Buyback - Radio and Wheels

Hoping to revive this thread again. I tried to do my buyback today and the VW agent on the phone refused it because the radio isn't in it anymore. I'm not the type to strip it and be vindictive to VW - I had a friend take out the radio a few months ago to try and see why it was buggy and to possibly replace it. I never bothered to follow through because I ended up buying a different car shortly after that and since then I have just let the TDI sit in my driveway accumulating buyback $ since I haven't been putting more miles on it since Dec.

The VW agent on the phone said that the radio has to be at least in the car (i.e. on a seat) and not necessarily installed in the dash. Huh?? I thought that it just has to be able to be driven under its own power to the dealer, nothing about OEM components needing to be in there, that certain items have to be there, etc. She could not provide me with a paragraph or page number in the agreement that states this, and kept referring me to go to the website and read it there. I held my ground and she finally just gave me a number to call claims to ask them for the specific written reference. That guy put me on hold for about 15 minutes and finally came back and said that he also couldn't provide me with any text or wording to support that, but he agreed that the OEM radio had to be in the car. When I pressed him for a page number or link to where it said that in the agreement, he said that this wording 'is not available to the public and is only for corporate to decide if the condition is acceptable to do the buyback'. What???

Is this true now? It was just a radio, with no navigation, so that should not affect my buyback, right? I own the car outright, so it's also not a lease issue.

Worst case scenario if I have to get a radio back in there - would any radio work, or does it actually have to be the OEM? It's a 2010 JSW so I thought it was just going to be scrapped anyway...

Thanks for any insight or tips.

mimmik said:

Hoping to revive this thread again. I tried to do my buyback today and the VW agent on the phone refused it because the radio isn't in it anymore. <snip>

Click to expand...

Reading your post, you've been out of the loop for a while. During that time, the issue of "stripping" these cars was brought before Judge Breyer, and he said that is a no-no. So— "driveable" is a definition that now includes "with original equipment" or something like that. Since then, VW has been emboldened to nix the buyback on cars that are missing items, although there doesn't seem to be complete consistency in what is grounds for rejection.
Find some kind of junkyard radio and throw it on the seat, I guess......
{NB: Discursive and possibly OT subjects follow.}
OTOH, I have read posts by people who claim to have put a set of steel wheels and marginal tires on the car, and it was accepted without quibbling.
Also, I read a while back of a car that was rejected for being driven in damaged. Things have unquestionably changed since last April, when I attended our son's turn-in of his '13 Jetta, which had been T-boned enough on the passenger side to ruin both doors. All he did was duct tape them so they wouldn't leak, collected the insurance payment for the wreck, and drove it in. The VW rep made some silly noises about VW "billing for repairs," but the bottom line was that he collected full buyback 3 days later and never heard a peep out of VW.

Unfortunately you do need "any" radio in there. Go to eBay or junk yard and get any radio for 09 or newer. Even one without a screen. They will take it.

Definitely haven't been reading the forum for a year or more. Ooops.

Thanks for the tips, friend has a random radio he thinks will work since it sounds like he doesn't have the old bad one anymore. Hope it will pass the test. You guys think it can be just any radio, not nec a touchscreen or similar to OEM? Why aren't there any written guidelines about all of this now?

Cause really, what a shame that it's so arbitrary and inconsistent, depending on the dealer, the VW agent on the phone, phases of the moon???? So much could be mitigated by alerting everyone to the updated final buyback documents that state the new buyback terms - not just driving it in under its own power, but no visible stripping or vandalism, radio must be there, etc. I downloaded a copy of all the recommended docs at the end of the final buyback online process the other day and they are still the exact same as when I first downloaded them in '16 - no mention of radio, tires, etc.

Totally gutted about selling back my JSW, but I'm so so so so so SO SOOOOO done with VW. This is like the nightmare cherry on top of the nightmare diesel scandal sundae for me. What a s**tshow.

Doesn't seem like rocket science to me. But then again, refraining from creating and installing cheater software doesn't seem like rocket science to me either. Go figure.

Thanks again for your input. I truly will miss this forum and the kind, wise and witty people here.

I have had many different small and big issues with VW during my dozenS of buybacks. The conclusion that I came up with is that VW and lawyers simply did not anticipate a lot of things. Thats why they didn't put it in writing. They didn't think that people will buy salvage cars to do buyback. They didn't think people will swap parts before buyback.

This is the first time anything like this has happened as far as I know so VW just did not think these things would happen.

From what I have seen, Canadian and European buyback rules cover a lot more than US because VW learned from its mistakes.

Can't imagine what the logistics of this have been like to to organize and keep up with. Can't say I feel sorry for VW, as they only have themselves to blame. Those higher up who made the cheater decisions that is. I do feel sorry for the on-the-ground employees who have to try and deal with all of this in real time and face all of the incensed owners.

I guess VW thought this was obvious, as did I. They sold you a car equipped with X. When they buy it back, it still needs to be a car equipped with X (or equivalent). Anything less is stripping, fraud, or profiteering . . . . Seems pretty obvious, at least from here . . .