Front seats wont swivel [ Swivelgate ]

[2into1]

The one being discussed (warned about) was a Silver 204 4motion. May of course be more than one out there.

I'd go the reject route. After market swivels will always have a negative hanging over them when you come to sell, and they add at least 1" to the seat height (afaik....my T4 Reimo's did).

 

[Hotel California]

Sounds to me like you have one of those that was rejected because of this. Colour?


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By the looks of the avatar a silver one ....

If your dealer says he did not know the seats are non swiveld he is talking BS i think .
Any dealer should know this!
They need to swap it with normal swiveling seats without coast , not to say a compensartion.

Who wants to pay for an option comfort seats that makes them non swiveble?
Maybe those who want to show of in that other topic on " who got the longest spec. list"

Hope you sort it out and get to enjoy your cali afther all.

 

[T6 CFO]

By the looks of the avatar a silver one ....

If your dealer says he did not know the seats are non swiveld he is talking BS i think .
Any dealer should know this!
They need to swap it with normal swiveling seats without coast , not to say a compensartion.

Who wants to pay for an option comfort seats that makes them non swiveble?
Maybe those who want to show of in that other topic on " who got the longest spec. list"

Hope you sort it out and get to enjoy your cali afther all.

Gavrobb appears to be saying dealer did know but did not think to mention it. hmmmmmm!


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[Hotel California]

Think he was glad to sell a Cali who nobody wants....
Feel very sorry for you . Take action ....

 

[T6 CFO]

I can see what's happened here. Gavrobb has not been on this board for long so did not see posts when this issue came up. It is not your fault Gavrobb you need to sort your dealer out. Don't worry though as it sounds like you have a nice spec vehicle and I will be amazed if you don't get this resolved.


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[T6 CFO]

Hang on just realised you still probably don't know. Basically comfort seat option was a freebie and those that took it did not know that seats did not swivel. Dealers didn't appear to know either so vehicles were ordered incorrectly. When vehicles arrived they were rejected and vehicle was just put into general stock. Sounds like you have one of them. They were pulling a fast one but don't know about this board and the fact that we talk to each other.


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[Gavrobb]

Yep - thats us then (of course could be more) but it is indeed a silver 4Motion and I did always wonder why it was available. Now we know. VW have basically taken somebody else problem and put it out to the dealer. Michael - you are correct, the dealer knew but neither highlighted nor mentioned the lack of swivel, we basically were offered the full spec list and, of course, took the Cali with the short wait as it ticked both of our boxes (DSG & 4Motion) T6 and majority of the options was a bonus as we were looking at T5's used but could not find these two items. It was a fairly comprehensive options list so if the original specifier wants to PM me I'd be very interested to confirm this - yes there are probably a few vans out there in this position but it's interesting that you straight away mention silver 204 4Motion.

I just struggle to understand why the factory can't change over seats at that point. This will have to be done now by the dealer - nobody in their right mind will take a Cali with this on there and we certainly can't.

 

[Stoneybroke]

Still no luck with this, the dealer is very sympathetic about it and told us we need to contact VWCS as I am not the only person this has happened too. There are retrofit options but I purchased a California as it is a factory built model, as soon as I starter retro fitting items it become part California, part conversion !!

The dealer is fobbing you off - your contract is with the dealer, not VWCS, any issues are for the dealer to resolve. VWCS could help put pressure on the dealer, but they have no duty to act to resolve.
All the best in getting this sorted.

 

[T6 CFO]

Good man sounds like you have a handle on it now and can sort it. On a positive note you have a good vehicle other than the seats. No doubt the original specifier will be on to you. Good luck!


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[jts46]

The old adage buyer beware

John

 

[Gavrobb]

Thanks Michael - a bit disappointed about it all today and appreciate the kind words. As I said - I'still confident in our dealer stepping up to the bat. Will report back. I hope others with the same problem get resolution on this...

 

[AlisonF]

Gavrobb - I see from your details that you are also Aberdeen based, but think a previous post mentioned driving a van up from down south (I may have got that mixed up). Was it a local dealer in Aberdeen?

 

[Speleo62]

This had us running to check our order, phew! standard seats. Checked our brochure and absolutely no mention of swivel function being removed. I'd be straight onto VW tomorrow. Definitely missold., Good luck

 

[Tommy Gun]

if the original specifier wants to PM me I'd be very interested to confirm this

Ohhh no.... PM sent...

 

[Gavrobb]

Thanks Tommy - reply sent. Odd coincidence on location...

AlisonF - yes we brought this one up from the south. Thought we got lucky bypassing the wait!

 

[ballistic]

We ordered the comfort seat package as it was a no brainer at no extra cost however thanks to this forum we have now cancelled it. The dealer did not even warn us !!

I winder how many people that are not part of this forum have ordered the Comfort seat package and are totally unaware .

 

[sidepod]

Just restore my faith in human nature, please somebody rename this thread "Swivelgate".

 

[Gavrobb]

Swivelgate - I like it.... Just as dieselgate was forgotten...

Ballistic - I'm glad you caught this one for yourself, I spent a fair bit of time researching on here pre-purchase but missed this thread entirely... Nothing from the dealer at the time of purchase and thats fair enough for him to not pick up on it given the nature of how odd an 'upgrade' it is.I did actually question why there would be a van available immediately which seems so odd given the demand. They stated this happens every so often but gave no thought as to why.

