Where do I stand on returning my scirocco?

[aaronrey]

Basically, without going on and on...bought the car last Tuesday from an independent dealer and already had multiple problems. Found out it had been remapped (and very likely ragged), struggles to get into 1st gear, DCC suspension doesn't work, knocking from (modified) suspension/steering.

The remap and suspension also worry me for insurance purposes.

Now it's back in the garage for repairs, but it hasn't left me feeling confident about ownership and I have it on a 3 year finance plan. Do I have the right to return and has anyone been in a similar situation? I can't imagine it would be easy but any advice would be very helpful. They would also only give me a 1000 mile/28 day warranty which is the cherry on the cake.

Cheers in advance.

[Astonbarlow]

Had a similar issue with my sisters car. Purchased it and then alot of problems arose a week later.

As its a dealer you have the consumer rights act on your side. Basically you are entitled to the following:

0 - 30 days: Refund, repair or replacement ... your choice not theirs so if they try and strong arm you into repairs don't go for it just get a refund. If they are genuine they will do all the repairs if you wanted or sort you out a like for like replacement depending on stock. But of course you can always just get a refund if thats the path you want to follow.

30 days to 6 month: repairs or replacement only... again your choice but im assuming by this time youll have settled with the car and just want to get issues repaired.

Some dealers dont offer warranty, or in your case 28 days / 1000 mile, but this is irrelevant, as if a fault occur within the first 6 month they are required by law to repair the fault or replace the vehicle so i wouldn't really worry about that. If they argue and wont fix the problem, you have the right to go to court and as long as you can prove you logged the issue within 6 months (emails/texts/etc) then youll win.

Regarding the finance, all loans have a 14 day cooling off period some go as far as 30 days. So you can cancel the finance and pay the sum borrowed (vehicle cost) without incurring any penalties. Some may charge interest over this period but most dont. If you contact them and let them know you are returning the vehicle im sure they will come to some arrangement where the dealer will return fund, but again that will be down to the finance company your dealing with, as really you are liable as its your loan.

Heres a link for more information, its quite useful so hopefully you can resolve your situation!
https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights ... -my-rights" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just as a vote of confidence, my sister loved her car and the dealer did a full engine replacement FOC under the consumer rights act as the vehicle came with no warranty.

Hope everything gets sorted and keep us updated.

[Astonbarlow]

On an additional note, any repairs conducted not by the dealer you bought it from are not covered under the consumer rights as they could argue that they didnt have chance to diagnose the original problem. So I would opt to go to the dealer and have them do a full diagnosis and conduct repairs before you do anything.

[lewisheywood]

Just make sure you are clued up on all the relevant laws.

From what you've said they don't have a foot to stand on.

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[aaronrey]

Thanks for the replies! very informative and much appreciated, filled with a bit of confidence.

Car has supposedly had the repairs I asked for-

gearbox - was apparently links
suspension knocking - didn't say what they did, just said it was sorted hmmm
handbrake - tightened

although

DCC - they said was an optional factory extra but I am pretty sure this is not true. It has the comfort sport button so I should have it.

I have bought a carista adapter which I'm going to take to run a check and I am also going to book it into Volkswagen for a checkup tomorrow.

Nice one again, I've had a good read on my rights and feel a lot better about the situation.

[andyy]

How did you find out it’s been remapped?

DCC was a factory option. I believe KW sell a coilover that has DCC compatibility. There are probably others too. If it has DCC and aftermarket coilovers that don’t support the DCC function, I wouldn’t worry, but you should have picked this up when you viewed / test drove the car.

Either way, if it has aftermarket coilovers and a remap I’d be pretty happy - providing they’ve been set up right. As long as the service history is good and it’s been looked after I wouldn’t worry.

You could have a standard car and it could have been thrashed to an inch of its life. You will never, ever know - unless you know the previous owner.


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[aaronrey]

I posted a picture of it on a facebook group and the previous owner got in touch and let me know so pretty lucky in that sense!

I'm presuming it has been put on coilovers which don't work with the function and to be honest this is a grey area for me as I only found out about this feature after purchasing the car. Although I would expect the factory functions to work.

In terms of the remap, I wouldn't have purchased the car knowing it had one - like you said any car could have been ragged, but it is more likely to have been thrashed around if it has had one (in my eyes anyway).

On a positive note, the previous owner looked like he took good care of it and I have seen pictures of it at shows and the service history is healthy.

[andyy]

I posted a picture of it on a facebook group and the previous owner got in touch and let me know so pretty lucky in that sense!

I'm presuming it has been put on coilovers which don't work with the function and to be honest this is a grey area for me as I only found out about this feature after purchasing the car. Although I would expect the factory functions to work.

In terms of the remap, I wouldn't have purchased the car knowing it had one - like you said any car could have been ragged, but it is more likely to have been thrashed around if it has had one (in my eyes anyway).

On a positive note, the previous owner looked like he took good care of it and I have seen pictures of it at shows and the service history is healthy.

It’s good that the previous owner got in contact and had re-assured you of it’s past.

Re the DCC. If it’s that much of an issue, you could play dumb with the dealership and the only way they can fix it is to put OEM shocks on.

If they don’t then depending how hard you push, you could ‘reject the car’ however, as I’m sure you test drove the car and agreed a sale. I’ve had DCC on a few cars, including a Scirocco and I tend to leave it in normal and I can take a punt and say your coil overs offer a better ride and a better ride height (standard Scirocco have monster truck arch gaps).

I would just take this experience as a lesson learned. Next time make sure you test everything and make sure you’re happy and state what you want as part of the deal before you sign anything.

Also, by law, you get a minimum 3 month warranty, which in some cases can be up to 6 months , if you can prove the fault was present at the time of sale.


