LWB Kombi T32 2.0BiTDI 180 DSG Crew Van

Would never buy another one

To sum up:

Bought new for something like £28K Plus VAT, had the van for 4.5 years. It drives like a dream, have captains seats in the front, got lots of extras, twin side electric doors, rear heating, parking sensors front and back, second battery, swivel front seats, twin barn unglazed doors, tower, electric pack etc etc

Within the first year.....

Drivers door leaks in a strong headwind and lost of rain (like a river) - outcome after various trips back to two VW Commercial dealers I decided to live with it as i couldn't afford to waste any more time at the dealers - it still leaks and now out of warranty they have no interest (not that they had much interest before)

The rear heater ducts all fell down - these have never been hit with any loads as they are roof line, dealer charged me as said i had hit them and wouldnt fix them under warranty.

Thirsty on fuel at 28/30mpg and drinks a litre of oil every month, doesnt have the grunt of the 5 cylinder even though its 180PS.

The DSG gearbox is smooth and a dream to drive - no complaints with the gearbox.

At 3.5 years old, and 18K miles the engine started to wine (on the way home), within a few minutes there was clouds of smoke from the exhaust and under the bonnet, stopped, got towed to VW, the turbo had blown up. bear in mind this was at 18K miles and i don't like the 20K service intervals so have an oil change done at every 8K miles!

Good job (this time) i paid for VW Extended warranty, a £3500 bill for a new turbo, I paid £75 excess.

So now at 4.5 years old and only 28K miles the fairly new VW starts loosing water, I have the water pump and thermostat changed along with the cambelt and followers, but its still loosing water, looks like the head gasket or the EGR valve. So again back to VW and after the take the head off and all the pistons out and the engine and crank out, 4 weeks later they tell me it needs a new engine, VW Extended warranty (no problem i thought) - But alas look at the small print in the extended warranty, its a claim limit of £2500 INC VAT on page 4 - I paid £700 for this warranty (second year of it) and at no point did they mention to me in the letter of warranty or the phone call that there was a 2.5K limit - only in the small print in the 50+ page handbook (that no one reads!). So I'm now faced with a bill of £4500 plus my £200 warranty excess on a Van that cost me a fortune new and is worth around £15K plus VAT. I complained bitterly to VW, VW Extended warranty and The VW Commercial dealer, after 2 weeks i got nowhere, they each blamed each other and to be honest not one of them was interested. VW direct said they would pay 10% of the bill as it was so expensive as a gesture of good faith, I told them to stick it.......

So after many years of Transporters (2.5 5cylinders) and doing lots of miles i will never buy another or recommend one, The new 2.0LBiTdi engine is a car engine, its not fit for purpose and certainly not a patch on the old 5 cylinder engine.

And the VW Extended warranty, not worth the paper its written on when you have a bill of £1000's from the dealer.

What with that and the Dieselgate scandal its no wonder the VW Group is going down the pan.

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