Livonia VW revisited, or DON'T GO THERE! THEY SUCK BIGTIME!
Nathan J. Nagel
I've had a very frustrating VW past few weeks, so my apologies in
advance if I sneak an F-bomb in somewhere and forget to edit it out...
anyway here goes.
Part 1 - Background: I bought an '89 GTI 16v a while back on ebay,
intending it to either replace my Scirocco as a daily driver if it was
real nice, or be a short term project to sell and make a few bucks (the
car is from MD and I'm in MI - rust is a much bigger factor here) if it
didn't turn out to be quite as nice as I hoped. Well, the car seemed
great at first - nice interior, decent exterior, ran pretty well but a
little doggy off the line. No biggie right? Well, I left for a
business trip and when I came back the car would barely run - it would
buck, sputter, and stall at anything under about 3500 RPM - I didn't
even go home, I just happened to remember that there was a VW dealer
right up the street so I headed there, dropped off the car, they did a
"tuneup and filter change" and I picked it up Mon. or Tues. (I don't
remember), drove it for about a week, problem returned about Thursday.
I took it back and left it there, guy calls me, says I need a new
catalytic converter other than that the car is fine.
Part 2 - Nate goes ballistic. (inside - I managed to remain relatively
professional on the outside.) I politely explain to the guy that I not
only have a degree in mechanical engineering but have been working on
cars since before I could legally drive, and that *catalytic converters
don't just go bad,* especially when the one on the car has less than 1K
miles on it (previous owner got hit for one) unless there is some other
problem with the car. I politely suggested that since the problem I was
experiencing seemed to be intermittent, that maybe the mechanic didn't
see what I was seeing. The service writer assured me that the mechanic
had disconnected the cat and taken the car for a spin (huh? who in
their right mind would just disconnect it and not use a test pipe?) and
that it accelerated very nicely. *I* asked to see the mechanic that
worked on the car, got a runaround (twice - although in their defence
both times I stopped by was late in the day on a Friday), nothing ever
was really resolved. Where it was left after the last visit was "the
mechanic that worked on your car is very busy, he doesn't have time to
go for a ride with you right now, but in nay case you need a new cat for
$450 before we can do any more work to your car because it's plugged."
(What the fark? (caught that one <g>) why can't you just hollow it out
and reinstall it while you're troubleshooting? It's not a problem as
long as you don't drive it on public roads.) I basically said that I
wasn't going to authorize them to replace the cat until I felt reassured
that the mechanic was aware that there was a problem with the car that
wasn't the cat. In addition to that, I came by to pick up the car after
my first discussion with the service writer (I had a bad feeling as soon
as he started talking about the cat) whereupon I discovered that the cat
was never hooked back up and the car would still barely run. This
evidence notwithstanding, he maintained that a) the mechanic had told
him that he had hooked the cat back up (you mean 16v's always sound like
that?) and b) the cat was definitely the problem and anything else that
might be wrong with the car was minor and secondary to the cat problem.
He basically talked me into leaving the car there, reassuring me that
there was no problem at all leaving it in their lot while I was on a 2
week business trip, but I got the same runaround when I returned, hence,
part 3.
Part 3 - the Red Mist descends. After thinking about it for a bit (and
having previously vented to this fine newsgroup, and gotten several
recommendations for independent mechanics) I started calling around.
The first shop that I got ahold of was Eurotech in Ann Arbor, which had
gotten good reviews from other NG readers. I was initally surprised
when a female voice answered the phone, but after talking to her a bit I
got the impression she (Heather) probably knew more about VW's than I,
so I had the car towed there. Heather called me yesterday morning just
to tell me that my car arrived and that she would be looking at it later
(I liked that. Shows they care), and then called me again this
afternoon to break the bad news. She said that there was a broken
connector on the distributor (I knew this - it was held together by zip
ties), the intake boot was starting to crack (I kind of suspected that
after some of the comments I got from the NG), the ignition wires were
kind of suspect as they had very high resistance (huh? don't you check
that kind of thing when you do a "tuneup?") and that the cap and rotor
were pretty badly carbon tracked (see above) - and the two kickers.
Apparently the #1 cylinder is leaking down pretty badly ("90%") through
the exhaust valve. Oh, yeah, and the cat looks just fine. (did you
catch that last bit? Let me repeat that. "the cat looks just fine.")
This was about the point that I had to remind myself that I was sitting
in an open office, and that there was a female on the other end of the
phone, so as not to unleash a hair-curling blast of creative profanity.
HOW THE HELL CAN YOU CALL YOURSELF A REPAIR SHOP AND NOT DO A
COMPRESSION CHECK BEFORE YOU DO A TUNEUP? OR CHECK THE MOTHER......
