New turbo required

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Originally Posted by apom

I can think of 72,000 reasons why this should be more than a golf station wagon with a few bits built into it.

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Having a turbo fail at 37K is a little disappointing but then that's why there is a 3 year warranty I guess.

for anyone interested -

not just VAG, but all euro makes that are using the GT15, GT17 VNT turbo's seem to be having a few more failures than we might expect. VNT's are still in early life in terms of production units compared with the olden times sleeve bearing wastegated turbo's and sorting out just how best to look after them (with engine management) over the long term is something that only comes from extensive experience. Also, VNT's provide a new set of rules - generally the VNT's work a lot harder than wastegated turbo's, because the're so good at what they are supposed to do (make boost). i think its fair to say a VNT fitted to a modern diesel vehicle will generally speaking have a hard life.

better reliability will come with time. but hey, you guys bought brand new european vehicles with latest technology - this is the price you pay :-)

(same goes for my theory with electronic goods - never buy something top of the line and newly released, because you'll end up paying too much for something that will break down :-) )

My daughter has just replaced her boring old 1997 Corolla with a Mk VI Golf TDI. The boring old Corolla Depreciated $17000 over the 10 years she owned the car, was regularly serviced and apart from scheduled replacements, this car has honestly had noting but tyres, batteries and a few globes replaced in its 210,000 km.

I only hope the Golf proves to be as long term reliable. The TDI is much nicer to drive, especially with the diesel torque, its quieter and it handles a bit better but it really has very little in the way of "features" that were not in the 1997 Corolla.

I think when you pay good money for a car, reliability should be expected and unreliability unacceptable. Too often we hear "many more features so much more to go wrong". Is this any excuse for unreliability? Not in my books. I pay for each of those features and probably much more than those features are actually worth but that's the way cars are marketed. Attractive sticker price and pick up the profit on overpriced options (like $800 for VW - Nokia bluetooth that's $495 for a Holden). Tick enough boxes and a $35,000 TDI can cost you over $60,000. On the extra features that means we should be prepared to accept that the optioned up Golf should be almost half as reliable or twice as unreliable as the standard TDI. Flawed logic to me.

For many years warranties were 12 months or 20000km till the Japanese came along. To sell their cars in the early stages they had to up the warranty. Thus the birth of the three year 100,000 km warranty. European manufacturers were so to follow. or more accurately, to be dragged screaming to match the Japanese warranties. Now as many of the Japanese and even Holden during some market exercises are offering 5 years/175,000km, or in the case of the Hyundai i130, 5 years unlimited kilometres and the Europeans are holding fast on 3 years/100.000km.

I maybe wrong but I won't be surprised if the Europeans are forced to improve their warranty offerings in the next 5 years.

Is it a lack of faith on their behalf in the reliability of their current products? Is it to much to ask for a reliable car that is enjoyable to drive?

Beta computer software is generally free with a "User beware" condition. Manufacturers have the facilities to do accelerated testing of most componentry. Are we saying that with cars that we are happy to pay for the honour of driving "beta test" vehicles. Manufacturers recall cars with safety related defects but would they if not forced to by legislators/litigators.

Don't get me wrong. My daughter and I are loving our Volkswagens but don't think that at least 5 years of relatively trouble free motoring is too much to ask.

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
- Edmund Burke