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California dealers - servicing and repair work.

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jerrythegerman

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Location
Lymm, Cheshire
Now I know that this site has a actively involved one, but this has been my experience so far. I'm quite open to comment, pos or Neg.

Taken from my reply on another post and was wondering if anyone else had trouble??

In the end, maybe VW would take note of this and up the training for these guy's on our Cali's? Plus side, the good dealers would get the work.

"My last outing to my Local VW Cali dealer left me less than satisfied. They can sell them to you but I am afraid to say the struggle to fix them.

It hurts me to say, but they are just not engineers/Mechanic's anymore. If the computer say's "no", you've had it.

My last service was a joke, I almost laughed when they provided me the cost. It's not the money (these are not cheap units after all), it's the quality of it.

Simple things like managing to pour about half a litre of oil down the back of the block, most of the pipework and onto the exhaust. Made it smell like a Diesel tug boat on the trip back home!! They did resolve it and have offered my next service at cost price of parts only, which I thought was fair.

My recent fun and games with the aux heater left me no more confident.
One dealer ship came back after one hour saying it had a fault and could not turn it on (I handed this info onto the supposed cheif tech when I drove in!!) and that resolution may be a new head up unit (£560) but as the had no stock, they could not prove it to be the answer and that I would have to pay for the unit, if it fixed it or not as they would have to order it in. After that they said it would maybe be a wire loom issue breaking down (its 5 years old, I work on 40 year old cars with the odd fault down to breaking down cables!)

The second closest dealer reasured me they could resolve it and then blew it all by saying that it was too war now anyway (above 4 deg) and would not work. I explained to him he was talking about the pre-heater and I, the Air-top. He than stated that they were both the same...I went on to explain that one heated water and one air.

Needless to say, it didnt go in there either.

Seems to me that the techs dont have specific training on Cali's just van and maybe then, only based around fault codes. I'm sure there are good ones but I've not found them yet.

Oh, as a side job, I build and restore classic race and rally cars for customers, and have done for around 20 years, more in the last 10. In short, I'm no mug and trust me, one rally event put 10 years of wear on a normal road car!!

The reason the Cali went into VW for it's last service was it was near on the same for me to buy the oils and filters than for them to do it!! Made sense...then.
 
Interesting reading. We don't have a single Cali dealer in Cornwall (seems odd) but I've been told that our local van centre can do all the work. I shall see...
 
During a conversation with my local service manager, I said that VW are letting their customers down with lack of training and knowledge. If I had bought a Bilbos camper, I know they have experience to repair and treat their customer to the required standard.
Vw are selling a high end product. I said to the manager I brought a Bang & Olufsen tv some years back as I wanted quality and that extra special service. Vw are selling a high end product with a Currys back up service. ( not saying currys is bad, but B&O just know how to sell, treat customers, and offer that personal service)
I too hope VW listen and learn from this.
 
They will not listen or act. My VW centre were direct and told me that they do not bother going on Cali training courses due to the low volume of sales. That will not change.
 
VW dealers can make or break cali ownership.
If you can find a good one it makes life so much more bearable.
My local dealer where i bought my cali from (Barnstaple VW) were an absolute joke who knew nothing about the cali.
I've since found an excellent dealer (VW Carrs Exeter) who carried out an extensive warranty defects list for me and the difference in their knowledge and attitude compared to Barnstaple made them a pleasure to deal with........though they didn't manage to fix my whistling driver's door mirror!
Will be going there permanently from now on.
 
Interesting stuff Freeley. Our nearest van centre is Cbrrs although its not a California dealer. We had pretty indifferent service from a couple of SW dealers when looking to buy which never bodes well for servicing quality.
 
yeah i couldn't recommend them enough. I think a good dealer is worth shouting about as they seem to be pretty thin on the ground.
Worth the trip for me anyway.
 
N Devon...could call in that way when I'm on my hols!!

Anyone else got a "good en" near them?

Its nice to know (or not but you know what I mean!!) that I am not the only one. I just thought I'd drop unlucky.

I do wonder if you can go on the course's privately at VW?? You'd have the second hand market sewn up if you could provide the service at non dealer prices in my book....
 
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