Category: Volkswagen

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Safety Issues Volkswagen

Volkswagen Australia announces voluntary recall

Volkswagen

As expected Volkswagen has this morning announced an official recall. The announcement only covers vehicles fitted with a 7-speed DSG transmission (DQ200) built from June 2008 to September 2011. Notices will go out to affected owners from next month. There is no word yet on an official recall for diesel powered models that may be affected by injector issues. Here is Volkswagen’s statement in full:

Volkswagen Group Australia Announces Voluntary Recall

Volkswagen Group Australia today announced a voluntary recall for 25,928 vehicles fitted with 7-speed DSG gearbox (DQ200).

Vehicles affected include Golf, Jetta, Polo, Passat and Caddy and were produced between June 2008 and September 2011.

In isolated cases, an electronic malfunction in the control unit inside the gearbox mechatronics may result in a power interruption. Other important vehicle systems, such as steering and braking, along with other relevant systems, will continue to be fully functional. If, in rare cases, the car loses power while driving, the driver can remain in control to safely manoeuvre the car to a stop.

Volkswagen vehicles currently being produced and sold are not affected by this issue. Australian customers can have trust, peace of mind and confidence when purchasing a new Volkswagen vehicle.

Volkswagen Group Australia will replace the gearbox mechatronic unit on all potentially affected vehicles at no cost to the customer. At the same time, we will also update customers’ vehicles with the latest software version.

Starting from July, owners of the affected vehicles will be contacted directly by Volkswagen Group Australia about the voluntary recall.

The invitation letters to schedule appointments for inspection and replacement of affected parts will be sent out in batches to the owners according to car model, production date and the supply of the necessary parts. Owners can continue to drive their vehicles as usual before the replacement.

In Volkswagen owners are invited to call the Customer Service Centre hotline on 1800 504 076 for this and all other technical inquiries Customer satisfaction is Volkswagen’s highest priority.

UPDATE: The ACCC has published a notice regarding the Volkswagen recall (see below). Interestingly they state vehicles built between 2009–2012 are affected, which is different to Volkswagen’s own date range above.

UPDATE #2: The recalls.gov.au website has been corrected to indicate cars affected were built in 2008–2011. Other edits were made to the text relating to the defects and hazards. You can compare both notices below.

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Safety Issues Volkswagen

Official recall looms for Volkswagen Australia

Volkswagen Golf VI 118TSI

News Limited brings word of an expected recall to be announced by Volkswagen following intense media scrutiny over the last couple of weeks.

Volkswagen’s direct shift gearbox (DSG) will be the main focus with as many as 25,000 vehicles built between June 2008 and September 2011 expected to be covered by the recall, including Polo, Jetta, Golf, Passat and Caddy models.

Further to the DSG recall it’s been reported that around 4000 diesel Volkswagens will also be recalled to have injectors inspected and replaced as required.

Ironically, perhaps, the reported faults from customers of vehicles inexplicably losing power is not featured in the recalls outlined by the News Limited report. While some vehicles may be put into limp mode or false neutral due to issues with the DSG, this may not cover all instances.

If you’re a Volkswagen owner and have concerns over the safety and working order of your vehicle you can contact VW on their dedicated hotline (1800 504 076) with any questions or to arrange a free inspection.

We’ll bring you the official word from Volkswagen as it comes to hand.

[Source: News]

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Safety Issues Volkswagen

Volkswagen Australia now offering free inspections

Volkswagen Golf V

Volkswagen Australia has made its first genuine attempt to win back the confidence of concerned owners who have been complaining about a number of reliability problems in the wake of heavy media scrutiny regarding the Victorian coronial inquest into the death of Melissa Ryan.

It follows an official response to Fairfax Media commentary issued by Volkswagen last week. That statement didn’t really offer too much respite for Volkswagen with many critical of the statement’s dismissive tone.

John White, Managing Director of Volkswagen Group Australia, has sent out a letter to owners with the offer of a free inspection if they are concerned about the safety of their vehicle.

“We understand the recent coverage has caused some concern among our customers,” said White. “We feel the best way to demonstrate our commitment is with several immediate measures.

“For peace of mind, we’re offering free inspections of your Volkswagen vehicle at any Volkswagen dealer throughout Australia.”

A special hotline (1800 504 076) has also been established to allow owners to call in with any questions.

You can read Volkswagen Australia’s letter in full after the break. Do you think this is enough for Volkswagen to win back consumer confidence, or do you think they can or should do more?

