My 15 year love affair with Volkswagen has officially come to an end. I would like to scream from the roof tops that this company doesn't back their product and does not care if they lose loyal customers. I will never buy another car from them again.

I leased a 2007 VW New Beetle in October of 2006. It is a 5 speed manual transmission. It has 10,000 miles on it to date. Thursday while attempting to drive up North to visit my family for Thanksgiving the clutch started skipping and a horrible smelling white smoke started blowing out of the car. We pulled over to see what was wrong, it finally stopped smoking and the clutch was barely working.

I called the local dealership Saturday morning and they say "bring the car right in". We bring it in and then they tell us "well, we don't actually have anybody who can look at it today but we'll see what we can do and call you". They call me at 5:00 p.m. and say "nope, didn't have anybody to look at it, it'll have to wait until Monday". So Monday in the middle of the afternoon they call us and say "we need your authorization for the $900 fee to take the car apart and look at it, it may be a wear and tear item and not covered under warranty". Are You Kidding Me? 10,000 miles?

I have been driving a stick shift since I was 16 years old. I have leased two other New Beetles from Volkswagen and have never Once had an issue with the clutch. I Know How To Drive A Manual Transmission. I'm sorry but if their product is so badly made that the clutch will burn out after 10,000 miles I have no interest in putting my life in the hands of Volkswagen.

We called the corporate office to complain. The corporate office didn't call back until the next day and told us we're out of luck, that's policy. Their policy is 12 months or 12,000 miles for wear and tear items. We've had the car for 13 months. They don't care that we've leased 2 other Volkswagens from them and have been a loyal, on-time paying, perfect lease returning customer since 2000. They have never had one single issue with us. And they would not even look at the car to see if it was a possible failure opposed to "wear and tear" unless we first fronted $900.

I am Done with Volkswagen. Their product is Not well made, they don't back their product and they care more about profit than keeping loyal Good customers. I am sad to see them go ... I look back on my '68 and '69 Bugs, I look back on my 1990 GTI and I look back on my 3 New Beetles with fondness. But I Will Not deal with a company who isn't willing to work with Good customers.

Hi there. Some time ago I purchased a Jackaroo 1999 mod. To cut along story short, the engine ran on, I could not shut it down, it blow 2 pistons cost me $13,000 to get it fixed. The car had gone well up to this point except for hard starting when cold. Had it to Holden service on 3 or 4 occasions, whilst under warranty. They wouldn’t investigate it unless I paid for it and then try for a claim under warranty.

The car was recalled under warranty and fitted with new o rings to injectors prior to engine failure. They should have replaced injectors at that stage also. All GM Holden would pay for was the new injectors. They were very reluctant to do so. My wife and I were devastated and brought us to our knees with anxiety. Our whole family suffered one way or another. The selfish **** attitude of them, I couldn’t believe.

I grew up with Holden written all over my face, my father had Holdens, and I had so many I’ve lost count of. I am a mechanic of 40 years experience, ran garages had my own business spoke to customers about their car problems and solved most of them. Tthe attitude of this mob is ridiculous to say the least. They needed a letter from the engine rebuilder, which he supplied, but that was not good enough for them. It wasn't the right wording for them. Mind you they had already paid out the full price for other people good luck for them.

My vehicle had traveled 130,000 km when this happened. The cause could have been a number of things oil too thick prior to me buying the vehicle, b injectors, c oil delivery pump, d engine shut down module, e injector seals what ever did I will never no, I have checked over old parts haven’t found any thing that directly points to the damage done.

I love my little 306, it finds car parks that SUVs simply can't dream of, can maneuver zippily through heavy traffic and is quite fuel efficient.

It has however run into a few needy repairs of late one being a new window cable, additional repairs to the automatic window motor and a new door lock.

So, I took it to Trivett at Alexandria. $900 later it was repaired, then about 8 months after the repair the internal workings of the door lock fell in so I took it back to be repaired under warranty. 1 1/2 yrs later the lock fell in again. The quote for repairs, incidentally everything they supposedly replaced with new parts $880. Now don't get me wrong but wouldn't you expect a brand new door lock and barrel to last more than 1 1/2yrs? Why am being asked to pay for someone else poor workmanship? I understand it is an old car but these are brand new parts.

Another ongoing issue with Trivett is their inability to fix the windscreen wipers so that they wipe the windscreen. Now I have taken my car to be serviced there several times but they have never quite managed this very simple task. Something about the car which translates as “you have an old car which we are not interested in servicing properly". The problem being that any new car you buy from them will one day be old and this is the standard of service one is to expect.

