Thursday 23 August 2007

Car Breakdown 3

The VW Dealership called me this afternoon.

The service desk lady said that she had some "bad news".
The car (a Volkswagen Touran by the way) needs a new fuel unit - 375 quid to replace, plus 40 quid to diagnose the problem using their test kit.

This, however, wasn't all of the bad news!
The part is on "Back Order" from Germany which means I will have up to a 3 week wait. Aaaargh!

I also checked to see if there was any "good will" with the Warranty (it expired 5 months ago, but it could be a "known fault"), for a possible discount on the repair. The Warranty Manager said "No".

When I asked what the "fuel unit" did I was told that it was an "electrical" component. Sounds very much to me like they're replacing a chip?

Why have they run out of spare parts? Either it's a very rare fault, or a very common one and there's been a rush for parts. Couldn't find anything that indicated this on the Web. I don't think it's related to the Tesco contaminated fuel scare that happened in March, but I'll keep a lookout just in case.
I last topped up the tank at a Shell Filling station in Betwys-y-Coed, and before that it was mainly at Tesco's and occasionally Asda.

It could be just Murphy's Law in operation, since the 3 year Warranty on the car has expired.

So it's "Shanks Pony" and public transport for the next 3 weeks for me. I'll have to get a bus pass for next week, and think about possibly hiring a car for a trip to London at the end of the month.

It's Frodo's actual Birthday tomorrow (although he had his party last Sunday) - so we'll have to get a Taxi to the play centre that we were going to, for an on-the-day treat tomorrow morning.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think main dealers policy's are to rip ppl off for as much as they can?

darkdwarf said...

Agreed. I've learnt to always top up my windscreen washer fluid when going in for a Main Dealer service.
They still charge you for the expensive own brand bottle of fluid that they "open", but they have to hand you the full bottle, as the policy is now to give you the remainder after a top up.