[Thanks to Stu for the tip]

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Volkswagen WRC

Onboard with Jari-Matti at the Acropolis Rally

Jari-Matti Latvala onboard SS6 Rally Acropolis

The official WRC YouTube channel brings selected footage to the world during and after each rally. Here we ride with Acropolis Rally winner Jari-Matti Latvala on SS6. Settle yourself down and enjoy the ride!

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Safety Issues Volkswagen

Fairfax ramps up scrutiny on Volkswagen

Senay and Seniz Suleyman

The fallout from Fairfax Media’s article last Friday, reporting on cases of Volkswagen’s suddenly losing power, continues to gather momentum. First, Volkswagen issued an official response after the original Fairfax article was flooded with comments from concerned owners.

Since then Fairfax has continued to run stories about concerned Volkswagen owners and Volkswagen Australia has reportedly pulled all its advertising from Fairfax publications.

On the one hand it is pleasing to see Fairfax has not been deterred by the loss of advertising revenue, while on the other it now just seems to be turning into a schoolyard spat with two parties trying to score points at any opportunity. For Volkswagen Australia, this is fast becoming a PR nightmare.

The latest article from Fairfax reports on the ownership experience of an 18-year-old Sydney woman, Senay Suleyman (pictured on the right with sister Seniz), who was gifted a new Polo for her 18th birthday last October. According to the article it has suffered a loss of power on four occasions and been returned to the dealer each time.

The article says Volkswagen was considering replacing the car if the problems continued, but they now claim Suleyman’s Polo is fine.

Although the Suleyman family still wants out, Senay’s mother, Suzi, said: “It’s not an option to sell the vehicle because it will simply be like selling a death trap to another motorist.”

It’s important to remember that at the heart of the problem is an emerging group of dissatisfied owners who are sharing tales of worrying behaviour from what they should expect to be reliable and safe new vehicles.

Whether some owners have been whipped up into a frenzy amidst the scrutiny from Fairfax is a separate issue, the point is Volkswagen Australia now has an image problem that it needs to sort out. And fast.

[Pic: Sebastian Costanzo]

UPDATE: We note Fairfax now has a dedicated sub-section of their Drive.com.au website for Volkswagen Problems.

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Volkswagen WRC

Jari-Matti Latvala wins 2013 Acropolis Rally

2013 Acropolis Rally

Jari-Matti Latvala has broken through for his maiden WRC victory with Volkswagen by taking out the Acropolis Rally on the weekend. Dani Sordo was second for Citroën and Thierry Neuville was third in his Ford.

“I’m absolutely thrilled and I’d like to dedicate this win to the whole Volkswagen team,” Latvala said. “The new season got off to a very difficult start for me, but the team always believed in me and supported me really well. I’m delighted to see so many happy faces now. Winning the Rally Acropolis also means a lot to me because it’s extremely tough and it’s a real classic.

“The last stage felt like the longest and hardest for a some time—I felt every single stone and jolt in the car and couldn’t wait for the finishing line to come into sight. Today is a day for celebrating!”

Latvala’s cause was aided by a mechanical issue to teammate and runaway championship leader, Sebastien Ogier, on the opening stage of the rally. Ogier’s car suffered fuel pressure problems and his subsequent repairs earnt him a 10 minute time penalty.

In the end Ogier worked his way back to P10 for the last championship point on offer and he also picked up three points for winning the power stage. It’s the first time this year that Ogier has failed to finish on the podium.

Young Volkswagen driver Andreas Mikkelsen had his best result for Volkswagen, too, finishing in fourth place.

As a result of their strong showing Volkswagen has further cemented its lead in the manufacturers’ championship. Ogier currently enjoys a 52 point lead in the drivers’ title over Latvala, who has moved into second place ahead of Sebastien Loeb.

The high levels of dust in the Acropolis Rally provided photographers with wonderful opportunities to capture the cars in action, a gallery of images from Volkswagen can be seen below.

Note: Citroën lodged a formal protest against all three Volkswagen entries after the rally. The protest concerned Volkswagen’s practices with the cars under parc fermé conditions, specifically the treatment of the batteries in each of the cars. The FIA dismissed the protest and the original results will stand.

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Safety Issues Volkswagen

Volkswagen Australia responds to Fairfax Media

Volkswagen

In a not unexpected development Volkswagen has issued an official response to yesterday’s Fairfax Media article:

Volkswagen Group Australia Response to Fairfax

The coronial inquest regarding the death of Ms. Ryan is still ongoing, we will not comment on the investigation, except to say that we are cooperating fully and the assertion by Fairfax that Ms Ryan’s death appears to have been caused by sudden deceleration is incorrect. There has been no finding of this nature by the Coroner.