Words of warning, flashy new building, shame about the service.

any other paint enquiries

Our Kia which we bought second hand has only done 90.000km. The fella we bought it off had the motor done up when he bought the vehicle. Kia will not help us out because they say it has already been fixed once before (what a **** vehicle).

The head gasket has gone - how many times should you have to replace a head gasket with a vehicle that has only done this amount of kms?

These vehicles should be not allowed into this country.

The roof got stuck halfway between on and off. Stuck at a shopping centre with every other **** staring. Got that problem fixed, then discovered the indicator only goes on for 3 sec if you press it lightly and indefinitely if you press it hard. When correcting it from left to neutral it always goes to the right. This leads to all sorts of problems, many people beeping and accidents almost caused as a result.

There are some niggling vibrations in the back seat. I can't even be bothered getting it checked again ... gonna sell this piece of **** and tell everyone not to buy it.

I am having trouble seeing the green turn indicator lights in daylight. Enquiries to Ford dealers and auto electricians as to improving the lighting clarity have not been successful. As my eyesight is adequate my hope was to have stronger wattage globes fitted. No positive response.

I am concerned as to the safety factor and would appreciate any positive advice.

I have a July 2000 GU Patrol with 110000kms. On Monday 26-11-07 I lost power & the smoke that was bellowing out of the exhaust was mind blowing. The diagnosis is a hole in No 1 Piston & what looks to be a bill for around $10'000.00.

Has anyone out there being able to get Nissan to pay for parts as this is a fault Nissan admitted to on their 1800 035 035 number when I called.

I realise with the age of my vehicle & cannot expect total coverage of all costs from Nissan but I do believe Nissan should cover all parts & pay least 50% of labour costs.

With the amount of Patrols that have failed in this manner I can’t believe Nissan have not had class action has not being taken? Or has it

I find I have to put in a new air con belt often. The shortest time I had it work was two weeks before the belt broke. Mitsubishi checked it out and said there were no faults. Any ideas? Other than that I love the car I have had for years.

In December 2006 I purchased a used vehicle from United Holden Rockdale. Daewoo Nubira 2.0L, Year 01/00

At the time (prior to purchase) an NRMA check was completed that identified a major oil leak and it was on the condition of this being repaired that the car was purchased. The oil leak was identified as being from the timing belt area and it was suggested that this would need to be replaced.

At the time of collection of the vehicle the problem was deemed fixed. After about a week the leak was evident again indicating a clean up job was done rather than a repair. Due to the end of year (06) and the inability to get back to Rockdale, the vehicle was presented for a second time for repair at the end of January 07. Under the manufacturer’s warranty it was agreed the problem would be fixed properly this time.

The paperwork indicated that the timing belt was replaced.

Currently the vehicle is at an auto repairer after a break down and subsequent towing.

After investigation, it appears the breakdown was caused from the timing belt again. Apparently when a timing belt is replaced, it is highly recommended that the water pump gasket and timing belt pulley should be replaced at the same time. My terminology may not be entirely correct, but basically there are other parts that are highly recommended for replacing at the same time. It appears that this did not occur in Feb, nor was this communicated to me in any way.

The current problem is that due to the seizing of the water pump and pulley, the timing belt again needs to be replaced, in addition to the water pump, and the belt pulley and tensioner and corresponding seals. I have checked with 3 different repair shops, and although there are no guarantees, if the recommended parts were replaced with the timing belt in the first instance it is highly unlikely this situation would have occurred so soon after the timing belt replacement.

The cost is $850 to do this repair. There is no way I am getting it done at United Holden again.

Another classic example of a dealer flogging off a car and conducting patch repair jobs.

I purchased my Ford Focus in March 07. In the first week some kind person left a dent about 15 cm long (not sure if it was from a shopping trolley or car door) on the front LH guard. I was devastated but endeavoured to have it fixed.

I called a dent specialist who came out and tried to fix it. After about ½ hour he gave up and said the paintwork was starting to crack which he thought was unusual so he did not want to go any further. He pushed the dent out a little bit, but the crease is still noticeable.

I then went to a few panel beaters and the average quote was about $450-$500 to fix which I could not afford at the time. The dent is still there.

I have now noticed the paintwork starting to peel on the driver’s door, under the sills and behind the rear passenger side window. Now I know why the paint cracked when the dent guy tried to fix it.

I have taken the car back to the dealer and they are having the paintwork fixed (hooray). I only noticed the peeling/chipping paint after I noticed a scratch on the driver’s door. You can only tell when you look closely, but it seems the whole car will soon peel away if not fixed now.

Hi Don.

I assume that the Taxis you mentioned are dedicated LPG vehicles. The dedicated factory gas on BA/BFs is throttle body vapour supply like most earlier systems using Vialle converters. There are many aftermarket LPG installations around where they add the same style "Throttle body vapour supply".

