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Dealer damaged car

gixxerfool

Autocross Champion
Location
New Jersey
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
I am a new member here and a new VW owner.

Let me start by saying I have 20 years experience as a dealer tech. Early on made plenty of mistakes, but learned how to avoid them quickly in order to return the car to customer essentially better than they brought it in. I started working on cars because I was never satisfied with anyone else's work. It was usually rushed, half-assed or both. So I started doing it myself at a hobby/enthusiast level. I ended up with a job in a dealer and am still there.

I started searching for a Golf R over a year ago in my price range. Most of them were high mileage or beat up. So I waited for one to come around. Covid somehow shot car sales into the stratosphere pushing the R even further out of reach for me. All the while I was building equity in my car at the time and watching many a websites. Came across a super clean 2016 with DCC in Lapiz blue with only 22,000 on the clock. It was in my price range so I nabbed it.

Fast forward a few weeks and a rock hit my windshield cracking it. Since insurance was willing to pay for a VW glass, I went that route. I am not overly impressed with Safelite's install either, considering I have had four of their replacements leak. I ordered the glass and waited for it to arrive. The night before I was to take it to the dealer, I noticed a coolant leak from the thermostat/water pump area. I was bummed that I would have to pay for this even though I just got it, no big deal. Then after a good amount of Googling I come to find out my car may still have a warranty on it. Score. kind of.

I am very hesitant leaving my car anywhere and even more so having someone else work on it. Its hard to turn down a free repair. With my experience in service, I approached the writer the best way I could. Now let me say, he was super helpful in getting my windshield ordered for me. Since I was on my way to work, I was wearing my uniform and we got to talking shop. I really wanted to be able to build a good rapport with this place since there are other items I will need done by them in the future.

He looks up my vin and says I still have powertrain and he will have the leak looked at for me. Cool. I give him $20 for the help he has already given me and in the hopes of my car going to a decent tech. Car is covered and I have to leave it. It killed me leaving it there all weekend. I get the call Monday morning to come and get it. It was raining when I got it. I paid my bill (for the windshield) and went to inspect under the hood and the interior. All looked good and I made sure to go in and leave a tip for the tech. I get back to work and park it.

While parking a customer car I drive past mine (the rain had subsided at this point) and I noticed what looks like wax on the lower rocker. I go in for a closer look to find it creased and a large chunk scraped out of it with missing paint. I am hot at this point. I call the writer and explain to him what I found and he asks me to send him pics. I do so right away. He calls me to tell me to bring it back in a week so they can send it to the body shop for a couple of days. I told him that I am not really comfortable leaving it again and that I waited a while to find this car and have had it only three weeks. I scheduled anyways and then thought after the fact that they are likely going to try and repair the damage rather than replace the panel. I am not 100% on this, but I do not think I should have a creased rocker with fresh paint on it. But I am trying to give them a shot to make it right.

Sorry for the long rant, I feel like I may be petty in this, but it is infuriating that someone could be so careless and then not say anything. Thanks for reading
 

blacksport

New member
Location
New Jersey
Car(s)
2017 VW GTI Sport
Wow sorry to hear about your experience. Would you be able to share the name of the dealership? Just so I can avoid them. Also, do you feel the rocker was damaged due to the lift? Not sure how you can mess that up. I would definitely push for a replacement instead of a shoddy repair. Perhaps you can get a quote from a body shop of your choosing, then ask them to reimburse?
 

SnailpowerMk7

Go Kart Champion
Location
NJ
Car(s)
MK7 GTI SE 6SPD MT
All I can say is that I'm with you on the feeling of handing over your car to anyone, especially the shops. It's like, you have no clue if you're going to get it back in the exact same condition it was given.

I had one lousy shop (big mistake going there at that time), put a nice scratch in my driver door on my mk6 but they threw some powderish dust over it to make it look like some kind of work dust. I didn't think much of it when I picked up the car until I got home and cleaned off the dust and noticed it. I was so pissed, but at that point there is no chance to work a fight over a scratch with a rinky dink shop. They're not going to pay a few hundreds to fix it (or even own up to it) when they don't charge much to begin with and pay their workers probably less than other shops.

Yeah man, but good luck. I feel for you and every other person that takes their car to the shops. In my perfect world, I have my own shop with all the tools in the world and I can pause time so I didn't have to drive my car to work and I can take all the time in the world to fix/modify what I need that might take some hours/days.
 

gixxerfool

Autocross Champion
Location
New Jersey
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
Wow sorry to hear about your experience. Would you be able to share the name of the dealership? Just so I can avoid them. Also, do you feel the rocker was damaged due to the lift? Not sure how you can mess that up. I would definitely push for a replacement instead of a shoddy repair. Perhaps you can get a quote from a body shop of your choosing, then ask them to reimburse?
Thanks. The only reason I haven’t named them yet is I’m trying to give them a shot at trying to do the right thing. Needless to say I’m not hopeful. If they try to pass it off repaired over replaced then there will be an issue. I will be more than happy to post the name if things go sideways so others can avoid.
I do feel it was the lift. I know it was. Ill post the pictures.