I do wonder how many people have done this without knowing ( a 'free' upgrade does seem odd...) Really - as has been said before - who on earth would ever take the small plus (height adj) at the huge sacrifice of the swivel. It's an incredibly odd package, even odder that the Comfort option is only on the pair? I can see (almost) the compromise of getting height on the driver while still being able to use the passenger and am fully aware that some people (without a family of four...) would only ever swivel the passenger chair.

Thanks for all the support and advice - I'm interested to see the response from dealer.

 

[Tommy Gun]

Personaly, I think VW should just remove all front seat options from the brochure & leave the standard seats alone. As Sidepod mentioned previously - how the hell did this get the green light during the design review? What were they smoking in there?!

Also, why did VW chose to tell folks on some of the seat options that you lose the swivel, but not all. Surely not just to get rid of the stock...Swivelgate indeed.

Ballistic - you've dodged a bullet (no pun intended...)

I wanted the height adjustability part, for my young son to see over the dash board.
That's why I ordered them...

Gav, let us know how you get on at the dealer. Desperately hoping for a happy outcome.

Tom

 

[Gavrobb]

Tom - thanks. PM'd you back and really appreciate all the great info. What a small world!!

 

[benArrayx]

I mentioned this to my dealer today (in Spain), he was pretty incredulous, and proceeded to look at his configurator, where it clearly states "non rotating" after the comfort seats option name. I clearly remember him telling me that when we were doing the configuration for my van. He felt that the text is standard and should be the same everywhere, obviously it had to be translated at some point. For those of you with this problem, I would suggest it's very important to find out what the configurator shows in the UK, if it clearly says non rotating then it's the dealer's fault. If the UK software isn't showing the warning then it's VW's fault. I'll try and get a photo when i go back on Friday, but obviously would be better if someone can get a photo from a UK dealer...

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[Tommy Gun]

I mentioned this to my dealer today (in Spain), he was pretty incredulous, and proceeded to look at his configurator, where it clearly states "non rotating" after the comfort seats option name. I clearly remember him telling me that when we were doing the configuration for my van. He felt that the text is standard and should be the same everywhere, obviously it had to be translated at some point. For those of you with this problem, I would suggest it's very important to find out what the configurator shows in the UK, if it clearly says non rotating then it's the dealer's fault. If the UK software isn't showing the warning then it's VW's fault. I'll try and get a photo when i go back on Friday, but obviously would be better if someone can get a photo from a UK dealer...

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Cheers Ben.

The UK brochures had several options for the front seats. All the options, (except one - comfort seats with height adjustment) told you that you lost the swivel function if you went for them. It actually gave peace of mind, because it didn't say you were losing the swivel function on the comfort seats. Yes the warning does come up on the dealers' configurators here, but some folk (including myself) never stepped inside a dealer's showroom when ordering - it was all done by e-mail etc, & sadly that critical bit of information was never passed on. Mistakes happen...

I'm hoping that VW / the dealers will help folks that were inadvertently sold vans with these seats by putting together a scheme/offer, whether paid or partly-paid. Something would be good.

My '2nd' T6 is on an unconfirmed build week of 15, which is the week commencing 18th April, I think. Your's must be due any day, so all the best there.

Cheers
Tom

 

[benArrayx]

Cheers Ben.

The UK brochures had several options for the front seats. All the options, (except one - comfort seats with height adjustment) told you that you lost the swivel function if you went for them. It actually gave peace of mind, because it didn't say you were losing the swivel function on the comfort seats. Yes the warning does come up on the dealers' configurators here, but some folk (including myself) never stepped inside a dealer's showroom when ordering - it was all done by e-mail etc, & sadly that critical bit of information was never passed on. Mistakes happen...

I'm hoping that VW / the dealers will help folks that were inadvertently sold vans with these seats by putting together a scheme/offer, whether paid or partly-paid. Something would be good.

My '2nd' T6 is on an unconfirmed build week of 15, which is the week commencing 18th April, I think. Your's must be due any day, so all the best there.

Cheers
Tom

There are mistakes, and there's negligence. Seems like there was negligence from both the dealer and from VW from what you say...

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[Gavrobb]

Thats interesting Ben but - from earlier posts on this thread - it appears that some countries have different brochures and highlight this issue more. Tommy is spot on in his summary above about the UK brochure, it's even more misleading in it's sporadic highlighting of the lack of swivel for the 12V seat option and no mention of this missing in the 'comfort seat' configuration.

I took advice from a local dealer this week and he backed up what you said - that the dealer configurator is now set to be very clear on this issue but of course - as Tommy says - it's reliant on the dealer to speak up, all well if you are sat there in the office of your local dealership but remote orders as some of us have to do in certain parts of the country, this can get lost in translation along the way.

Our case we bought a pre-configured van so the configurator highlighting the problem was not a valid mitigation. Expect this to happen more and more as the Comfort Seat reject vans start making their way to dealership forecourts..

I'd be very hesitant to start appointing blame at this point, all well and good to shout negligence (see previous tough guy image....) but we dont yet know how VW intend to handle the problem which is somewhat of their own making. Lets hope it will be amicable and that they will step up to the challenge of solid customer service.

It would however be really useful if some of the struck parties on this thread could report back on this by way of closing out the loop - all seems to have gone quiet from those affected and trying to seek resolution.

 

[Tommy Gun]

A big thanks to Gavrobb for meeting-up last night & letting me see the Cali that I originally ordered. Thanks Gav, it's an absolute beauty .
Really enjoyed seeing it.

Fingers crossed for a swift & comprehensive fix from the dealer.

Tom