VW Service

IMHO it comes down to the guy who does the service write ups. I have learned that if you ask the right questions of some, you get the straight answer, whereas others volunteer information without you having to pry it out of them. I have also found that if you show up informed and armed with some printed web pages you are much more likely to have a good service experience. My experience w/ VW is that the good ones are really good, and passionate about what they do, and the vehicles they service. But like eveerything, that varies widely from person to person/

VW has put a lot effort in getting the dealer ready for the Touareg! Each dealers "BEST" technicians were sent to class for week long training and more classes are to follow. Even when the vehicle was delivered the only ones who could do the PDI were the Touareg techs. But like anything there is a downside even for the VW instructors who teach the Touareg class... that is information flows slowly from Germany and we have lots to learn.

As others have noted, it's more important to form your opinions of your local dealers. When you say "service" are you referring to service service or sales service? The two are often quite different at the same dealership.

I had a good sales experience at a fixed-price, somewhat-off-MSRP dealer. Their price was indistinguishable from Edmund's "What You Should Expect To Pay" price. Salesman was very couteous and knowledgeable, no high-pressure sales of any add-ons - the sales manager just went down a list of these items, including extended warranty, and moved right along as I simply said, "No, thank you...no, thank you...no, thank you..." The salesman's walkthrough was extensive, including many of the "hidden" or "secret" Passat features that are discussed at places like VWVortex. Overall, a very good experience.

I bought the car in Roanoke VA near where my house is, but I work in Fairfax VA, so I take my car for dealer service to Northern VA dealers.

A few weeks after purchase, I noticed a slight rattle in the dash. I wanted that fixed and my locks reprogrammed to unlock when I removed the key from the lock.

Fairfax VW - rude, clueless, and stupid. The idiot laughed at my wife when she said she wanted the locks reprogrammed ("Who told you that was possible? Never heard of it" - the guy didn't have two brain cells to rub together and start a fire).

Stohlman VW - polite, professional. Took the car there. Service was impersonal and they kept the car overnight (for a rattle???). Did a good job and mostly fixed the stuff, although the rattle is still somewhat there.

Next service work - fitting in a PhatNoise digital player. I didn't even bother calling the morons at Fairfax VW.

Stohlman did not know what the PhatNoise was, and didn't seem interested in finding out.

Springfield VW - friendly personal service, knew what PhatNoise was, could install it. They were prepared to give same-day appointments, but I couldn't make it. They gave me an appointment the next day. Good place, although far from work in Fairfax. Work well done, promptly, immediate call to my cell phone when car was ready - didn't wait for me to call. Happy.

Next service was wheel alignment after going through massive crater. Called Springfield VW again. They gave me a next day appointment. Work very well done, although took a long time since my car is a 4Motion. Alignment was perfect, and car drove better than when I bought it.

No other dealer work done on my car. I take my car to a German car independent garage for oil changes and routine maintenance, since he uses Lubro Moly 0W40 synthetic oil and Mann filters without me breathing down his neck.

Your best bet is to call around, talk to service departments, see how they react. If you're married, have your wife also call...some places don't treat women well, as my wife found out at Fairfax VW (or maybe those guys don't treat anyone well, who knows?). Form your own opinions. My own experiences have been good, but I will never take my car to anyone who

1. Doesn't return calls when I am looking to give them business. I call my customers and sales prospects back, which is why I can afford the car. Why shouldn't the VW dealers do the same for me?

1. Isn't polite and professional and willing to answer questions even if they are novice questions.

To all: Thanks for the feedback. It is very helpful. I'm in the process of moving to St. Augustine, FL. Not sure where the nearest dealer will be, probably Jacksonville (about 40 miles away). I've gone to see the Touareg and am very impressed with it, at least at first sight (my dad swears by VWs... and Fords (!)... but that's a different story). I asked the question because with the Touareg and the upcoming Phaeton, VW is approaching the luxury market from the bottom up (vs. BMW, Jaguar, etc), which is OK, provided the service department (sales is less critical to me) is properly setup. When you're dropping upwards of $50-70+K for a VW, service should be competitive with say... Lexus, I would expect.