All I can say is that I'm with you on the feeling of handing over your car to anyone, especially the shops. It's like, you have no clue if you're going to get it back in the exact same condition it was given.

I had one lousy shop (big mistake going there at that time), put a nice scratch in my driver door on my mk6 but they threw some powderish dust over it to make it look like some kind of work dust. I didn't think much of it when I picked up the car until I got home and cleaned off the dust and noticed it. I was so pissed, but at that point there is no chance to work a fight over a scratch with a rinky dink shop. They're not going to pay a few hundreds to fix it (or even own up to it) when they don't charge much to begin with and pay their workers probably less than other shops.

Yeah man, but good luck. I feel for you and every other person that takes their car to the shops. In my perfect world, I have my own shop with all the tools in the world and I can pause time so I didn't have to drive my car to work and I can take all the time in the world to fix/modify what I need that might take some hours/days.

I know we all have had to deal with this is at some point. Like I mentioned above I always try to take care of my customers cars with great care. So much so, some of them with the higher end vehicles ask only for me because I show them that respect.
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sterkrazzy

Autocross Champion
Location
United States
Car(s)
Turbo. Blue.
That's a side skirt, not a rocker panel, so I feel like there's no reason to leave the car with them when they just need the side skirt...With the damage to the skirt they probably need to get you a new skirt too, that's like a $650-750 part. I think that's a plastic part so it's unlikely they can remove that bulge.

I can't even tell if that's a painted part or not. It looks like ripped vinyl to me.
 
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gixxerfool

Autocross Champion
Location
New Jersey
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
That's a side skirt, not a rocker panel, so I feel like there's no reason to leave the car with them when they just need the side skirt...With the damage to the skirt they probably need to get you a new skirt too, that's like a $650-750 part. I think that's a plastic part so it's unlikely they can remove that bulge.

I can't even tell if that's a painted part or not. It looks like ripped vinyl to me.
I don’t think they need to have the car two days either. I’m sure it’s not cheap. It’s painted as a little flaked off when I was looking at it. I’ve never heard of this being repaired. I’m trying to to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I have a feeling it won’t end well. I hope I’m wrong.
 

RMinNJ

Go Kart Newbie
Location
NJ
Car(s)
2018 GTI S
Looks like the tech ruined the side skirts on the lift? Have they lifted a VW before?
 

gixxerfool

Autocross Champion
Location
New Jersey
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
Had my body guy out this morning and while he was here I asked him if there was any possible way to repair this, for my own edification. While he was looking he found more damage. This time passenger side. There’s no way the tech wasn’t aware of this.
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codypka

Go Kart Champion
Location
New Jersey
Had my body guy out this morning and while he was here I asked him if there was any possible way to repair this, for my own edification. While he was looking he found more damage. This time passenger side. There’s no way the tech wasn’t aware of this.
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That's absurd. I'm heated on your behalf. Like you said, there's no way the tech wasn't aware of that. Please do let us know which dealer it was in the event they don't make things right so we can avoid
 

gixxerfool

Autocross Champion
Location
New Jersey
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
That's absurd. I'm heated on your behalf. Like you said, there's no way the tech wasn't aware of that. Please do let us know which dealer it was in the event they don't make things right so we can avoid
I was talking to a good friend of mine who had owned Audi and VWs his while driving life. He’s the one who actually found the car for me. He’s recommending I contact VWOA and I’m inclined to after this discovery.
 

codypka

Go Kart Champion
Location
New Jersey
I was talking to a good friend of mine who had owned Audi and VWs his while driving life. He’s the one who actually found the car for me. He’s recommending I contact VWOA and I’m inclined to after this discovery.
I know you said you didn't want to name the dealership, but a friend on yours did it for you on MK7 Tri-state Facebook page.
 

gixxerfool

Autocross Champion
Location
New Jersey
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
I know you said you didn't want to name the dealership, but a friend on yours did it for you on MK7 Tri-state Facebook page.

haha. He told me. So I guess in the interest of letting everyone else know, the dealer is Reydel of Edison.

After some consideration and fear the dealer will not do what is in my best interest, I emailed VWOA.
 
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RMinNJ

Go Kart Newbie
Location
NJ
Car(s)
2018 GTI S
Wow.. They jack up GTIs and Rs all the time. Its like they had a newbie tech do it. I could see a tire place or jiffy lube do it but am really
stumped a Volkswagen dealer would do this... did not know they were so rushed and pressed for time.
 

gixxerfool

Autocross Champion
Location
New Jersey
Car(s)
2016 Golf R
Wow.. They jack up GTIs and Rs all the time. Its like they had a newbie tech do it. I could see a tire place or jiffy lube do it but am really
stumped a Volkswagen dealer would do this... did not know they were so rushed and pressed for time.
They weren’t. At least they shouldn’t have been since I left them the car Friday morning and was told I wouldn’t have it back until midday Monday. They also took it for a 9 mile test drive. That makes me leery too. 2-3 sure. 9? So were they just out beating on it?
 
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