The alternative is "Vapour Sequential Injection" where vapour is injected to each inlet port just like the petrol system. This is a more expensive system but is much more efficient / reliable and delivers quite comparable performance with petrol (and does not restrict the inlet like others). The system we (a Ford dealership) install is supplied by Parnell VSI. They have a website with lots of info to whet your appetite to change to LPG.

Hope this is of help. If you contact me direct I can give you more info if you wish.

Although 3 years out of warranty have only done 106,000 k`s. Before warranty expired on 12/04 contacted Nissan and was told that they would honour warranty within a reasonable time for common fault for this model of 5th gear spinning on drive shaft. They would not recall vehicles to rectify fault but issued kits to all dealers to cover the onslaught of failures.

Now it has happened and they don’t want to know about it.

Any advice on how I can push my case.

Hi there.

Sounds like the fuel pump and/or pressure regulator. This affects the engine running under load.

Check it out.

Ciao, Aldo

Hi,

the three amigo's on my Discovery have been coming on periodically, and what is really starting to worry me is that I had temporary brake loss the other day. I put my foot down on the brakes and there was an awful grinding noise as well - but very shortly afterwards, they were back to normal again!

I recently got my car serviced and a couple of days later it only just got me home. Power was surging/intermittent and it actually stalled a few times. Took it back to mechanic and he replaced the coil - $550. Apparently didn't charge me labour that was the cost of the part only.

So now a couple of weeks later it did the same thing (but to a lesser degree) on the way home last night. It stalled at lights, engine cooling light came on but it restarted and got me home. This morning the power was intermittent again.

I made the mistake of asking the mechanics opinion the other week and he basically said Astras are lemons. Not his exact words as I don't think he wanted me to cry!

So has anyone had similar problem? Should I just cut my losses and get rid of it.

I bought it from Southgate Holden, always bought privately before then. Had nothing but trouble whenever I took it to them for servicing - little things not done so I stopped taking it there. It's only done 50,000 kms; surely it shouldn't have these problems when it's only 5 years old. Cost me about $20,000 so not like it was cheap!

I have a noise coming from the front wheel/ brake area. I am having my struts replaced tomorrow, as mechanics are doing bit by bit to find what noise is ... as they are unsure too. They are trying to say it is rattling to save themselves warranty work. My problem I think is more suspension than brakes, which may be different from what you have.

From first day I noticed very loud tyre noise, so I changed the tyres, but the worst was to come. The tappet type noise that is audible when the engine is cold, but it almost goes away when the engine is hot, just like a hydraulic tappet does. Lexus advised it was the very high pressure fuel pump that was the tapping noise as all IS250's have a loud (ticking noise) fuelpump, that is true, I must agree with them there The fuel pump is actually very noisy but it is a constant ticking noise, this noise subsides when the engine is hot.

After much complaining Lexus agreed to swap the fuel pump with a car I drove that was not noisy when cold, after a long wait for parts? the fuel pump was changed and it made no difference what so ever, which to me means it was not the fuel pump as nothing had changed. The loud ticking when cold was still there, I suggested it must be what drives the fuel pump then, is it hydraulic or mechanically driven? No answer? Lexus final word was that some pumps are louder than others and you have a loud (fuel pump) and you will have to live with it.

The worst part was their resistance to help in any way and none of their employees except the salesman would even admit to hearing anything, but the so called high pressure fuel pump clatter. The final word was they would have a RAA road side assist person listen to see if there was a noise. What an insult, that suggested that all their highly trained mechanics could not hear it except for one who road tested it at my house one morning "and" heard it, but not a comment was made about what his opinion was of the noise.

I am so disappointed with Lexus attitude as I have had problems with a new BMW and they couldn't do enough to rectify the situation and the same excellence with a new Mercedes Benz and their Service Department. I paid $73,000 for a Lexus Lemon.

Hyundai records show 5 complaints from when the car was 3 weeks old about problems with the stereo. They kept saying it was stuffed and that a new one was on order ... 3 years later the stereo finally can be put in but then they said warranty expired so it would not be free.

Sold Hyundai and will Never buy one again. Service was appalling, rude and unprofessional (as well as legally wrong)! Waiting for my small claims cheque to come through soon ... I get the last laugh.

Hi I have a 2002 4.8l Nissan Patrol on gas that keeps throwing throttle codes and the oxy sensors show negative voltage. I was in an accident 2 months ago and either the accident or the panel shop fried the gas computer and caused the problem. After the repairs the engine had an erratic idle that developed into throwing codes.

I have taken it to the gas installers (AG Autogas who replaced the computer and checked all the wiring without costing me anything, highly recommended). I then had the codes checked and read, the airflow sensor was replaced (note apparently the oil/foam air filters can not be used because they stuff the sensors), this did nothing.

