Does anyone have any experience with VW for a warranty claim and them offering a goodwill payment?

My golf is still under the used approved warranty and the car is under 4 years old, 40k miles. Took it in as it was making a rubbling noise under gear changes and turns out the clutch plate is broken and has damaged the gearbox casing. VW initially said they expected it to be covered under warranty as a part had failed but now they say as its the clutch it will not be covered. They have offered to pay 70% of the repair plus the dealer will pay an additional 10% but that still leaves me with a £525 bill. I’m not best pleased given the age if the car and the fact ive only owened it for 6 months and 6k miles.

Thoughts on whether it is worth arguing?

I’d accept it – clutches are rarely covered by warranty and if they’re picking up all the ancillary damage and just charging you for the clutch parts etc then it sounds fair. Unless there’s clear evidence of a manufacturing fault with the clutch unit (no idea how you’d spot one though)?

They could have gone for a £2500 bill from the sounds of it?

I had a Touran that the ABS unit went wrong, a very common issue on them, at under 3.5 years and 50k old.
No way would they even consider it.

I got a semi-reasonable result when I wrote a formal letter to this bloke about uneven rear tyre wear on my Passat:

Mr Chris Craft
Liaison Officer
Volkswagen Passenger Cars
Selecta Post 12
SHEFFIELD
S19 3ZU

(Better check the same bloke is still there as this was three or four years ago).

I think that’s a fair deal given it’s the clutch.
A tough one yes, for a 4yr old car, but a fair one.

I’m not best pleased given the age if the car and the fact ive only owened it for 6 months and 6k miles

That’s one of the risks you take when you buy a used car – for all you know it could have spent the first 3 years driving around town which is going to hammer a clutch.
Sounds like they’re being pretty good considering it’s one of the main wear parts.

Edit: For a £2.5k bill it sounds like they’ll be putting a new gearbox in, so you’ll be getting a new gearbox and clutch for £650 – sounds like a bit of a bargain.

VW goodwill policy is very changeable.

I got a replacement clutch pedal bracket and master cylinder on goodwill, on a 9 year old T4 with 145k miles.

That was done on goodwill as they had previously has loads of problems with the same part failing.

At the same time other people approached VW with exactly the same issue and were knocked back.

Even though they told them about my goodwill job for the same thing.

With that in mind, if I were you I would accept the offer before they change their mind.

clutch plate is broken

Isn’t that different from how a clutch usually wears though? I’d be wanting some clarification of what broken means in this instance.

I had new wings on a 10yo 4th hand passat

I think that’s a fair deal given it’s the clutch.
A tough one yes, for a 4yr old car, but a fair one.

Agree, except if it said that the clutch IS covered in your warranty documents.

wysiwyg – Member
I had new wings on a 10yo 4th hand passat

Must have been a Red Bull Passat…

I had a Touran that the ABS unit went wrong, a very common issue on them, at under 3.5 years and 50k old.

We have a 56 golf and we had a similar problem. They replaced the unit free, I think we paid for the time. But we bought the car from the same place new and have had it serviced there so they’ve had their monies worth out of us.

To be honest I think they have shown a reasonable amount of goodwill. Perhaps contact VW directly rather than a dealer. You but a VW for reliability and quality engineering so to have one faile is disappointing.

I’ve got a 2014 golf with uneven rear tyre wear or ‘saw toothing’ and after dealing with vw customer services and the local dealer for a month i’ve hit a brick wall. Because we dont get the car serviced at a vw dealer then vw wont help. So much for a supposedly good company, warranty and £30,000. I wouldnt touch a vw with a bargepole again.

I too would be asking for clarification as to what constitutes ‘broken’. If the problem has arisen from excessive wear of the clutch then that’s notmal wear and tear so their offer is generous. If the clutch plate has failed prematurely then I think that’s a different thing altogether and would be writing a very polite letter/email pointing this out.
We had a problem with the injectors on our skoda and they were spot on. Refunded what we’d paid out and replaced the other 3. This was 18months before they finally issued a recall at a time when owners were getting very mixed responses from vw.

I used to drive a 58 plate Golf estate , a company car, which our firm had bought at 2000 miles as an ex demo car.

At about 38k miles I noticed the clutch was slipping and the engine was generally running poorly.

I took it to a local dealer and asked them to investigate and whilst it was there perform a service , which was due at 40k ish anyway.

They diagnosed clutch ( MDF ) failure and turbo failure.

At the time the car was just over 3 years old.

VW told me we would have to pay.

I have never had a clutch slip on anything, but one vehicle ( my own VW T4 ) at 120000 miles.

