my problematic GTI

[wab172uk]

I think mines a Friday afternoon car too.

Gearbox issues, there's a rattle at the rear, and the dealer broke the front strut when changing the gearbox.

Mines a 9 month old GTI PP, and I've just put a deposit down on an S3 Saloon.

[Egbutt Wash]

Buy a Dacia

[Sootchucker]

Really sorry to hear that mate - must be very frustrating to say the least !

Can only speak as I find and this is now our 6th VW in a row (3 Polo's, 2 Golfs and a Scirocco), and apart from a climate control panel needing replacing under warranty in the MK5 Golf and the door's adjusting on the Scirocco (frameless windows and wind noise at speed), all 6 has been pretty much bullet proof (touch wood), and as a brand my opinion is that they are certainly up there with the best marques.

As usual what let's them down is the UK agent (VW UK - totally clueless) and mainly apathetic dealers (although there are so good ones out there). Get those two sorted and I think it would cure most problems.

Whilst no manufacturer is ever going to produce cars that are 100% perfect 100% of the time, I do think what you are experiencing is well beyond what might be expected to be reasonable, and certainly the "Friday Afternoon" car syndrome springs to mind, but TBH, I thought that was a thing of the past with mostly fully automated production lines ?

[monkeyhanger]

Sootchucker: You'd be surprised how little of the car's manufacture is automated in general at the big car manufacturers (I was at Sunderland Nissan lately for a jobs fair open day (an initiative ran by our company as we're getting made redundant next year). I was surprised how littl evehicle manufacture has moved on since I worked at the Ford Transit van plant in Southampton almost 20 years ago. The basic bodyshell is welded by robots, painted and cured in an infra-red oven by automated means. A few of the big things like windscreens and running gear will be put into place with robots (but likely secured by people on a line. All the heavy stuff like the suspension components will possibly be secured by robots after certainly being offered up by the robots taking the load. Once you start putting the interior in, there's very little room for a bulky robot to maneuvre inside the car. Almost all of the car's interior and most of the ancillaries under the bonnet will be fitted by people using air tools set to give at a certain torque.

What are the issues with any faulty car car though? A poorly fitted component that wasn't defective, or a correctly fitted defective component - in most cases I suspect it will be the latter - VWs component QC will be to blame for that. It'll all come down to money in the end though - if it costs twice as much to supply a component with a 0.05% failure rate rather than a 0.5% failure rate, the bean counters will be balancing up the higher cost of better components with the cost of remedial works and meeting in the middle somewhere.