So I suppose I can share our story now. I haven’t posted anything about it because we were waiting for a resolution and I didn’t want to rock the boat.
We got an ex demo GC in late 2021. 2 days into the first trip the kitchen tap issue happened - pump running constantly in the middle of the night. This was just the start.
What followed was;
Faulty leisure battery - replaced because it wasn’t charging and even afterwards would still not charge either on EHU or off engine
Squealing brakes (cleaned 3 times and then replaced)
Bathroom sealant falling off - redone twice and still was falling off - caused water to leak out which damaged some the rear bench laminated timber frame
Rear skylight mechanism failed - replacement required the whole back of the van to be removed and when reinstated it rattled
ambient lighting faulty
Yellow marks on the kitchen worktop
Inner side step trim came loose
Fridge freezing everything
Small pinholes in both roof blinds
We were without the van for 3 months at one point and issued a caddy panel van as courtesy.
Even after all of the repairs the van was still not right.
Anyway on to what VW did to resolve. Firstly I insisted that for any period of time that we were either without the van or the van was not fit for purpose as a camper we were not paying the full monthly. Secondly after all of the repairs were done and it was still not correct I insisted that we wanted a replacement vehicle.
In the end VW reimbursed us for half of the monthly payments from the time the faults started to the day we received the replacement van - some 15 months. We ordered a new van from factory, paid the difference for any additional options we specced and handed the other van back.
Special mention goes to both dealerships who were on a hiding to nothing with this case. As everyone knows when the GC was launched the dealerships received very little product training from VW, then lockdown happened. Technicians in commercial dealerships used to dealing with panel vans were expected to find their way about a camper with a million 3rd part components fitted with minimal training/support. I do not envy the techs who had to strip out and reinstate the back of our van!
The dealer who sold us the van and ultimately resolved the whole thing were excellent and very patient (as were we to be fair).
All it took was a great deal of patience, resolve, emails and phone calls to every dept in vwcv to get it all sorted.
The new van is a much better finish and I can only put the faults in the old one down to initial teething problems and production issues during lockdown.
That being said in the new van the side step isn’t currently working, the main control panel is glitchy, the rear shower connection is broken and the f-ing brakes on this one squeal n all!
So off it goes back to get fixed, again….