Tony

drop me a line on regular email and i will tell you about jacksonville area vw dealers.....

regards

Do not expect VW service is to be anywhere close to what Lexus service is. It starts with the appointments. VW tends to always be a week or two away. Then there are no loaners. Most of the time Lexus policy is that if you have to wait for 45 min you get a loaner automatically no questions asked. Try to pry a free loaner out of VW... In my experience VW technicians were Ok - not outstanding they were able to fix major problems, but were not willing to spend time on small things and details. When you buy a luxury car the details are important. You don't want oily fingerprints on your headliner do you ? Now, the raliability for the T-req is not known yet, but the reliability of other VWs is so so. I would not risk the T-req kind of money for a VW without a reliability track record. It can turn into a nightmare. Have fun.

Well, we've had people drive 2 hours just to have service done at our dealer, even though they could of driven 10 minutes to thier "local" dealer. Bring your car to us, well take care of you.

Best advise I can give is to stop every person you see in a VW and simply ask they how the service department is. If they say poor, then ask why.

Even the greatest service department will have people who feel like they got ripped off (ie - 1982 diesel rabbit wasn't fixed for free, don't laugh). Or have complaints against them that is beyond thier control. I'm sure Woodchuck can tell you about miss pick SOP that were send overnight. Weeeeee!

Later.

Over the weekend, a friend of mine was showing me his new-for-him Passat (99 or 00, I don't remember) and telling me about a work colleague of his who has an Audi (purchased new from the dealer). When the colleague suffered something that sounded suspiciously like the coil-pack problem, the dealership got him an appointment in two days, reimbursed him for the tow, and gave him a loaner. I have no experience with this dealership, so I don't know if it's just this place that's doing this or if this is part of what one pays for when you shell out the extra bucks for, say, an Audi A4 instead of a VW Passat. Ideas, anyone? Is this the experience of most Audi buyers?

sd

sometimes warranty pays for the rental and other times dealers just give free rentals to their GOOD customers(no whiners)! But when it comes to a higher priced car the owner usually doesn't car if they need to pay for the rental. After all, they have a few extra $$$ in the checking account!

Or maybe they spent all their money on the car and now need a break on the rental:-)

Seriously, though, as I said before, I have not had a problem with my own VW dealership service, although I will also say I do not consider price or convenience as a factor when determining where to take my car for service. Therefore, the independent garage gets my non-warranty routine maintenance, because he is very meticulous, uses the right type of oil and filter, etc. The fact that he charges more than the dealership and is a one-hour drive away (each way) is not important *to me*. Similarly, I would not take the car to my closest dealer to work, Fairfax VW who is a mile away, because they are rude and ignorant - regardless of price.

I guess it comes down to: if you choose based only on service, well then, you get good service. If you go with price as the factor - and believe me, I understand what it's like to have to use price as the deciding factor; I've been there - then you *may* be more likely to be screwed by someone, whether it's a dealer or not. Not necessarily, of course, but perhaps.

Maybe the Lexus owners choose only on service, not on price, and therefore Lexus dealers compete based on service, not price. I wouldn't know, though - most Lexi are not nearly as fun to drive as my Passat GLX 4Motion!:-)

VW, being somewhat less upscale than Lexus, seems to have much more variation in the quality of dealerships. I would venture to say the best VW dealers are as good in service as Lexus dealers, though.

Consumer Reports never has much good to say unless its a Honda, Toyota, or Ford product, but then I only pick up their rag about once every ten years.... I've always had good (although sometimes pricey) experiences with VW, and of course it's not likely you'll need much service! John, a happy 01 Beetle TDI owner

How true, yesterday we had a new Passat owner who also owns a new Vette and I heard him complaining about paying $6 for VW touchup paint, BTW, he didn't buy the paint...

maintenance,