Trust, Faith & Betrayal

Three years and three months ago, I made a decision that I now somewhat regret. I certainly have no intentions of doing the same thing again. Three years and three months ago, I bought my first ever new car. To be precise, I bought a Volkswagen Passat. It seemed like a really sensible thing to do at the time. It's certainly a lovely car. The salesman roundly rubbished my Peugeot 406, and promised me a far superior car with a far lower rate of depreciation.

So - let's start by looking at my 406. Actually, my TWO 406's. I spent about six years driving 406's. I kept each one for three years - until they reached 45-50k miles. They were both really good cars. They NEVER went near a garage for anything other than servicing. The usual tyre changes, of course - but that was IT. Tyres and servicing. They didn't breakdown. They never let me down.

Requirements - I want to get from A to B with 100% certainty. That really is about it. The 406's delivered that. Four doors, big boot, flexible seating, good looking. A dependable family soon that I was proud to use as my company car as well.

When I came to what could have been my third 406, I thought that the 406 line would come to an end during the 3-4 years that I would end up owning a new one. This meant that buying a third 406 didn't seem like quite such a good idea. So I looked around for a change of car. After some research, I settled on the Passat.

The Passat is a solid German VW car. It is, apparently, well-engineered, well-designed, and well-built from superior parts. It is reliable and has a low rate of depreciation. This has NOT been my experience! Over the past nine years, my life has remained mostly static. I still do more or less the same profile of journey. My annual mileage rates are more or less constant. I would argue that my driving style has remained the same - and the mix of urban/motorway driving has remained the same. What I'm getting at is that comparing the Passat with the 406's is a fair and reasonable comparison.

Because I bought the Passat from new, I was expecting even less risk and an even better experience than I'd had with the 406's. This was not my experience! First, bits of trim started falling off - I took it in, and, in fixing it, the VW main dealer managed to break the cigarette lighter IN THE BACK OF THE CAR!!.

Then the end of the gear-shift broke. It was plastic that looks like chrome. When I took it in to get it fixed, the VW main dealer managed to get oil stains on my passenger seat!!

Then the ignition key broke. Then, at the 36k service, I was advised to get the front brakes replaced. I did, but not with the VW dealer!! I found myself questioning why I was replacing the brakes. I was expecting LOWER maintenance costs with the Passat, compared to the 406's. I never had anything more than service adjustments done to the brakes on the 406's. Oh well - there you go.

Just before Christmas, I was making a right turn at a junction. I was in first gear. There was a loud CLONK noise from the front/centre of the car. It was loud enough to be loud over the CD player. There was also a funny smell - like cellulose. The car seemed to loose power. It felt like the clutch was slipping.

I phoned the VW dealer and told him the story - yep - that'll be clutch! This was after about 39,000 miles. Replacement cost? £900. That was the best-case scenario. Some models of Passat apparently have a design where the clutch is combined with the flywheel. If I am "lucky" enough to have this "feature" in my car, then the bill will be £1500!!!!

Up until now, you can see where I'm coming from with "Trust" and "Faith". Now I hope you can see where the sense of "Betrayal" comes in to play. I was dumbstruck. My colleagues in the office were equally disbelieving. There was much bad-mouthing of the VW dealer. The 40k service was now due - so I took the car along to a garage that one of the guys in the office takes his much-loved M3 convertible to. They did the service for me and took the car on a road-test to check out the clutch. I am now holding a piece of paper that says "Extensive road test, no fault found on clutch". The VW dealer would have charged me £900.

I asked the guy who tested the car about what happened to me before Christmas. He said "your car is fine - put it out of your mind". The nature of causality being what it is, I CAN'T put it out of my mind!

I have lost faith in my car. I don't feel comfortable with it. Let me remind you, this car is THREE MONTHS outside of VW's warranty! I do not feel that I can get from A to B with 100% certainty. I will never completely trust this car again. I want to get rid of it - I want a new car. Actually - no - I DON'T want a new car. I want ANOTHER car. What good did buying a brand-new car do me? Where was the benefit? The two 406's were each about a year old with about 9,000 miles on them when I bought them. I will go back to doing this.

As you can imagine, there has been much discussion around this in my office. My friend and colleague also has a Passat. He got an exhaust warning light, and the car nearly broke down - it was limping along. His car is about two years old. From new. He said "I'll buy Japanese next time". Would this series of mis-adventures have happened with a Toyota or a Lexus? We feel it less likely. So this is not just me.

OK - so I have a plan. I will tell you my plan. I will get a replacement car in September/October. My thinking is that I want a car to keep for longer next time. Not just 45-50,000 miles. I want to spend about the same money, but I want a REALLY solid and dependable car. Like my 406's were. My current thinking is that I want something like a BMW 320 that is about a year old and less than 10k miles on the clock. BMW are just launching the new 3 series. I don't care about having the latest/greatest, so I am hoping that, come October, I will be able to get a relative bargain. To spend about the same as I spent on the Passat, and get a REAL reliable German car!!

It'll be interesting to see what they offer me on the Passat - I wonder if the low depreciation is a myth as well...

In the spirit of fairness, I will send details of my experiences to VW UK and I will tell you what they have to say. If you have any experiences that you want to share in this area, comment away!!