Some serious advice please

[PenguinGTI]

Right, My car is due it's first service and I have a list of things that have gone wrong...

1. Small water leak on motorway at 60+ in heavy rain. Comes in the top of the driver door from the A pillar.

2. Electrical fault with mirrors. Don't always move independently.

3. Car came without plugs for front wheel arches.

4. Wet sponge in front wheel arches (not so much a fault as a design flaw I am going to show them) [thanks Snoopy].

5. PAINT!!!

On my last point - the paint - I am unsure whether I have grounds to reject the car. Here is the story.

The car was bought brand new in September 2009 with tornado Red paint. Since then the stone chips have been terrible. I'm not talking little chips here. There are dents in the plastic and proper chunks of paint missing. Even on the A pillars. Furthermore the car has been carefully washed since bought but it looks as if someone has been up it with sandpaper. Thirdly the rear wheel arches have started to lose their paint behind the wheel due to the rear wheels spraying stones on them.

My girlfriend has bought a 4 year old corsa with red which is in much better condition than the paint on my 7 month GTI. I'm thinking that if the paint is like this after 7 months, what will it be like after 3 years when I want to sell it?

What are folks views on this? This is defective paint. If VW offer a full respray (which it needs I think) then could this be grounds to reject the car? Anyone on here from dealers that could give some insight.

[VWKev]

Right, My car is due it's first service and I have a list of things that have gone wrong...

1. Small water leak on motorway at 60+ in heavy rain. Comes in the top of the driver door from the A pillar.

2. Electrical fault with mirrors. Don't always move independently.

3. Car came without plugs for front wheel arches.

4. Wet sponge in front wheel arches (not so much a fault as a design flaw I am going to show them) [thanks Snoopy].

5. PAINT!!!

On my last point - the paint - I am unsure whether I have grounds to reject the car. Here is the story.

The car was bought brand new in September 2009 with tornado Red paint. Since then the stone chips have been terrible. I'm not talking little chips here. There are dents in the plastic and proper chunks of paint missing. Even on the A pillars. Furthermore the car has been carefully washed since bought but it looks as if someone has been up it with sandpaper. Thirdly the rear wheel arches have started to lose their paint behind the wheel due to the rear wheels spraying stones on them.

My girlfriend has bought a 4 year old corsa with red which is in much better condition than the paint on my 7 month GTI. I'm thinking that if the paint is like this after 7 months, what will it be like after 3 years when I want to sell it?

What are folks views on this? This is defective paint. If VW offer a full respray (which it needs I think) then could this be grounds to reject the car? Anyone on here from dealers that could give some insight.

1. I'm sure they will replace the seals at that point.

2. They will check that out I'm sure. Lets see what they say about it.

3. Get them, but why wait a year before telling them, they will ask you that.

4. God knows how that will be removed, thats mental.

5. I dont think you have a leg to stand on for rejecting the car imo not because I dont think you shouldnt do it, but its a year old. They may offer a respray, you obviously have some sort of defect with the painwork.

Good luck.

[Wayne]

Sorry but at 7mths old you have little chance of rejecting the car due to paint work, stone chips happen at the end of the day.

[A7 UFO]

all they'll do, if they do anything, is check the paint depth is right

[PenguinGTI]

3. Get them, but why wait a year before telling them, they will ask you that.

Told them over a month ago as soon as I noticed thanks to this forum. They ordered them and said they would call when it came in. Never called. I was away this month and only been back a week. Thought since car was going in this week I would wait till this week to bring it back up.

See I don't actually want to reject the car. I quite like it now that I'm settled in. But at the same time I don't want to watch my car get damaged like this. Also having to wait for another one would take flippin ages.

I'll see what happens.

[avalon]

Best of luck Penguin.

I agree with other posters re the paint problems; it would be for you to prove that the quality was such that it chipped easier than expected.

Had my Brera a cuppla weeks and there were sizeable chunks out of it but the mirth men at Alfa just found it /sooo/ funny.


Ava

[am1w]

PenguinGTi:
Kev is right about car rejection.
However, it is rather awful to have so many paint faults after such a short time.
Most unusual.
I feel for you and the very best of luck.

[p3asa]

1. Small water leak on motorway at 60+ in heavy rain. Comes in the top of the driver door from the A pillar.

2. Electrical fault with mirrors. Don't always move independently.

4. Wet sponge in front wheel arches (not so much a fault as a design flaw I am going to show them) [thanks Snoopy].

5. Paint

1. I've noticed a couple of drops coming in the seals. I mean literally 1 or 2 drops and then it stops. The seals appear to be a felt like material as opposed to rubber.

2. There is an option on the MFD to move the wing mirrors independently or both together. Make sure it is set to the right option.

4. VW will be well aware of the wet sponge as they put them there. At the end of the day if corrosion starts there then it won't be an isolated case, VW would have to do something radical to all Golfs. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

5. Agree the paint is atrocious. My bonnet looks like someone has taken a machine gun to the front of it. Since I've noticed mine I have been looking at other cars as I walk past them and none are any way as bad as mine and they are on much older cars!!!
Not sure can do anything about that apart from keep well away from the car in front.

[Snoopy]

If you want i can Email you the sponge video

[matchboy]

keep us updated on your paint issue penguin.  i've had mine 7.5 months now (8k miles) and i too have sizeable chips on the front side of the car (deep black pearl) - not happy - my mk 5 gti (tornado red) had 36k miles and not one stone chip, so if it is a paint problem let us all know!  as happy as i am with my car, the one thing that's not as good as the mk5 is the paintwork - its sh1t