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California Ocean Delivery Delays

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stephen A

Lifetime VIP Member
Messages
22
Location
Goring by Sea
Vehicle
T6 Ocean 199 4 motion
I realise that I am not alone but.............

I ordered a very high spec VW California Ocean on 24th of September 2020 and was given an estimated delivery date of February 2021. In order to finance the Ocean I intend to sell my car. Having been given approximate delivery dates of February, then March, then April 20th, I have now been told that although my vehicle has been built it cannot be delivered due to the shortage of silicon chips required for my tow bar fitting. The dealer from whom I ordered the vehicle is now unable to give me a delivery date or even an estimated time for the delivery.

Whilst VW may argue that this is something outside its control I would contend the reason in this specific case is because of the inefficiency of VW in not ordering sufficient chips to build the vehicles that they had on order. The (almost universal) excuse of the current pandemic is no excuse whatsoever because if VW had not the parts to build vehicles then they should not have accepted the orders. This seems to me to be the current situation leading to the long lead periods. VW gave me a lead period of 5 months and I am still waiting after 8 months with an indefinite delivery date.

I therefore contacted VW customer care (which quite clearly is a misnomer) with the following point:

Delays in delivery of vehicles can cause actual financial loss for customers of VW. in my case had the Company delivered the van on time value of my vehicle (equivalent to a part exchange price in normal circumstances) would have been approximately £27000 whereas currently the price is £25,000. As time continues this price will decrease whilst the price that VW expect for the California remains altered. As they are, at least in part responsible for the delay, my contention is that VW should compensate me – at least in part– for this loss by adjusting the price of the California. I am quite prepared to forward the email valuation I have from ‘we buy any car’ valuing my vehicle at this present time.

As VW is still unable to provide a delivery date for the vehicle am I expected to continue to pay for then going inefficiency of this multinational Company?

Their answer from VW appears to be yes!


By way of compromise I said that I am prepared meet the loss between February and now but that any further loss should be met by a reduction in the price of the California (purchased for just south of £70,000). In this, I think I was being reasonable but I am told by customer services that VW will not agree to this and that I should do nothing until the van is delivered which on an extreme analysis could be 2022 or even 2023. Of course as I was not born yesterday I realise that once I accept delivery my option can only be to rely on the goodwill of VW which from this scenario appears to me to be non-existent.

As I know that the van has now been built I offered to accept it without the tow bar which I could have retrofitted (at my own cost of course) once the van had been delivered and enjoy some of the summer. Of course, that’s not possible because it doesn’t fit in with VW’s building schedules where specifications cannot be altered once the build has started

Customers wanting a California (or any other VW product for that matter) have no option but to put up with a company that could not give a damn about their customers and are purely motivated by profit regardless of service.
 
Whilst having every sympathy with you in relation to the delays in delivery I would doubt that had your current vehicle gone up in value, as some have due to the current shortage of new vehicle supplies, been willing to give the extra cash gained to VW.

When I ordered mine there was approximately a 6 month wait with no certainty on delivery dates. I made it clear that if not received by the expected date that I'd not complete the purchase. Impending showroom Tax and VED changes being the reason.

VW lost my Wife's car replacement with another VW due to their poor Customer relations which is to clarify that I'm not a VW fan other than the Cali.
 
Delays in delivery of vehicles can cause actual financial loss for customers of VW. in my case had the Company delivered the van on time value of my vehicle (equivalent to a part exchange price in normal circumstances) would have been approximately £27000 whereas currently the price is £25,000. As time continues this price will decrease whilst the price that VW expect for the California remains altered.


Thats absolutely normal for any vehicle deal, you've had a further x months use of the old vehicle, so why shouldn't the trade in be valued at less?

If you were trading in an older Ocean chances are that the trade in value would have gone up not down, in that situation would you be expecting to give VW some money back?
 
As time continues this price will decrease whilst the price that VW expect for the California remains altered
I was under the impression that there was a price increase on 1st Oct and again on 1st Jan, so your September order, I assume has been locked in at the old prices.

The queue is very lengthy I am afraid. There are plenty of us on here in a very similar boat, I am afraid.
We are in this together! :thumb
 
While staying at home I watch a lot of Youtube videos and read camper van / motorhome magazines from Germany.

It seems that for many (if not all) manufacturers of recreational vehicles are delivery delays, it seems especially for Fiat (which has the major percentage of this market).

Looking up some suppliers of camper van vehicles in Germany there are delays mentioned of 12 to 18 month (in rare cases of small manufacturers) up to 24 month.

It is terrible to wait so long for a vehicle. Of course the customer did its research, checked the finances and finally make the difficult decision to spend a small fortune. Of course at this point everybody would like to get the vehicle as quickly as possible.