SPARK PLUG WIRES? OR EVEN LOOK AT THE UNDERSIDE OF THE BLOODY
DISTRIBUTOR CAP? As it sits right now, I've been pissing with this car
for almost a month, when they should have been able to tell me right off
the bat that I needed head work, instead the soaked me for a tuneup, I
dunno what the hell they did except maybe change my fuel filter and
spark plugs, and then they had the audacity to try to get me for a cat
as well. The thing that really torques me off is every time I visited
there I was wearing a TRW jacket, left my work phone number as "TRW Raco
Garage," and when BSing with the guy behind the counter even told him
flat out that I was an engineer for TRW and that I was an ABS trimmer.
I mean, HOW BLOODY STUPID DO THEY THINK PEOPLE ARE? Or are they just
spectacularly incompetent? In any case, I take back everything nice
that I said about their parts and sales departments, I don't care how
cool those guys are, NO place that has mechanics that bad will ever get
one cent of my business ever again. If I have to drive to Ann Arbor or
Detroit or Flint or wherever the next closest dealer is to get my
dealer-only parts, so be it. I will certainly never buy a car from
them, no matter how much of an enthusiast the salesman is.
*whew.*
I'm definitely going to write a letter to the dealership once this is
all over, asking for at least a refund of the price of the tuneup and
the tow bill to Eurotech. Whaddaya all think the odds of that working
are? Not bloody good I bet without a lawyer. Too bad. But I *will*
give my opinion to anyone who asks, and it won't be pleasant. I've got
a better feeling about Eurotech though, although I have a bad feeling
about what she's going to tell me next time I talk to her. If it needs
anything more than head work, I'll probably give up (it ain't worth that
much.) Anyone in the Detroit/Ann Arbor area need a parts car? The
engine.... well, you know. The trans is losing reverse, but other than
that it's got craploads of new parts, including exhaust and fuel
distributor (PO got soaked by a mech of his own in MD) and the interior
is cool as hell except for the dash bezel, which is cracked around where
the radio used to be (there's no radio in the car.) Get in line now,
car vultures, make me an offer. Oh yeah, brand new tires on teardrops
too.
Livonia VW, if you're reading this (yeah right) YOU SUCK and you just
lost a customer.... forever. (and I was actually toying with the idea
of buying a 1.8t too. Oh well.)
already mentally laying out the first part of the not too complimentary
review I'm going to submit to Jonathan Royce's page, I am, a very
saddened and frustrated
nate
Nathan J. Nagel
dealer in the first place keep in mind that I'm new to the area, and
that there aren't any VW specialty shops in the Livonia area that I'm
aware of. I knew it was a bad idea, just didn't think it would be quite
*this* bad.
nate
ron dame
drive itall the way from Asheville to Livonia to be checked out? What
do you REALLY think of these guys? <G>
Better than an impotent letter to the dealer <G>, send Calvin over...
I'll fill him up on Snappy pork chop sandwiches first! THATwill fix
them! They won't EVER F%^& with anyone who mentions his name
again!<GGG>>>
Ron
Nathan J. Nagel
Calvin. But I probably will see him tomorrow... lol
nate
(for the uninformed: check out alt.autos.studebaker, do a search for
"oldcarfart")
DEZLBOY
You can always take the dealer to small claims court to try to get a refund.
I'm just glad I don't live anywhere near Livonia VW. Your experience
sounds like not a whole lot of fun.
Good luck with the "real" repairs.
--
DEZLBOY
Volkswagen, it's not just a car, it's a cult!
Clubsb
price on a head gasket replacement for an 81 diesel....$750.00........AND was
told the complete head has to be replaced when you replact the gasket !!! an
additional $850.00 WHAT A BUNCH IF &*%$!! did the job myself not that hard
maybe 2 hours first time.....$10.00 for the gasket.
ron dame
Ron
Erik Dillenkofer
"DEZLBOY" <DEZLBOY*spam*@radix.net> wrote in message
news:98pga2$dvp$1...@news1.Radix.Net...
James Kluck
Doug, is ok, but the other guy Stan is a complete jackass, and the service
manager Glenn is also an ass. I have tried to get some local TV station
problem solvers in on this mess, but so far they haven't called back. Also
VW Customer Assistance is useless.
James
"Nathan J. Nagel" <njn...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:3AB009E1...@worldnet.att.net...
Nathan J. Nagel
car unless I got a new cat. That's when I started having a bad feeling
about it, and after not being able to talk to the mechanic on two
different visits I decided it was time to get the car the heck out of
there.
I have told several people that said they were looking at new VW's to go
*anywhere* else.
nate