Buyback Lessons Learned

Lightflyer1 said:

Up to 17 city / 21 highway

That ought to be some change!

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Believe me, I spent many a sleepless night pondering that exact point. In the end, there were a couple of mitigating factors that eventually convinced me to pull the trigger. First, I don't drive much these days any more - at the most, about 6,500 miles per year. Second, what really bothered me about the Jetta wasn't so much the fraud VW pulled on 11 million owners worldwide as was the simple fact that at some point, the DPF will crack and will have to be replaced at a cost that will easily wipe out any and all savings I realized at the pump over the years, and I don't even mention the HPFP time bomb. Under those circumstances, what is the point of driving a vehicle so fuel-efficient as the Jetta if the cost of fuel plus repairs in the long run equals the cost of fuel of a vehicle far thirstier, but also far more reliable? I opted for Toyota because of their reputation for reliability, and specifically for the 4Runner because of the simplicity of the power train (no turbo, no DPF, no HPFP, no urea tank, no urea heater, no urea injector, no NOx trap, no SO2 trap), maturity of the design and the fact that I can take the vehicle off the pavement if I need to. I only hope that their reputation for reliability is well deserved and that there will be no reliability issues with this car.

We all hope for those things with our cars. I found the 162k mile warranty comforting in that regard. Your current low mileage driving will probably be the best for the choice you made.

Man I’m on the fence about buy back. I made my decision to do the buy back when this first started. As, I’m coming down to the wire, doubt is setting in.
Although I did buy a gas guzzler as a replacement. It’s not exactly a daily driver. With no payments, and 40+mpg, I’m seriously reconsidering the buy back. But man, $25k is hard to pass up.

hhead said:

Man I’m on the fence about buy back.<snip> But man, $25k is hard to pass up.

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We didn't. We've owned this car since brand new, 5 years and almost 80K miles and it's been a great car. But the Passat goes in on Tuesday morning at 1030, and three days later Chase puts $27K in our bank account. Can't pass that up, no how, no way.

If there were new VW diesels, we'd be driving a Passat (or maybe that new Arteon), but as it is, we've got a 2018 Honda Accord 2.0T Touring. Amazing car.

<Concluding Unscientific Postscript>
Turned the Passat in Tuesday, all went smoothly, about 20-25 minutes end-to-end. I have NOT received the payment e-mail from JPM Chase yet, and the "receipt" e-mail VW sent said I should have had that Friday (72 hours, as long as they are business days).
Called the toll-free number, which features a myriad buttons to push, but I got on quickly, with a minimum of elevator music. The lady was very nice, confirmed that the car had been turned in an they had certified the payment with Chase. So.....they're going to bump it to the people who do the expediting with Chase, but she figures we'll probably get the Chase e-mail Monday.
They were businesslike and efficient about it, and no hay remedio in any event.

Turned my Sportwagen in at 12:30 Wednesday; got the email receipt for the turn-in in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Got the email from Chase Friday morning.



I had a problem setting the account up on the Chase website. When I clicked in the "Select a security question (required)" field, the popup merely contained the same "Select a security question (required)" text. Called Chase and was told it was probably the pop-up blocker. I disabled that and got the same results.



I finally gave up on Firefox and used the Microsoft browser to successfully set up the account.

S2000_guy said:

Turned my Sportwagen in at 12:30 Wednesday; got the email receipt for the turn-in in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Got the email from Chase Friday morning.

<snip>

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This is an interesting outcome. I turned in our Passat a day earlier, had the email receipt by the time I got home, still have not got the Chase e-mail....and presumably, all this stuff is being processed through the same office in MI.