There is also no correlation between the inquest, and the customer reports presented in the media regarding issues with diesel engines and DSG transmissions.

The vehicle at the centre of the inquest is equipped with a petrol engine and a manual transmission. Neither of the customer’s interviewed for the story has a vehicle fitted with a DSG transmission either.

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Safety Issues Volkswagen

Has your Volkswagen suddenly lost power?

Volkswagen Golf V

We alert you to a troubling article regarding the Volkswagen Golf published by Fairfax Media. Most of the issues reported on relate to Mk5 Golfs and centre around the 2011 death of 32-year-old Melissa Ryan on Melbourne’s Monash Freeway:

A coroner this week investigated the death of Ms Ryan, who was killed when a prime mover with two trailers hit her Golf from behind. The truck driver and Ms Ryan’s family believe her car dramatically and inexplicably slowed before the crash. After Fairfax’s reporting of the coronial inquest, 15 owners of Volkswagens have spoken of frightening experiences when their cars, including Golf, Passat, Polo and Eos models, suddenly lost power on highways and, in one case, a train line.

“I did not feel safe driving a car like that. It was frightening,” said Jean Lim, who was driving a 2007 Golf automatic that suddenly decelerated. VW replaced the gearbox but the issue returned. Another driver, who owned a 2008 Golf automatic, said she drove “in constant terror”. “The light comes up, the car just dies and you just pray that you’re not smashed into,” said the driver, who declined to be named.

We suggest you read the article in full. If you drive a recent model Volkswagen and have experienced similar problems we’d like to hear from you in the comments section below.

For the interests of transparency we spent over six years at the wheel of a 2006 Golf GTI (6-speed manual) and never encountered anything at all like this. The car went back to Volkswagen for three voluntary recalls, although the car was not exhibiting any of the problems covered by the recalls at the time.

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Volkswagen

VIDEO: Mk7 Golf R gets some Ring time

Volkswagen Golf R prototype

The next-gen Volkswagen Golf R has been seen lapping the Nürburgring and it looks like a showroom release shouldn’t be too far away.

Expect it to be heavily based on the new Audi S3, which means it should be running the latest Haldex all-wheel drive system. Power from the 2.0 litre turbo EA888 engine in the Mk7 Golf R should go close to matching the S3’s 221kW. Likewise the peak torque figure of 380Nm. That represents improvements of 33kW/30Nm compared with the Australian spec Mk6 Golf R.

Kerb weight should be down around 60kg or so compared to the old model and improvements in power to weight ratio should see the 0–100km/h take a smidge over five seconds.

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Volkswagen

Volkswagen Design Vision GTI photo gallery

Volkswagen Design Vision GTI

Finally we have some more pics for the Design Vision GTI, alas they’re still computer generated. That said there’s some pretty cool cutaway images to feast your eyes on, along with the usual exterior and interior images.

Hopefully we’ll be able to bring you some real images of this car soon.

UPDATE: New pics from the Wörthersee unveiling have been added.

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Motor Shows Volkswagen

Wörthersee 2013: Volkswagen Golf GTI Cabrio Austria

Volkswagen Golf GTI Cabrio Austria

The Mk6 Golf GTI has been given a final swansong by thirteen of Volkswagen’s most talented apprentices. Decked out in the red and white colours of the Austrian flag the Golf GTI Cabriolet Austria has the go to match its show.

The one-off creation is powered by the 2.0 turbocharged engine you expect to see in a GTI, but it’s been tuned to produce 245kW. Inside the Cabrio has been enhanced with a custom interior as well.

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Motor Shows Volkswagen

Wörthersee 2013: Volkswagen Amarok R-Style

Volkswagen Amarok R-Style Concept

We expect Volkswagen to jazz up a Golf GTI for Wörthersee, but it’s not everyday they go to town on the Amarok pick-up. But that’s exactly what they’ve done with the Amarok R-Style Concept. It’s had the works thrown at it, including having a 200kW/600Nm 3.0 litre V6 TDI stuffed under the bonnet.

Massive 22″ rims wrapped in 295/35/22 tyres complements those aggressive guards, which have been pumped out by 60mm. The front spoiler has been finished off with a carbon fibre diffuser, which ties in with the cover for the cargo area.

The carbon fibre theme continues inside too, where you’ll also find an 8″ touchscreen and 500w subwoofer in the GTI-inspired interior.

In truth the concept illustrations available after the break look better than the real image you see above. All in all though this would make an awesome workhorse for all those odd jobs you don’t really need to do.

[Source: WCF | Thanks to Tom for the tip]

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