SWMBO is taking delivery of her new lease vehicle shortly. Her existing Passat 2.0 Tdi, '07 with 115k miles, will be off to the auctions. Twice recently she has been left stranded on motorways with injector failure (or so the main dealer said after it was taken there on a recovery vehicle)and now the electronic handbrake fails intermitently.
My question is...does the lease company have to repair these known faults as the VW is just out of warranty, the repairing main dealer saying that all the injectors should be replaced?
If not, I would hate, as a private buyer, to purchase a vehicle with these 2 recurring faults.
Her new car is an Insignia CDti Ecoflex. She is not bothered in the slightest about the new car, as to her it is just a lump of metal to convey her around the motorway system at warp speeds! She does however, drool over XKR and DB9 Volante convertibles so the lass has taste!
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Of course the lease co. won't repair the faults befroe auctioning. That's why (traditionally) auctions have been cheaper than dealer forecourts. A dealer might not fix the faults having bought the car at auction either, but at least the eventual buyer (from the dealer) will have a warranty and consumer protection to sort out the cost of the repairs.
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we had several lease cars rejected by the owners for appaling reliability. The lease company took them back and outed them straight to auction.
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I had a Peugeot 406 company car with the HPi petrol engine (that was quickly dropped by Peugeot & Citroen) and it never worked properly for most of the 3 years I owned it. For the last 18mths the engine management light was on all the time, excpet for a couple of days after each garage visit, and it would stutter and hesitate all the time, although it never actually stopped.
Dealer & Peugeot were clueless (it spent a month there once). When the lease company driver collected the car he told me he was taking it straight to auction and I did feel genuinely concerned that somebody might buy what was an immaculate looking 80K mile car with an issue which was unfixable.
Last edited by: Bill Payer on Thu 17 Jun 10 at 10:58
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This thread could be renamed 'things to remember before you bid'.
Incidentally LL, in what way was the electric handbrake failing please, and was it a common failure do you know.
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Write a short note with your concerns and leave it in the service folder - the person who collects the car will almost certainly take it straight to the auction and won't know it is there or care, but a prospective buyer may check.
I did this with my last lease car, but in that case it was telling the next ownr what a belter they were getting.
Zarqon
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When my Mondeo went back to the lease company it had rust on the bottom of some of the doors. Because it was probably going to auction I put a few notes in it (including photos) so anyone buying might work out it was rusting.
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>> Incidentally LL, in what way was the electric handbrake failing please, and was it a common failure do you know.
www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/volkswagen/passat-2005/?section=bad
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Cheers Corax, rather a lot to read in the what to watch out for section.
Had C4 Picassoo electric handbrake fail to release on the truck before now, delving in the tool tray reveales a dubious looking IUD that does the business manually i daresay the VW has similar.
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Rather a lot of problems, enough to put me off if it was my money. A shame, as the cars are well known to be durable workhorses.
My ex-boss at the council has a 05- Passat, he's very faithful to the marque, but he's had the aforementioned problems with the handbrake, not releasing when it's supposed to. He also had a boot lid that was tight on it's hinges and needed a lot of effort to close, which was sorted under warranty, but not what you'd expect from a car with the percieved quality of a Passat. Or maybe you should these days. Stick to the Hi Lux GB, although I'm sure you know that!
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Good evening gb
On several occasions when I have driven the car, the electronic handbrake has simply not come on when the 'switch' was applied. A warning came up on the dash and I had to reapply the switch several times before the handbrake applies. SWMBO has, on several occasions, had the handbrake 'stick' on and spent minutes continually pushing the switch until it released. By that I mean pushing the brake button then trying to driveoff in order to release it. On 2 occasions it has refused to let me reverse off the driveway, causing me to turn off the engine and start procedures again.
I am not sure if it is a common fault. Up until 6 months ago we were considering buying the vehicle from the lease company as it had been faultless up to 100k. It is still immaculate both inside and out and has many redeeming features, but who needs injector problems as a private buyer plus a temperamental electronic handbrake!
Last edited by: legacylad on Thu 17 Jun 10 at 22:57
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0k. It is still immaculate both inside and out and has many redeeming
>> features, but who needs injector problems as a private buyer plus a temperamental electronic handbrake!
Thanks LL for the full answer, as we've discussed here and there many times these leccy handbrakes have fixed a problem that wasn't there in the first place and many of us will avoid them like the plague especially in a used car, seems a common fault on Passats according to the HJ link.
The injector problem is as you say rather more worrying and there is potential for eye watering bills with no guarantee of a permanent fix, i wonder if 2.0d Octavia's will come up with this fault down the line too, hope not i have a sneaky admiration of them.
If Lady LL's car is having problems when it's been well looked after what hope those that have been neglected.
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>> we had several lease cars rejected by the owners for appaling reliability. The lease company
>> took them back and outed them straight to auction.
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Absolutely, buyer beware.... however I'm told that our leasing company will tell you which auction your ex-lease car is going to if you ask nicely, great if you've had a 'goodun'.
Our previous leasing company certainly didn't go out of its way to fix faults towards the end of a lease, I thought of secreting a note in my dire company/leased Vectra all those years ago but decided that the poor fool who bought it would only find it after they'd parted with their cash.
Our current leasing company also gives the option to purchase your car at the end of the lease, the price is not overly generous but they do offer a warrantee, earlier comments on reluctance to spend money on a car nearing the end of its lease apply, but I guess you can't blame them.
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My ex leasing company wouldnt tell you, just wanted to offer you the car at an inflated price.
The guy delivering your new replacement car was happy to tell you where he was taking your old one tho, it was always straight to an auction, usually the nearest BCA
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Volkswagen Passat - Cars going to auction - Boxsterboy