<UPDATE>

Found Chase e-mail in my TRASH folder, not JUNK folder. It was dated the day after we turned the car in. I have no idea how it got there, other than me inadvertently deleting it out of my IN folder. In any case, bank account was established easily, and the transfer to our local bank checking account was just as easy. I guess this case is closed.

turned in my 2011 JSW with mechatronic failure (DSG ECU) shifts only into first gear that prompted me to do the buyback plus 4 minor wrecks which the final hit was rear end that damaged my back, I was truly heart broken because she was the MOST reliable vehicle I ever owned, only one plow plug failure and able to drive her on 3 cyc into VW shop 25 miles away from home out of 282k miles from Aug 2010 to July 2018. She never needed an tow truck until her final day and had AAA truck tow her to VW Dealership... process took nearly a hour because I am deaf.... so I left and got the email by barely 72 hours after I turned her in, got the money the day after I registered with Chase.

Now I have 2015 Passat SE TDI with 22k miles for $16k out of the door. Black with Black interior, just had her 5% tinted all around, much better. It was unbearable hot in Florida....... only issue is adblue heater failure within 3 days of the purchase..... and AC motor in the dash dont blow hard at 6 speed... my old JSW blows harder... do you guys think fan motor is weak or normal?

S2000_guy said:

Turned my Sportwagen in at 12:30 Wednesday; got the email receipt for the turn-in in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Got the email from Chase Friday morning.



I had a problem setting the account up on the Chase website. When I clicked in the "Select a security question (required)" field, the popup merely contained the same "Select a security question (required)" text. Called Chase and was told it was probably the pop-up blocker. I disabled that and got the same results.



I finally gave up on Firefox and used the Microsoft browser to successfully set up the account.

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UPDATE: I gave the account information to Chase on Friday morning. I won't know exactly when the money was transferred to my account until I get my next statement, but when I visited an ATM about 5 PM Wednesday (the third business day later) the money was already in my account. Like Rico, this episode is closed.



Thanks to everyone who provided help over the last 5 years; without this forum I'd never have heard of Ross Tech and the VCDS. It was great to use this tool to change settings (windows down with remote, turning down Hill Hold Assist, etc.) get the car more in line with my liking.

Turned our ‘09 in on Monday, had email from Chase Tuesday night at 10PM. Unfortunately Chase’s website must not like Safari, Chrome, or Puffin browsers, and I’m on the road with only my iPad. ��

Edit: after multiple tries it finally worked. I was unable to select radio buttons but it allowed me to proceed anyway. Fingers crossed.

Hello, I have a 2015 TDI SEL Jetta and looking to turn in my car via VW Buyback. I ordered this with the optional Driver Assistance & Lighting Package. This included the following, Forward Collision Warning System, Blind Spot Monitor w/ Rear Traffic Alert, Bi-Xenon Headlights, LED Daytime Running Lights, Ambient Interior Lighting, Upgraded Multifunction Display. This package cost an additional $1,690.00. When I called VW today to complain this option isn't showing on their website for the buyback. The lady looked up my VIN and said she wasn't sure what to do. After 8 minutes on hold, she came back and said it's not a dealer option and told me to call their legal department as a complaint! Have any of you had a similar experience and how should I get my money for this option? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Spohntaneous said:

Hello, I have a 2015 TDI SEL Jetta and looking to turn in my car via VW Buyback. I ordered this with the optional Driver Assistance & Lighting Package. This included the following, Forward Collision Warning System, Blind Spot Monitor w/ Rear Traffic Alert, Bi-Xenon Headlights, LED Daytime Running Lights, Ambient Interior Lighting, Upgraded Multifunction Display. This package cost an additional $1,690.00. When I called VW today to complain this option isn't showing on their website for the buyback. The lady looked up my VIN and said she wasn't sure what to do. After 8 minutes on hold, she came back and said it's not a dealer option and told me to call their legal department as a complaint! Have any of you had a similar experience and how should I get my money for this option? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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Nope, these options are not calculated in the buyback amount. You can try suing VW yourself, but good luck with that. Take the buyback and run. You got to use a car for 3 years for basically free.

Anybody else have the vehicle fixed and then will not test at the emissions station? I have a 2015 Jetta TDI SEL. I opted to get it fixed went in and they did stage 1, waited until May of this year then they did stage 2.

