Bought Golf GTI MkV @ 4.30pm....a write of by 5.30pm :o(

[dejaye]

  Just thought I’d let you know of a nightmare incident that I’m currently in the middle of that has happened to me after buying a used Golf DSG GTi on a 55 plate, with 55k on the clock, FSH, and wandered if anyone had heard of the same thing happening or could offer me any advice.

I purchased the car through a recognised local dealership.

The car was a stunning example & fully loaded, and I happily paid a little extra for this fact, doing a part ex deal.

After doing the deal I arranged to pick up the car, a week later (co-incidentally on my birthday), on the condition that they resolved the issue with a non-functional factory fitted sat nav system. They agreed to do this and set it off to a nearby VW dealership to get the issue sorted. Upon picking the vehicle up I was shown the sat nav working, handed a 6 month warranty for the car and shown that the car had been given a new MOT and a full dealership inspection.

I paid the outstanding balance and drove away happy in my new GTi.

After leaving the dealership I then drove the car home, approx 20 miles.

Upon parking the GTi I got out only to see smoke coming from under the bonnet. As I went to pop the bonnet to have a look, flames then shot out from the bonnet sides, in front of the driver’s side. Without having time to take any action aaprt from call the fire services I simply had to stand back and watch my new pride and joy burn! It looks like the fire started front of the dashboard, electrical fault?

The fire services arrived within 5 minutes, but by this time the car’s engine was already well gone, and had basically melted. What a birthday!

Now waiting for insurer & dealership to sort things out, it hasn't put me off but wandered if anyone had heard of this happening to anyone else?

[ub7rm]

Dude... thats harsh.

Commiserations.

Dunno about the dashboard but I believe a few GTI's have caught fire due to a failing coil pack.  They go high resistance, get hot and can sometimes cause a fire.  The coil packs sit on top of the spark plugs if you don't know.

I would have thought that if the garage disturbed the wiring while replacing the sat nav, causing a short say, that a fuse would have popped.  What was the problem with the sat nav?  If the original problem was that it kept popping fuses and say an unscrupulous garage put a higher rated fuse in it could well lead to a fire.

[2007GTI]

sorry to hear that, gutting.

I hate to say it, but I think you will have a hard time proving the garage is at fault, unless your insurance assessor can prove where it started and match it to the area of the car they worked on, and match it to paperwork proving they have been working in that area.

[dejaye]

'apparently' the VW dealership who sorted out the sat nav said that they simply put a lead back in that had come loose. I think it was something like the coil pack, I heard that this has happened to a few R32s but never a GTi ?

[Gene Hunt.]

That is really bad luck mate.

[Hurdy]

Coilpack failure=warranty=dealer pays!

Sorry, but I just don't buy the fact that you can have a GTI burn up like that from a coilpack. Faulty wiring yes! Coilpack - very, very rare and even then there wouldn't be enough combustible material to set the entire car on fire from the coilpack.

You need to explore further as it just seems too much of a coincidence that the dealer does warranty work on the Sat nav wiring and then an hour later your car is in flames!!

[stealthwolf]

Dude so harsh! Must be gutting! It's horrible that your taste of the mk5 is tainted.

How long have you had the car for? Any mods you did yourself? If the car was fine before you took it in and suddenly set on fire afterwards, esp after mot and inspection (though not sure what this would entail). Worse scenario is the garage will try to wiggle out of it.

Was it a vw garage you bought it from? Why did it go to another dealer to sort the satnav?

[corgi]

Dude so harsh! Must be gutting! It's horrible that your taste of the mk5 is tainted.

How long have you had the car for? Any mods you did yourself? If the car was fine before you took it in and suddenly set on fire afterwards, esp after mot and inspection (though not sure what this would entail). Worse scenario is the garage will try to wiggle out of it.

Was it a vw garage you bought it from? Why did it go to another dealer to sort the satnav?

Stealthwolf, I think he said that he'd had the car one hour.

I'm very sorry to hear about this.

I'm also sorry to say that inspite of what Hurdy says it is going to be very difficult and possibly costly (unless the ins co. will pay for the investigation) to prove what caused the fire. There is a small chance that they will be willing to given the circumstances; however, they will offset this against the chances of them (a) proving that the dealership was at fault and (b) the liklihood of them getting any money out of the dealership if they could show faulty wiring was the cause.

A friend of mine who is a fireman told me that >90% of vehicle fires are caused by faulty wiring. I'm with Hurdy in the fact that a coil pack is not the most likely cause, although I could see it happening. I'm imferring from what you said that the car drove home in good order until you noticed the smoke..?

[Saint Steve]

A forum user that i bought my Edition30 from was a free replacement as his 05 GTi went up in flames.

Tis very Rare but Vw have honoured this sad news before.

HTH

[A7 UFO]

consumer law would protect you.  Was the product fit for the purpose for which it was sold?  No.  I don't think you can prove that the fire was the fault of the dealership so you won't be able to sue for damage to your drive etc, but it is reasonable as a consumer to expect that a vehicle will not burst into flames straight away after taking delivery.