So from there the oxy sensors and throttle body sensors may be the problem but I have been told that it looks like it may be the Nissan computer. It goes to Nissan in Ferntree Gully tonight.

Just had car at mechanics due to excessive noise coming when starting the engine. After having major service and then having the required timing belt procedure done the noise then started 4 days later.

Mechanic came to my home to check the noise and suggested a bearing had gone in the motor (Bill $4000! on a quote). Prior to going to get the initial work done my oil light had come on and off and I refused to drive the car. There was plenty of oil in the engine however it seemed it wasn't being pumped through the engine due to the knocking sound I was hearing.

Mechanic is going off to find a second hand engine for me and I'm not happy with the prognosis - I don't feel all mechanics out there are genuine in being able to fix the problem. And me being a woman feel I'm being taken for a ride. I would hope that maybe someone else may have had a similar problem and could give some insight to what the **** is going on.

John,

I have the same problem as you, only worse (20 to 25 lt. /100k when towing). Have been given the same run around as others have as Nissan don't have the answer or aren't prepared to fix the problem.

However, I have done some tests and believe I have found some of the problem. The pressure in the exhaust before the DPF (diesel particulate filter) is 6 psi. and after the DPF is 1.5 psi. under load, giving 4.5 psi across the DPF. This is 4.5 times over the alarm limit of 1 psi. (6.9kpa.) specified by Nissan.

High exhaust back pressure can cause a number of problems in a diesel engine, increased fuel consumption being one. I am using the ACEA C3 oil specified by the Nissan hand book. Some Nissan dealers have been using Nissan 10W-40 B3 or Voyager which is not the correct oil but obviously not the cause of the problem as in my case.

The manual STX don't have a DPF and do not seem to be having the same fuel problem.
The message from the pressure sensor seems to be getting back to the computer but the dpf light doesn't come on (Strange).

I am presently waiting for a response from Nissan? What have you found out?

Regards
Al

My IS has been in the shop for 21 days with 3 unsuccessful attempts to fix 6 squeaks and rattles for a car with fewer than 3000 miles.

- Both left and right air vents rattle
- Cheap, thin trim material around GPS/NAV squeaks, pops when ambient temperatures above 80F/27C.
- Rattles in doors
- Rattle in rear deck area
- Rattle in moonroof

Very disappointed with my Lexus product.

Hi Complainants,

I too, Was the unhappy owner of a Holden Astra convertible 2001/2002. I only had it for just over 4 weeks (2 & half weeks in my garage). It too had many problems, including breaking down without any warning. RACV said electrical problem and cannot connect battery due to 'sparking' - will be flat overnight if you DO connect it!

After back and forwards to KIA Kangaroo Flat Bendigo, said they would Not refund, but would Buy it back less their profit of $4,000.00! Advice from Consumer Affairs did no better than I, so, here I am, out of pocket too.

Car was purchased on 11th Oct. 2007 and finally picked up by KIA 23rd Nov. 2007. Although KIA maintained it would fix all problems, none fixed to date though, including ripping out the radio that had never worked from day one, to saying they would replace 'aggressive' wheels ... gee, are they gonna bite me? (severe wheel noise detected by RACV after I had already had pre-inspection by RACV to protect myself from buying a Lemon! Not worth the paper it was written on!)

- to noises/squeaking in rear of roof,
- no insert in ashtray (minor, but I am a smoker!)
- to severe filthy wheels (alloys), 'cos they don’t use asbestos in brakes anymore, "brake dust", that’s what it is; huh?
- Electrical dash display was fading too ...

Anyway, I can now sleep a little better.

The principle is, the car Should Not have been sold to me in that condition! I have never bought from a car yard before, always privately. Yes, that says something about honest private people selling their Own cars - never ever had a problem with the average Aussie car seller. Was told about this website by a friendly tyre place guy, who was admiring my 20 year old Toyoto Celica Cabriolet. Yes, I am gonna keep it for a while longer. They certainly don’t make 'em like they used to.

Regards, Karen

Hey everyone I have a 97 Hilux 2wd spacecab. It started when head gasket blew. I got that done but after that it was still pushing coolant back into over flow tank and gurgling for a small time after engine turned off. So I changed thermostat and worked out radiator was **** so replaced that and flushed system. Even with all that work problem still arises coolant being pushed into overflow tank with gurgling still happening. And the coolant not being sucked back into radiator even though the temp gage stays normal, no excessive rise.

I am hoping the mechanic did the head properly but if not should he re do under insurance cause I think it’s still the problem. I would be very thankful for anyone’s advice or comments.

Thanks