Stage 1 was a quick one day job. Stage 2 was not. It says I believe 10 hours or something. Well it took the dealer over 2 weeks. I had a paid rental and b/c of the inconvenience they gave me a free oil change, so i'll take that deal any day. No worries.

The car has driven amazing before and after all the fixes. I can touch 50mpg average with my 6 spd if I'm on country roads/it still has decent power. No complaints. BUUUUT

Then came time to renew my license plate. To do that in my county you have to get the vehicle emission tested. Took it in, would not test. All things passed accept O2 senson and catalytic converter. Both of those said NOT TESTED. Ive seen this b4. Sometimes when you get a check engine and clear the code, you need to drive the car b4 all the parts cycle through enough to be ready to test.

So, off I went for a weekend drive. Highways, city, long drives, short drives. Came back a week later. Same

(Something's wrong) After the third time I said ok it's not just not ready b/c I haven't driven enough. The last time I took it in and it said the same thing I had driven it 8,000 miles since the first failed emission test and the fix.

Long story shorter, VW has had my vehicle for over 2 weeks. For the first 10 days, I was getting a call from an actual VW Case Worker. She would say she just talked to the dealership and blah, blah....almost done. But I never believed that. Finally after the 8th call I said, thank you for updating me but you don't need to do it daily unless something significant comes up.

I heard from the service writer that another guy had the same problem who just got his car back and its been in there since November of 17. There was an actual VW tech who would work on it.

Here is another tidbit of almost comical info. They said the vehicle needs to go through a specific protocol before all the sensors will be ready. One of the things the rep had to do was drive at over 100mph for 40 straight seconds... I hope that is not true. Because though I said bs, if that IS true, it means all these vehicles require somebody putting their life and other drivers lives at risk to get a vehicle to pass emissions. That would be more great marketing for VW... Anybody been through any of this. Sorry it's long but there was actually more bs I had to go through so far other than this.

Not over til it's over....

.......and now it's finally over---the period at the end of the sentence.

My buyback timeline:

--June 2018: Buyback paperwork process (providing title and other info to VW) proceeded without hiccups. Quick turnaround responses from VW (within 24~48 hours) as I had no complicating title or other issues with my 2010 TDI Sportswagen. Original owner of vehicle.
--2 July 2018: Bought a new 2018 Mazda 3 Touring hatchback, 6 sp manual, for several hundred, out the door, dollars less than projected VW buyback + restitution amounts. Paid in full.
--2 July 2018: Made buyback appointment that evening after Mazda purchase. Earliest appointment I could schedule with closest VW dealer was 23 July 2018.
--23 July 2018: Drove TDI to dealer. Inspection and buyback took about 35~40 minutes total. No complications. VW gave me a courtesy shuttle ride back to my place (@5 miles away).
--26 July 2018: Buyback + restitution amount, exactly as reflected in buyback offer, electronically deposited to my bank account.
--25 August 2018: Almost 5 weeks after buyback, received Bosch settlement check, via USPS, in the amount of $350.

Afterthoughts: Still experiencing a little buyer's remorse with the Mazda. Miss the TDI's spaciousness, more robust acceleration, much better mpg, and what seems superior overall build quality versus the Mazda. Could be the first and last Mazda I ever buy. Still no regrets about choosing the VW buyback over fix. Thus ends almost 18 continuous years of TDI ownerships.

