We, too, have a new Golf. It’s a beautiful car to drive and I have no problems with it.
Yes, it has Adaptive Cruise Control, Assisted Front Braking, and several other things which, to be honest, we never seem to use.
They include different ‘driving modes’ (Eco, Normal, Sport) which, to be honest, make absolutely no appreciable difference to our driving.
Another thing (whose name I can’t remember) connects to our mobile phones to keep us informed about various things, including finding where it is when it’s parked(!), although, it refuses to connect to my phone.
Just sales gimmicks, as far as I’m concerned.
If we could have bought a similar model without all these bells and whistles, at a lower price of course, we would have done.
Yes, that too, though I always disable that when I set off during the winter months. Although it claims to monitor the battery condition, I can’t bring myself to trust it not to make me end up with a flat battery due to constant stop-start in traffic queues.
Toyota most would agree are the worlds most reliable cars , but it’s only a Toymota so they invented Lexus brand to go against Mercedes etc and whilst the thinking man knows it’s the better car in much the same way as every car enthusiast accepts a Honda NSX is far superior to any Ferrari … the Nissan GTR is quite simply the best car on the planet end of argument … it’s a bloody Nissan and that cuts no kudo’s against ‘ I drive a Lamborghini ‘ ( Nissan tried the Lexus trick with infinity but failed ) … the Germans have family cars sewn up as we associate the panzer wagons with excellence and people buy the 3 series bmw believing they’ve bought the best car or an Audi A4 etc when in reality they are far from best these days and Lexus fights the good fight on its own ha ha
That’s just it, once these cars are a few years old they will be uneconomical to fix, although some of these batteries are meant to last a few years, they’ll need replacing at some point,
I used to worry about the battery going flat too. When I asked the salesman about it he said that the car’s computer monitors the battery and if there was not enough charge remaining to start the car next time then the engine would not stop. It’s also a high capacity battery. If you’ve not tried it then you may not have noticed, but after the initial start and perhaps with the headlights and heater on in winter the circle with an A in it indicating the stop / start feature on the right of the dashboard display then has a diagonal line through it. That is when the stop / start is not operating as the battery charge is being used elsewhere. In five years mine has not let me down (touch wood now I’ve mentioned it) so to me that’s a fair time to test something. Perhaps if you give it a try and see how it goes you might get to trust it. I also take note if say, traffic lights are soon about to change to green on approaching them, so by keeping the clutch depressed while waiting a short time this prevents the stop / start from operating.
I have read somewhere that it’s possible to lease the batteries as they are so expensive to replace. That’s fine but with electric cars they are supposed to be less to run than conventional engined cars. What’s the point if additional money has to be spent on buying the car initially and then leasing the batteries at additional cost?
The way I see it is that I might as well keep with a petrol or diesel car that is now worth nothing, due to today’s massive depreciation, but costs far less than an electric car to buy and run.
The valve springs need changing I ran my local Toyota dealer very nice lady said she would have to call me back and did in about ten minutes this recall free of charge requires at least 25 parts so they have to get them all in before they can do the work it will take at least 3 days
I asked if there would be a curtesy car (this is Spain) yes sir of course right answer so now we will see how good they are
Evidently if one of these springs goes the car will not start computer shuts down
It’s a little more serious than the car failing to start as dropping a valve or few usually ends in cracked head , scored bores , broken pistons just for starters
The problem in some of the engines affects the valve springs, and can cause the valve to fracture and break, possibly falling into the combustion chamber, leading to massive engine damage.
That reminds me of the last service at the main dealer’s on my VW Golf, an intermediate service so the smallest. The cost of that initially was £189 plus £30 for a MoT (special deal if booked with a service) so £219 in total then plus £12.50 to put my name on the insurance for the courtesy car. OK, they have to be MoT’d and serviced even though the service was applicable to a higher mileage car, probably 60,000, mine has only covered 17,000 miles.
A week later, before the car went in a phone call from the service department. Just to say that ‘they had noticed’ my car is now five years’ old so the timing belt would need replacing, usually at 140,000 miles or five years’ old, the cost of that – £459. Then I was informed at every other MoT the brake fluid should be replaced. “How much is that?” Back came “it’s £69.”
So a basic intermediate service for £189 had become £759! I disputed the need for a new timing belt at such low mileage and was informed that “they are perishable, that’s why it’s recommended.” “Odd that is” I remarked. “I also have a six-cylinder car in my garage that is 35 years’ old, it has done 163,000 miles and has the original timing belt, I know that as the car was bought new by me and I serviced it.” They then recorded on the car’s file that I had declined the new timing belt and change of brake fluid.
The car hasn’t even had a new tyre yet, they still have between 5mm (fronts) and 7mm (rears) tread depth, according to the MoT!
Do they think ‘I came up on the last banana boat’ or ‘do I look that stupid or something?’ springs to mind!
A few years ago ( long story as was having lunch with a friend going through divorce and she had kept her Bentley GT ) when she asks , are brake pads expensive ? Not really I replied , why ?
Well the car was in for a service yesterday and they called to say the brake pads will need replacing shortly , shall we do them now whilst it’s here ? So I said yes, then when I collected the car … this added £800 to her bill !!!
With the main dealer charging £90 an hour (now increased) it’s so much less expensive at the village garage – £50 an hour, which is great for anything mechanical. They have a very good reputation but what they cannot do though is get into the VW database to update the car’s onboard computer or do anything in that area warranting a recall. It will come up on their screen or at the MoT which they also carry out but that is all. I have yet to find out if the VW dealer is obliged to carry out this kind of update or recall free of charge, I doubt it somehow!
While waiting for my car when it was ready the other week after the service, I overheard two different customers state “no thanks, that’s just too expensive, I will go elsewhere.” I reckon main dealers are just rip-off merchants or ‘crooks’ as Longdogs states.
Surely, if the manufacturer has issued a recall, it would refer to something wrong with the model that needs attention.
If that ‘something wrong’ can be shown to have been present since manufacture, I would have thought that it could be described as a manufacturing fault which would legally be their responsibility.
Yes, I would have though that too and it’s something I have to clarify, either with the main dealer or VW Customer Services. All I do know is the local village garage told me they can undertake anything mechanical but they cannot get into the VW database for any upgrades or recalls. My own car has had one upgrade at the VW main dealer and that was for the brakes. No idea what it was but with everything being controlled by the onboard computer it could have been something really important so cannot be ignored.
