I suppose if its the only non wear and tear thing to go out of warranty then although painful it’s not catastrophic for the bank balance.
One of those situations where a goodwill gesture from VW would be appreciated as it’s not a cheap repair.
More expensive than a VW extended warranty would perhaps cost if there’s no goodwill payment but you’d have had to have previous years warranties too which would have mounted up in costs if no previous claims made.
Going off recent experiences with VW UK, I think that goodwill gestures from them are now dead and buried. The only goodwill gestures you'll get are from the supplying dealership, out of their own pocket, in the hope that you'll soon be buying another car from them as yours is out of warranty.
VW strictly imposed a 6500 mile/6 month clause on me for "adjustments" (I was at 5800 miles/7 months when I realised that the paint on the bottom edge of my tailgate was being chipped due to the strike plate being too far in, pulling the tailgate right in. They dismissed the claim on this 6 month clause I was unaware of, despite a local dealership technically supporting it as a misbuild.
Even trying to emphasise my brand loyalty - 10 VWs owned from new had no sway with the contracted customer services rep. You never get to talk to a decision maker directly.
VW UK advised me to pressure the supplying dealership to do it - they're 200 miles away and were reluctant to do it as they thought it should be VWs responsibility.
VW goodwill seems to have been sacrificed on the altar of paying for dieselgate. My fix would've been all labour and no cost of parts. In the end I pulled the lip trim off the boot interior and adjusted the strike plate myself (a 15 min job) and touched up the tiny paint chips on the interior bottom edge of the tailgate. Perhaps you'd still get access to cheap/free parts, but not labour under goodwill.
VW have ended their factory warranty extension - costing them too much? Audi still do it though, and for the same kind of money (£500/5 years).
I had the warranty extension on my R and had to dip into it for my DAB reception - dodgy signal booster, nothing major for the 10 months into warranty extension I still had the car. My car's warranty was hardly tested by mileage though - 46 months old and 30k miles on the clock when I sold it.