MI owners with a loan take note

Since this is the lessons learned. I learned that most Michigan cars with a loan, the owner, not the bank or VW finance, has the title. MI buybacks are requiring the owner to have the title. Long story short, since I bought it in another state, and that dealer did all the title work and got the plates, the title went to VW finance. As this was the only car I ever bought in Michigan with a loan, I had no idea the bank didn't normally get the title, so I showed up for the buyback with no title, as the paperwork says, if the bank has the title, you don't need it.
First attempt today, the virtual rep said they had to have the title from Michigan owners. I explained that I didn't get it, it went to VW finance. The buyback checklist for Michigan doesn't accept this, so I was told I needed the title. Call VW finance, and after forever on hold, they claim that they only have a picture of the front side, and no they won't email or fax anything to the dealer. I'm told to go get one from the SoS (MI version of DMV). Ask to be transferred to someone else or a manager, no.
The trip to the SoS is an hour, so might as well start driving that way, I might get there before the next one answers. Got to the SoS, wait (of course), and am told that the state sent the title to VW finance, and they were unable to issue a duplicate without a lien release.
Back to the phone and VW finance. Told them that the buyback required a title from MI owners, and since they held it, and told the SoS to not issue a duplicate, they needed to figure out how it was going to get to the turn in dealer, or send the lien release so I could get it myself. Remarkably, they found the title, and were able to fax it to the dealer. Something impossible just 2 hours earlier, when presented with the SoS telling them what was needed to get the title, they managed to find it.
Next hurdle, getting the virtual closing to accept the fax from VW finance as the title, which took a supervisor and probably 30 minutes to accomplish.
Five hours after I started the buyback, I drove back 5 feet and forward 5 feet, picked up my check, and left probably 15 minutes later. We bought 2 Jettas from them in the last month, so chatted a bit with the sales rep. Dealership went out of their way to help, but MI owners, if VW holds the title, you need a copy from them to complete the process.


Task for tomorrow is getting the first phone rep fired.

My buyback was concluded on 8/11, per post #186 above, today I received the $350 from Bosch....so I guess this is the end of that.

I was in-out of my dealer less than 1 hour, with no BS or problems..

I am about to schedule my buy-back appointment. I understand that they will mail me a check and the agent WILL NOT have a check in hand. Please advise.

NAV DSG said:

I am about to schedule my buy-back appointment. I understand that they will mail me a check and the agent WILL NOT have a check in hand. Please advise.

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Nope, they will give you the check on the spot.

HOWEVER, mileage has to be correct according to whatever you input at appointment schedule step. Meaning - when you schedule appointment, it asks for current mileage. If you put 90,000, but will come to appointment with 92,500 miles, the buyback amount MIGHT be lower and the check will become invalid. Then they will have to cancel the check and mail you a new one.

I would recommend to do EFT unless you do not drive the car at all and know that amount will be 100% correct.

Just set my appointment (2 weeks out). I have a set of Audi alloy rims that I used for winter wheels on a 1999 A6.
I'm replacing my 2013 Beetle with a 2015 Sportwagen.
Multi part question, will the Audi rims fit on the Beetle ? Will they be acceptable for buy back ? Will Beetle rims be good for winter wheels on the 2015 Sportwagen ?
thanks

marcoforehand said:

Just set my appointment (2 weeks out). I have a set of Audi alloy rims that I used for winter wheels on a 1999 A6.
I'm replacing my 2013 Beetle with a 2015 Sportwagen.
Multi part question, will the Audi rims fit on the Beetle ? Will they be acceptable for buy back ? Will Beetle rims be good for winter wheels on the 2015 Sportwagen ?
thanks

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The '13 and '15 have the same wheels (maybe different look depending on trim and models, but the same bolt pattern and tire fitment). The '99 wheels won't fit on the '13 or '15. There shouldn't be any issues with swapping the bug for the SW wheels, if you wanted to do that for aesthetic reasons.

bizzle said:

=The '99 wheels won't fit on the '13 or '15. =

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He's talking about a 1999 Audi A6, not a VW. Google says they have a 5x112 pattern. So they should fit.

KITEWAGON said:

He's talking about a 1999 Audi A6, not a VW. Google says they have a 5x112 pattern. So they should fit.

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I'm thinking the Beetle rims might be good for snow/winter wheels on the 2015 GSW

Plus selling the Audi's would be more difficult then selling the VW's

Mount tires on rims and put them on the Beetle may be the only way to be sure.

