Brand New Flywheel - Toast Already

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Originally Posted By: Nick1994
The car was bought brand new at this dealer and I just spent $2,108 there. Either they screwed up or their [censored] parts screwed up. I'm jumping through hoops finding a ride, my grandfather does need a vehicle too and he has the Jeep back. I drove my aunt's 1970 VW Beetle today. A 50+ mile commute in that thing with not much of a clutch left in it and some other issues isn't my idea of being great on my part.


Just because you need a vehicle, the car was bought there 10 years ago, and the repair bill is $2K does not necessarily mean they can get the part there any faster. There probably is not a ton of these flywheels available. The last one that was put in may have been the last one that could be overnighted or delivered immediately. A lot of people think parts or service departments can just wave a magic wand and make it happen...that's not how it works. Their hands are probably tied to.

Given that it was not a warranty repair the first time around, if they did overnight the part from a distribution center, they probably had to pay freight and may have been doing you a favor. Now that has backfired because you are mad that the second replacement isn't getting there as quick.

The dealer has no incentive to drag this out. They want to be finished with the car and done getting phone calls from you as much as you want the car back.

Considering they have already agreed to redo the job under warranty, I don't think raging at them to get it done faster will get you anywhere. At the most you will get to take your frustration out on someone who has no ability to get the part there faster, has a million other things going on too, and would love it if they could get your car out of their life.
 
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
The car was bought brand new at this dealer and I just spent $2,108 there. Either they screwed up or their [censored] parts screwed up. I'm jumping through hoops finding a ride, my grandfather does need a vehicle too and he has the Jeep back. I drove my aunt's 1970 VW Beetle today. A 50+ mile commute in that thing with not much of a clutch left in it and some other issues isn't my idea of being great on my part.


Just because you need a vehicle, the car was bought there 10 years ago, and the repair bill is $2K does not necessarily mean they can get the part there any faster. There probably is not a ton of these flywheels available. The last one that was put in may have been the last one that could be overnighted or delivered immediately. A lot of people think parts or service departments can just wave a magic wand and make it happen...that's not how it works. Their hands are probably tied to.

Given that it was not a warranty repair the first time around, if they did overnight the part from a distribution center, they probably had to pay freight and may have been doing you a favor. Now that has backfired because you are mad that the second replacement isn't getting there as quick.

The dealer has no incentive to drag this out. They want to be finished with the car and done getting phone calls from you as much as you want the car back.

Considering they have already agreed to redo the job under warranty, I don't think raging at them to get it done faster will get you anywhere. At the most you will get to take your frustration out on someone who has no ability to get the part there faster, has a million other things going on too, and would love it if they could get your car out of their life.
I haven't bugged them at all to get it done faster, and I was never told what I'm waiting for is the part. They said it would be done Wednesday and possibly Thursday. Now it's Thusday and possibly Friday. Sounds to me like they have the part and the shop is full of other cars.
 
If thats the case i am sure someone is waiting till next Mon or Tues.
If the owners of the other cars had appointments it would unfair to bump them for you or anyone else.

Really, its not like they tried to blow you off or try to say it was abuse or some other lame excuse. A few would do just that then you would have a real gripe and a big problem.
Kudos to this dealer for being straight up.
Just sayin.
 
Originally Posted By: Trav
If thats the case i am sure someone is waiting till next Mon or Tues.
If the owners of the other cars had appointments it would unfair to bump them for you or anyone else.

Really, its not like they tried to blow you off or try to say it was abuse or some other lame excuse. A few would do just that then you would have a real gripe and a big problem.
Kudos to this dealer for being straight up.
Just sayin.


X2. If they are backed up with work, there isn't much they can do about it. There are only so many techs and so many racks. To you, you are the most important customer. To them, you are no more important than the other customers they have in the shop.

I don't know what their specific circumstances are, but I can tell you that they have no incentive to drag their feet. They want your car to be fixed too.
 
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Originally Posted By: Trav
If thats the case i am sure someone is waiting till next Mon or Tues.
If the owners of the other cars had appointments it would unfair to bump them for you or anyone else.

Really, its not like they tried to blow you off or try to say it was abuse or some other lame excuse. A few would do just that then you would have a real gripe and a big problem.
Kudos to this dealer for being straight up.
Just sayin.


X2. If they are backed up with work, there isn't much they can do about it. There are only so many techs and so many racks. To you, you are the most important customer. To them, you are no more important than the other customers they have in the shop.

I don't know what their specific circumstances are, but I can tell you that they have no incentive to drag their feet. They want your car to be fixed too.
All I want is for them to be straight up and honest with me. If it takes a week to fix it, then tell me that. It's kind of hard to explain everything I've dealt with with this dealership. There's something wrong with either management or their phone system. Let me try to explain how it works when trying to call them:

1. Call service advisors phone individually. No answer
2. 10 minutes later call his phone again. No answer
3. 30 minutes later call the directory and ask for the service department. None of the 5 service advisors answer their phone.
4. 20 minutes later call directory again and ask for service department. A service advisor answers (not the one dealing with my car) and says to hold on a minute he'll check on the status of it. Puts me on hold and 1 minute later the phone system forwards me to the service receptionist who sends the calls to individual advisors. She sends me back to this guy and he doesn't answer his phone and it goes to voicemail.
5. Regardless of whose phone I call and I leave a voicemail they never return voicemails.
6. This whole process repeats AGAIN and all I am calling for is to know whether my car will be done today or tomorrow so I can plan ahead to see if somebody can give me a ride to the dealership that evening. That's all I need to know and nobody can answer it.

