Rabbit/Golf Ice Damage because of Design Flaw: VW Won't Help
My 08 Rabbit car door was recently damaged due to ice build-up in the door jam. I'd never heard of this happening with a car, but I see now that there are several forums regarding the issue, and that VW issued multiple technical service bulletins about it. My dealer seemed very confident that VW America would acknowledge the issue and help me with the damage, but VW customer service told me there was nothing they could do after a few minutes on hold (no case opened, no consulting with dealer).
As I told VW, I was a happy customer to this point, but now I'll be looking at Mazda or Subaru hatchbacks for my next car. My car is one year out of warranty and has 50K miles on it. I frankly don't understand how VW can refuse to take responsibility for a known design flaw with car. (I've had two estimates for the damage, and both shops told me that they've never seen anything like this before.)
Comments
I've heard of doors freezing shut due to leakage down the door seam, but I've never seen this.
Does this happen when you open and then close the door on the impacted ice?
Yes, that's what happened apparently. The two body shops I went to for estimates had never seen anything like this before. But there are dozens of pictures of VWs of particular model years with nearly identical damage. It's a known design flaw—hence my feeling that they should take responsibility for the damage. VW issued multiple technical bulletins on the issue (available in online forums) but never made consumers aware of it.
It's a tricky one, because the owner actually causes the damage (blamelessly, one could argue).
If you have had this problem, please contact Ken Swaintech at VW (800-822-8987). He refused to speak to me--his subordinate told me there was no cause to escalate the case to a manager despite my polite requests to do so. (His name was provided to me by a local dealer, who thought he would be sympathetic to the problem, and I was told that he was present when I called customer service but that he was otherwise engaged.)
Forums around the web suggest that this problem persists. If enough people respond, i would hold out some hope that VW would consider a recall or respond to a class action lawsuit. Their entire response to me is that a Technical Service Bulletin describing a known issue is not the same as a recall; I said that I of course appreciate that they make a distinction but that I was simply asking them do what I, and I think their dealerships, believed to be right. (If this issue sounds frivolous to you, please search around the web to see pictures of the damage this issue causes.)
The TSB has the technician re-work the inner fender and add some materials that direct any water flowing from the cowl to the back of the inner fender and away from the door opening. If this happened a second time, then the work to prevent the ice from forming either wasn't done, or wasn't done correctly. The TSB is specific that while under warranty this would be a covered repair but once out of warranty it is for informational use only. I don't think this is frivolous, and sadly a lot of the stuff that really is usually gets approved.
Go down to the dealership and get the sales manager. Show him what is going on and let him know that any chance of him selling you your next car hinges on how this is handled. Be polite but firm.
I again have had long conversations with the my local dealer (who gave me a new printout of the TSB with the fix) and VW National. My local dealer is sympathetic and was very confident that VW National would acknowledge the problem and provide help; but thus far they have offered nothing. VW National was shockingly rude and unprofessional. Their responses were to repeat, over and over again, that a TSB is not the same as a recall (not really material as far as I'm concerned), and to treat me like I was a complete nuisance. The CS rep took my info and promised me that I would get to speak with Ken Swantek, the regional CS contact, and then refused to escalate the case to him.
As you suggested, this issue makes it impossible for me to consider buying another VW. My next and last step is to send the full file of documents to a Philadelphia class-action law firm to see if they might gain an ear where an individual customer has gotten nowhere.