I thought VW prided themselves on quality cars, well i think there now crap. my girlfreinds polo 16v has covered 38,000 miles and is T reg. she bought it because ive always had old veedubs and told her there well made and better than citroens and renults. well not the one she got because after 38K the gearbox is shot, its jumpin out of second and whining in every gear. This is totally unacceptable for a car to be in this state with that mileage. So she took it to the dealers and said she wanted it fixed on good will as weve been tod they sometimes do this. they wont do it because the cars 5 years old and they say they dont offer good will on cars of this age no matter of the mileage. it's utter rubbish. the car has a full dealer history. even makes me think twice about buying another.
ye i know what your saying, and i imagine it was a fault from the factory, thats why they should change it under good will. it just annoys me that they care so little, this and another few stories ive heard lately just confirms they dont make their cars like they used to. my gear box in my mk1 has done 110K and is spot on.
even if it had been ragged by the previous owner the box should simply not be broken at that mileage. theres now justifying it. espeacially with a full dealer history.
imo the quality differential between new vw's and other makes is no where near as big as it used to be. VW appear to be trading on the after effects of their earlier quality.
Agree totally. My mum and dad have bought new VW's for the past 4-5 years and they have always had something reasonably nasty go wrong. I think it may also appear worse though as people dont expect a VW to break down. Funnily my dad had a Polo that had a gearbox pack in and I have heard of another.
Try and get a car that's built on a wednesday. Seriously, coming from what I've seen. You think a factory worker's gonna be as alert and attentive to details on a monday morning or friday afternoon compared to the middle of the week?
I've had golf boxes last 250,000 mles and not leak oil from the flanges or crunch into 2nd, I've also had them with 100K that have been re-built at 50k and crunch into 2nd and leak. Some folk are just hard on cars and it shows in funny ways. My mates polo leaks oil and smokes at 30K but its only done short trips so the heat cycles for the age are higher than average, thats what fux engines, for a quick example.
well, there's much more pressure on VW to sell cars cheaper nowadays than there ever has been. they aren't just going to say "oh well, we'll just make less profits then". They'll cut back on production costs. People complain about the prices of the new Golf but compare it with prices of new mk2 golfs. The mk5 GTI for example (which was mentioned in a post earlier today) starts at 19k-ish & someone pointed out that mk2 valvers were 15.5K-ish in 1990. That price is 14 years old! If you carried that price on with normal inflation it would come out at a lot more than 19k. It's unfortunate & I don't like it but there's no avoiding it. The quality is just going to get worse the more people demand cheaper prices. Still, sounds like you have either bought a lemon or the previous owner has ragged it to feck. At least she didn't buy a Punto, she'd probably be on her 3rd gearbox by now. & 10th head gasket.
Reputational inertia, innit. Japanese cars have been better built for years. I'm told even the new Astra is built to a higher standard than the mk5 Golf!
If you indexed it against the average price of new cars I bet the difference wouldn't be as big. Cars are cheaper now in real terms.
true, even if the new alfa 157 is blindingly well built im still gunna think its cack and will have dodgy electrics
I don't think the deterioration of standards necessarily applies here. This polo has a 50:50 chance of being fitted with an 085 type box, which dates back to the audi 50. They are generally very sound units, but will not take unending abuse. You simply can't factor into your buying strategy the abuse a car might have seen in the past. I've killed clutches/gearboxes etc. with delivery mileage on them on hire cars of various makes. Mostly because I have a strange fetish for finding out what it takes to break things. Believe me, I could reduce a good polo gearbox to the state yours is in by borrowing it once... if you're unlucky it only takes one missed shift to kill pretty much any box. It all depends where the swarf happens to go. On the up side, a replacement gearbox for that car is likely to very cheap from a breaker, and they're not notorious in any respect (unlike some golf boxes) so buying second hand shouldn't be a worry.
Nope, an ex-colleague of mine had a V-reg MkIV Golf that had to have its gearbox replaced at 60k. Unacceptable.
Flawed arguments. You fail to take into account things such as labour cost, factory relocation, new production techniques, mass production, components sharing. Also, looking at price in isolation from the rest of the business is a bit narrow.
yep, the polo 085 box is not the best box in the world, i've ehard of a fair few letting go. i do think vw should do the box on good will though, maybe try another dealer and if not contact vw uk directly? whatever you do don't spend your own cash at vw getting it fixed, you'll probably be able to buy a new polo for the same cost. don't know if you're down south, but theres a place called 3D transmissions in reading that i keep hearing is pretty good, and not too pricey. should be 400 max, quite probably less.
And so if it's a faulty one out of the factory that makes it ok?! Hey, customers are even more demanding these days so I think it's perfectly ok for one to judge a car, even brand, from one crap product. First impressions, they count. I mean, ppl who buy the same brand car over and over, they don't buy them cos they are crap. If you have expectations and they are not met then you are bound to be disappointed. You will look for something that can do what you want and do it better. Sure they can fix it, but is that good enough. This sort of thing soes to the heart of all the quality standards like ISO and crap like that and stupid slogans like right first time.
If its an 085 you should be looking at 50 for one from a VW breaker out of a mk3 polo. Its only in the mk4 that I've heard of probs- maybe it is cost cutting after all... same design, poorer materials or tolerances? I've never killed an 085, and can only think of a few instances. Bear in mind G40s use them, putting out much more power and way more torque than the 1.4 16v. My G lasted 120k of my abusive right foot with not so much as a whimper from the 'box. (broke drive shafts, cvs and clutches along the way mind )