Sometimes the phone gets to an older woman and she says she'll go ask them and she writes down my phone number and says she'll call me back. I never get a call back.

I'm not asking for much, most of my frustration is I just want to be able to talk to somebody but no one answers their phones.
 
That does sound pretty bad. Do they not have voicemail for the service advisers?

At a busy dealer, it's often not possible for people to be right by their phones all day. But, assuming they have VM setup for their individual extensions, they should get back to you. It's not uncommon for me to be away from my computer for 20+ minutes dealing with some issue, then come back to a bunch of voicemails, but I always call back.
 
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I'm not asking for much, most of my frustration is I just want to be able to talk to somebody but no one answers their phones.


Thats fair enough, i would call and ask for the general manager and tell him they answer the phone and they bounce you around.
 
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
That does sound pretty bad. Do they not have voicemail for the service advisers?

At a busy dealer, it's often not possible for people to be right by their phones all day. But, assuming they have VM setup for their individual extensions, they should get back to you. It's not uncommon for me to be away from my computer for 20+ minutes dealing with some issue, then come back to a bunch of voicemails, but I always call back.
When I have left a voicemail I either don't get a call back, or I get a call back 6 hours later (leave voicemail at 10am and it gets returned at 4pm or the next day)
 
The dealer is treating you fairly, your fairly low on their customer service priority list.

VW dealers are also very poor, as you are finding out.
 
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So why do think your Aunt had great service previously at the dealer and now you are having this experience? Is it a coincidence or maybe your aunt was sugarcoating her experience. Often I hear younger people going on their parents experiences but sometimes I don't think they got the full story.

Also, maybe your aunts standards for service was lower and you are expecting more. VW dealers are notoriously bad especially for TDI. A little research would have found it is better to find an independent.
 
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Originally Posted By: silverrat
So why do think your Aunt had great service previously at the dealer and now you are having this experience? Is it a coincidence or maybe your aunt was sugarcoating her experience. Often I hear younger people going on their parents experiences but sometimes I don't think they got the full story.

Also, maybe your aunts standards for service was lower and you are expecting more. VW dealers are notoriously bad especially for TDI. A little research would have found it is better to find an independent.
Ok the thing I had left out throughout this because I thought it would make it a little confusing. She bought the car brand new at this dealer, Chapman VW. She serviced the car there for 2-3 years and wasn't thrilled with the service department. So then she started going to the dealer right by her house, Berge VW and was more than happy with them. Never an issue they've been awesome. This service advisor was there at Berge for all of those years and took care of everything on the car. He moved this summer over to Chapman VW and we figured since he did great at Berge we'll have him take care of the service from now on.

We'll be going back to Berge from now on.
 
I got the car back. It still makes the noise but it's quieter. I told the service advisor and he said "It's as good as it's gonna get" Not sure what else to do at this point. Oh well.
 
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Originally Posted By: Trav
If thats the case i am sure someone is waiting till next Mon or Tues.
If the owners of the other cars had appointments it would unfair to bump them for you or anyone else.

Really, its not like they tried to blow you off or try to say it was abuse or some other lame excuse. A few would do just that then you would have a real gripe and a big problem.
Kudos to this dealer for being straight up.
Just sayin.


X2. If they are backed up with work, there isn't much they can do about it. There are only so many techs and so many racks. To you, you are the most important customer. To them, you are no more important than the other customers they have in the shop.

I don't know what their specific circumstances are, but I can tell you that they have no incentive to drag their feet. They want your car to be fixed too.


Actually, what they can do is simple: be HONEST! If a job will require three days, so be it...but don't TELL me it will be done tomorrow!
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
I got the car back. It still makes the noise but it's quieter. I told the service advisor and he said "It's as good as it's gonna get" Not sure what else to do at this point. Oh well.


At this point...probably time to dump the car, before it blows up again.
 
Your VW experience is a distant shadow of mine. I had many, many problems with my Jetta TDI, including at least one dealership induced error. If someone had the problem on the TDI forums, I was bound to experience it...

I gave up. The fuel savings were nowhere near close to offsetting the maintenance expenses. So, why bother?

Next time I want to save fuel, it's a Prius.
 
Average age of the car fleet in Germany is only 8 years. That Veedub has done pretty well but is past its design life; time to offload it while it's still running IMO. They aren't really designed for long-term maintainability these days.
 
Someone asked before and I didn't see your answer - I apologize if I missed it - who initially diagnosed the noise, first time around, you or the dealer?
 
Originally Posted By: hpb
Someone asked before and I didn't see your answer - I apologize if I missed it - who initially diagnosed the noise, first time around, you or the dealer?
It was in for an oil change last year and the dealer told me it was the flywheel making the noise, and I did some research online and found out it's extremely common, the sound is indistinguishable, that's the exact sound a bad flywheel on these cars makes.
 
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