Club 80-90 Forums

My dad who is 75 years old, bless him, has had his beloved 102bhp Diesel Syncro lwb T4 camper from new, in that time it has been serviced to the letter by Wayside VW in Dunstable. He always lets them do whatever is necessary, and tells them to fix anything they find wrong.

My dad and my mum tow a 1200kg caravan with it, and it tows very well. they went to the Isle of White where it started making horrid graunching noises. Took it to the local garage, who found that the front pads were worn down to the metal. He was very cross at having to fork out to replace these standard service items. The local man also found that the fluid level had gone down and was the source of the bleeping that my dad's hearing aid could not hear, and had told my mum she was hearing things!!.

When back on the mainland he went back to VW for the annual mot and service, told them about it, they were not interested and stated that they would only change the pads if the warning light had gone one. Surely that is old rot, as I dont believe that my dads syncro even has that. They have obviously not inspected the brakes, or the brake fluid. My dad had even a year or two ago specifically asked for the fluid to be changed.

It really beggs the question, what are you actually getting when you pay good money for at a service. Are they carrying out the work at all, has dads dub been in for an oil change and they have simply not done it??

Long live the do it youselfer, will anyone so lovingly apply copperslip on assembly, or go and get the waxoil to paint behind a component when it is removed. I am very disapointed with VW, oh and they sent the bill to me, as me and my dad have the same initial. They did not spot the fact that for the other 9 years they have been sending it only a few miles away, and not to Devon. God knows how they got my address, must have given it to them at some point I suppose.

Simon.

Just to finish the story, VW said that they would do the annual service for free, and my dad has just had the dub back today, and looked at the bill addressed to me, and found that they had charged him 6 units of shell helix at 9.99 each and 11 for the filter .92p for the washer. But kindly let him off the labour charge. Some free service.

Mazda are no better.
My old man had a Mazda 6 from new and paid full whack for every service in the book, so it had the full main dealer service history.
After 4 years and a remarakble 30,000 miles!! I told him it needed new tyres. He took it to the local tyre place who couldn't get the alloys off because they had corroded onto the hubs. The wheels and bolts had never seen any grease and I doubt they had ever been off the car. If he'd had a puncture he would have had no chance at the roadside.
I rang Mazda up and asked how they managed to change the brake fluid twice without taking the wheels off, they told me they can do it with the wheels on. Ok fair enough maybe. When I asked how they clean, inspect and reasseble brakes with the wheels on he couldn't answer.
I think there's a lot more inspecting than servicing goes on in some of the places we trust to do much more for the money.

A vw garage used to do my Scirocco (long time ago before I learnt) and were so bad that I started to book it in twice once to service it and fix and then to sort out what they hadn't fixed the first time, and got the a*** when I told them why. Yes it begs the question why I took it back but it was at parents insistance (was a very very long time ago). I think they make their money trading on their "respectability" to a generation that still believes in big companies being reputable.