I argued that neither issue was pilot error. After several phone ‘ discussions’ with VW and their warranty folk at Milton Keynes, including that they maybe check the service histories ( all on computer) for the three previous VW cars I’d had as company vehicles, all of which simply required servicing, they eventually agreed to pay for the parts involved, although our firm paid the labour.

Doh……MDF should say DMF !

@cakefacesmallcock… I had exactly the same experience with a Ford Focus. Similar mileage, similar driver history, similar shenanigans. Ford stumped up for the parts, I paid the labour (at what felt like KPMG consultancy rates…). It started to fail again 30k later. We dumped the car in PX.

Boblo !

Ive had other things, but really generally rate VAG group cars ( I have a Skoda Superb estate for work and a T5 van for playing ) .
That Golf , though, whether it was down to very early use and abuse , who knows, but it was shocking. I guess it’s the one off ‘ Friday afternoon’ car that could destroy a buyers confidence. If that had been my only vw experience, or my own car which I’d saved or paid for, I wouldn’t ever have bought another Vw type vehicle.

That sounds like a good ‘goodwill’ offer on a clutch.

I’ve got a 2014 golf with uneven rear tyre wear or ‘saw toothing’ and after dealing with vw customer services and the local dealer for a month i’ve hit a brick wall. Because we dont get the car serviced at a vw dealer then vw wont help. So much for a supposedly good company, warranty and £30,000. I wouldnt touch a vw with a bargepole again.

Troll surely but I’m going to bite! You spent 30k on a car (obv an R for that money), are too tight to then pay a main dealer to look after it, have a problem with uneven tyre wear, possibly a fault, possibly cos it’s had its ass ragged everywhere and then expect warranty!

My cat is ready to collect so I’ll see what they say later today. I’ll try to argue the case for a parts failure but don’t want to push too hard in case I get a £2600 bill! Maybe time for a BMW next time…

You spent 30k on a car (obv an R for that money), are too tight to then pay a main dealer to look after it, have a problem with uneven tyre wear, possibly a fault, possibly cos it’s had its ass ragged everywhere and then expect warranty!

I’d say that’s a reasonable expectation because it hasn’t broken warranty terms.

I challenged VW on the tyre wear on my Passat. They told me the tyre pressures listed in the manual were incorrect. I asked for a free tyre then please. Suddenly the tyre pressures were right after all.

I have had to go through VW before after a dealer set my car on fire (really!). They got it sorted probably to better than it was before it went in. So I’ve had good and bad from them.

I’ve got a 2014 golf with uneven rear tyre wear or ‘saw toothing’ and after dealing with vw customer services and the local dealer for a month i’ve hit a brick wall. Because we dont get the car serviced at a vw dealer then vw wont help. So much for a supposedly good company, warranty and £30,000. I wouldnt touch a vw with a bargepole again.

It’s a common problem. VW know about it and are ducking and diving in the hope of keeping it out of the media. Write to them at the address I’ve posted and you’ll get at least a wheel alignment. I sent them this pic of a spinning wheel and a few weeks later somebody from VW Germany phoned me and asked for a copy by email:

Thanks for that globalti. Will do.

They refused to go near a 1yr old Golf? Even with one indie stamp you’d think they’d try and do something.

What’d cause that? Geometry alignment?

Poor alignment of the rear sub-axles within factory tolerances means the rear wheels are sometimes not tracking in perfect parallel and because they run on their inside edges you get feathering. Curing it would mean a major re-design so VW are hoping to keep it quiet.

That wheel was on my Passat B6 and my current B7 also has the same thrumming noise coming from the rear wheels. I expect the B8 will have the same problem unless they’ve redesigned the whole setup as part of the new bodyshell design.

£525 bill. I’m not best pleased given the age if the car and the fact ive only owened it for 6 months and 6k miles.

I’d take their arm off. Shit happens with cars. I’d only kick up a fuss if it could be shown that there was a design or manufacturing fault or known issue that they should’ve either caught in testing or recalled when discovered.

Interesting that GTI. I’ve got a B6 which has a bit of a “hum” – I’ll check the rears. It had a rear tyre replaced for the MOT it had just before I bought it.

Begrudgingly paid the money and drove my car only to find it making the same noise! Now back at VW….not amused to put it lightly!

You’ve paid so they fix. Dont let them say ‘diagnostics etc’.

BTW did they fit new tyres and laser align?

New tyres because the clutch went? 😯

Ha oops theres me thinking of the wheels o/t above. Lies down

DMF failiure can often take the gear box housing with it.
Did you notice any funny chatter noises before it broke??
Normally start getting noisy before they fail…

Id be tempted to take that offer as the clutch and DMF is an expensive job at the stealers