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[andyy]

I posted a picture of it on a facebook group and the previous owner got in touch and let me know so pretty lucky in that sense!

I'm presuming it has been put on coilovers which don't work with the function and to be honest this is a grey area for me as I only found out about this feature after purchasing the car. Although I would expect the factory functions to work.

In terms of the remap, I wouldn't have purchased the car knowing it had one - like you said any car could have been ragged, but it is more likely to have been thrashed around if it has had one (in my eyes anyway).

On a positive note, the previous owner looked like he took good care of it and I have seen pictures of it at shows and the service history is healthy.

It’s good that the previous owner got in contact and had re-assured you of it’s past.

Re the DCC. If it’s that much of an issue, you could play dumb with the dealership and the only way they can fix it is to put OEM shocks on.

If they don’t then depending how hard you push, you could ‘reject the car’ however, as I’m sure you test drove the car and agreed a sale. I’ve had DCC on a few cars, including a Scirocco and I tend to leave it in normal and I can take a punt and say your coil overs offer a better ride and a better ride height (standard Scirocco have monster truck arch gaps).

I would just take this experience as a lesson learned. Next time make sure you test everything and make sure you’re happy and state what you want as part of the deal before you sign anything.

Also, by law, you get a minimum 3 month warranty, which in some cases can be up to 6 months , if you can prove the fault was present at the time of sale.


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[Astonbarlow]

Andyy, there isn't a law for warranty but as I mentioned in my first post he has the consumer rights act on his side. This allows 6 months for any repairs to be carried out. Additionally the onus is on the dealer to prove the fault wasn't there/developing before sale, which helps massively in getting a claim as there isn't really an easy way they can prove faults were present/developing. After 6 months the purchaser must prove the fault was there before sale.

Also I thought if the car is fitted with the sport normal comfort button then it should be fitted with DCC shocks. They are an optional extra but I'm sure if they are chosen then the button is also fitted. Could be worth going calling a main dealer with the reg/vin and saying you need a new damper as they will know what the car was fitted with from the factory. You'll know if it's a DCC damper as they are about £350 per shock absorber.

Also, is DCC that big of a selling point for you? It's ok but not an earth shattering extra. I know people without it and the cars don't feel that much different and don't have the extortionate damper replacement price when they fail!

[Billc]

Just to clarify the DCC situation, if it has the switch then it was originally fitted with it. Prior to MY?? (can't remember) it was a standard fitting on GTs, not an option. To clarify original fitments one can also decode the build sticker in the owners handbook and on the boot floor. There are a few websites that help with decoding the stickers.

FYI, my opinion only, I love DCC. I find the differences very obvious and hunted high and low for my current Scirocco to find an R-Line with it.

[aaronrey]

The DCC problem isn't a major thing, it just would have been nice to have all the 'luxury' functions working properly, especially as this is my first proper car! Also concerns me in terms of future saleability.

I'm still struggling to understand the DCC setup so knowledge welcome. I am wondering if, when the previous owner fitted coilovers, he disconnected the comfort sport button to clear the flashing button fault I have heard about. Then when the garage have taken them off and fitted springs, they didn't know about this and have just left it disconnected. I'll have a look over the weekend.

Got the car back yesterday and the gearbox problem was links so they said they changed the links and they said the knocking noise was related to that?? It has completely gone but I am shocked that they were related. They didn't bother doing the handbrake and also put a nice 3cm chip/scratch on the front bumper - yay.

[Billc]

The DCC problem isn't a major thing, it just would have been nice to have all the 'luxury' functions working properly, especially as this is my first proper car! Also concerns me in terms of future saleability.

If people know what they're looking at it would certainly raise question marks and if it was me I simply wouldn't buy it. If it can be easily fixed then it's definitely worth doing IMO.

[LHM]

The DCC problem isn't a major thing, it just would have been nice to have all the 'luxury' functions working properly, especially as this is my first proper car! Also concerns me in terms of future saleability.

I'm still struggling to understand the DCC setup so knowledge welcome. I am wondering if, when the previous owner fitted coilovers, he disconnected the comfort sport button to clear the flashing button fault I have heard about. Then when the garage have taken them off and fitted springs, they didn't know about this and have just left it disconnected. I'll have a look over the weekend.

Got the car back yesterday and the gearbox problem was links so they said they changed the links and they said the knocking noise was related to that?? It has completely gone but I am shocked that they were related. They didn't bother doing the handbrake and also put a nice 3cm chip/scratch on the front bumper - yay.

from what I understand, the DCC is connected to the stock OEM shockers. Once you press the DCC button into your desired mode it changes the shock absorbers internals from soft to normal or to hard settings. If aftermarket coilovers have been fitted the ability to use DCC is lost. KW coilovers have a range of kits with DCC function built into their shocks, but they are VERY expensive.

[Astonbarlow]

As LHM said, the dampers are controlled via the ECU and depending on what mode you have chosen relates to the damping setting i.e. making the suspension firmer on sport mode. As the dampers are controlled by the ECU their settings are adjusted individually also depending on the feedback from the road surface and other components. It is a very clever system and you can feel the difference on windy country roads.

As i mentioned, it wouldnt have been a deal breaker if my car didnt have it when purchased, but it I would be very suspicious if the car has the button but it doesnt work/ has the wrong dampers installed. It could be worth checking what installation you have on the car, such as spring, shocks and then see if the plug is tied back somewhere. I would only be concerned if youve got cheap aftermarket stuff fitted, as you can buy a basic shock on a scirrocco for about £40 but you know its performance will be inferior.

I would definitely argue to toss with the dealer and get OEM shocks put on if you can. Your still in your returns period so if youre still concerned then you could give it back and go find another that youre happy with?

Also I hope youve gave them an earful for the damage, thats just the icing on the cake in your situation isnt it...