple days...

bttlshp said:

BikingTDIGuy-
Did VWOA close your case? Was there ever any talk of an alternative to replacing the headliner?? I wonder at what point would they would somehow find a totally different car for me, or something like that. I would not mind getting into an MK7 TDI wagon, just saying...


One thing I forgot to mention is that I had just finished upgrading to the GTI Bi-Xenon headlights the weekend before I took it in. All that work and I only got to enjoy it for a couple days...

Click to expand...

They did close my case. Supposedly I'll be notified by the VW dealership if/when the new headliner does show up and I can have it installed if I want. I'm happy enough with the reconditioned headliner and don't feel like going through the hassle of having the car tied up at the dealership again that I'm not going to bring it back in if the new headliner does show up.

We never got to the point of discussing alternatives i.e. another car.

Im glad it works out for you this time.


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