Just did the buyback yesterday, received the Chase email today! The whole process was surprisingly smooth, it might have taken about 25 min total? I was unnecessarily worrying about this appointment since the final mileage getting to the dealer was about 8k more than I entered when I agreed to do the buyback, and about 3k more than the mileage I had to put in when setting up the buyback appointment - in the end I got about $250 less than the original quote for my 2010 Jetta, which is nothing considering the extra miles I put in during these final months.

I did my buyback at DeMontrond in Houston, and I left the dealership with a final glimpse at my Jetta with the "not for sale" sticker on the window. Aaaahh, this car served me well but it was time to let it go, since the roof liner was starting to fall and the radio went kaput last week. They were some great 8 years...
Auf wiedersehen TDI!


PS - Shortly I'll start selling all the upgrades/mods that I had installed in the Jetta!

venka said:

Has anyone been able to schedule a buy-back appointment for late November or December? I checked all the participating dealers in my area (Boston, MA) and the latest they have is November 1st. I wanted to hold on to my car as long as possible to take advantage of end of the year sales on new cars. Thanks for any advice!

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Well, I'm a little late in answering but I'm in the Boston area and I scheduled my BB for Dec 7th. The dealer had plenty of openings when I picked the date online in late Oct. I wanted to wait until the very end of Dec to turn it in (and I could have picked a later date) but I was afraid that if I picked a later date and there was a snowstorm on that day, I'd be screwed so I played it safe and turned it in earlier. BB went surprisingly smoothly and extremely fast. Money deposited a few days later.

Really miss my car but the BB deal was too good to pass up. Now I'm without wheels until I can find another one. Still have my heart set on a used TDI... but there aren't that many around with 6sp.

How did you manage with the BB in the end?

My buyback appointment is this afternoon... hoping all goes smoothly!!

As Hall and Oates said...She's gone.....

Had my appt this morning. Went mostly smoothly, although the final value was less than what the original estimate was.

2014 JSW TDI, 67.3K miles. Estimate said $29,986. 39 months since September 2015, which put it squarely in the 25-30K range at the time, so supposedly $0 mileage adjustment.

The final offer was $29,028 - and they couldn't explain where the difference was - whether it was mileage or features - and my only recourse was to decline the offer and file an appeal. After dealing with a broken record where the person on the other end just kept reciting a script, I decided my time was more valuable and accepted the offer. It's $2K more than I paid for the car 4 years ago.

While we were on hold waiting for the person to 'research' something, the dealership rep said as an aside 'I've done a lot of these, and if you get something, you'd be the first'. I didn't take that as him taking VW's side - it sounded honest, and that was part of what pushed me to declare victory and go home.

SO...now, as Steely Dan said, I'm a luckless pedestrian. I'm leaving for a week in NYC on Sunday, so unless I buy a car by Saturday, I'm hoofing it in the new year. Both kids are home from college, so Dad gets first car choice, and I live 1 mile from my office. Not too much of an inconvenience.
Trying to decide on a replacement - I've got an offer in on an '18 Alltrack - that inventory is drying up (unless you want Black). If we can work out the deal, I'll basically get it for 'free' (plus taxes and tags), which all in all, isn't a bad deal.


Also looking at the Outback, Forester and Impreza Limited (but not too closely because of the CVT). Liked the Mazda CX-5, but dealers are gouging on the new Signature and GT/R trims. Toying with the idea of an '18 Ford Edge Sport - 315 HP, AWD and all the safety goodies (and it parks itself).

We'll see what I end up with after the first of the year.

BTW, that fuel gauge is accurate. I ran it into the dealership below the E line.

With a 1 mile to work commute I'd say a bike, a scooter, or an eGolf.

bizzle said:

With a 1 mile to work commute I'd say a bike, a scooter, or an eGolf.

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I've actually thought about an eGolf or plug-in hybrid (Niro or Prius). I live next to Dulles Airport, so getting there isn't an issue. When I go to NYC, I usually take the train or bus - I take 2-3 longer trips (>300 miles) a year, and I could easily rent whatever I wanted to for those - so that's an idea.