I don't believe that the supply chain can be predicted into very deep detail. Suppliers can change their delivery targets (despite supply contracts). I don't want to defend VW, but they might not be fully responsible for the delays.

Especially in the UK there are a good number of smaller manufacturers of smaller camper vans. I would start to research this and maybe find a good alternative which is available sooner, or at least at a guaranteed time. If this is the case I would cancel the order with VW and go somewhere else. If many people will do that, VW will see the impact and might increase their effort.

I wish you best of luck.

Regards,
Eberhard
 
I hope so because on Friday the dealer confirmed the van has now left the factory and is on its way
Well that was faster than expected... Their comms can be so had, for something that comms should be easy to do
 
Sorry for the frustration you are experiencing, our relatively lightly specced Coast was delivered last week, six months after ordering in mid November. (I have written the spec up elsewhere). I think the issue is the worldwide shortage of semiconductors, + the pandemic triggering a huge increase in demand for Calis, as well as for other campervan conversions, motorhomes, caravans and boats.
Our dealer at Eurovans Crawley told us the wait time for new Calis now is 15-18 months.
 
Sorry for the frustration you are experiencing, our relatively lightly specced Coast was delivered last week, six months after ordering in mid November. (I have written the spec up elsewhere). I think the issue is the worldwide shortage of semiconductors, + the pandemic triggering a huge increase in demand for Calis, as well as for other campervan conversions, motorhomes, caravans and boats.
Our dealer at Eurovans Crawley told us the wait time for new Calis now is 15-18 months.
That shortage doesn’t explain why coasts are coming through quicker than oceans though.
 
That shortage doesn’t explain why coasts are coming through quicker than oceans though.
I guess it could relate to any number of items that are standard on Oceans but options on Coasts? Digital dash, LED headlights, roof components, Media centres, park assist etc etc? Just a thought?
 
I was told by someone who works for Jaguar/Landrover that there has been a massive fire at a factory in Japan that makes the computer chips for many cars including Jaguar/Landrover and VW.
That could be why coasts and beaches are coming through quicker as there's less technology in them.
 
In the case of my Ocean ordered at end of September ( and now in transit in the ship to the UK) I was told that the additional delay was due to the problem of a getting a computer chip for the removable tow bar which is not standard on the Ocean.
 
Californias have always had a long lead time but they are taking longer than usual at the moment.

We ordered ours late September and it went in to build last Monday, and we expect 6 to 8 weeks from here to have it sat here at home. It will be worth it, our last Ocean took ages too and was brilliant.

I just wish there was more granular status information from VW. BMW have a similar status system (and online chat) and theirs is much more transparent.

I hope you get the van soon :)
 
In the case of my Ocean ordered at end of September ( and now in transit in the ship to the UK) I was told that the additional delay was due to the problem of a getting a computer chip for the removable tow bar which is not standard on the Ocean.
Interesting. Not sure why there would be a chip required for towbar; isn’t it just a lump of metal and a wring loom which plugs in and is coded to the standard can bus?
 
My thoughts as well but that is what I was told ((I am a technophobe ! )
 
In the case of my Ocean ordered at end of September ( and now in transit in the ship to the UK) I was told that the additional delay was due to the problem of a getting a computer chip for the removable tow bar which is not standard on the Ocean.
Makes sense...until I heard of Beaches and Coasts coming through with towbars.
 
My thoughts as well but that is what I was told ((I am a technophobe ! )
Great that your van is en route. I’ve a vested interest in the towbar, purely because my van (supposedly/hopefully) went into build last week with towbar spec’d, despite asking for it to be removed in response to the VW list, and I’m really hoping it doesn’t get delayed further as result! The process is driving me to take an interest in all sorts of areas that I really have no desire to be interested in......
 
Interesting. Not sure why there would be a chip required for towbar; isn’t it just a lump of metal and a wring loom which plugs in and is coded to the standard can bus?
No. There is a little more in a box under the front passenger seat. When the towbar electrics are used a number of changes are triggered to rear fog and reversing lights, parking sensors, rear brakes function, Stop/Start etc.
 
Hi I ordered my Ocean at the beginning of November 2020 (with towbar), and according to the dealer I was to expect a delivery date of 30th April 2021. I've found reading the posts enlightening to say the least. I have been left very much to chase things myself with no proactive information from the dealer and then a wait of some weeks for a repsonse. He blamed VW for not keeping him informed and has no told me that the build week was to be week 20. Can someone tell me how I get access to the VW chat where I can check progress? Thanks so much :)
 
Ordered my ocean in September (estd delivery Feb 2021) and have been has frustrated as you as you, quite clearly, are.

I managed to get in touch with VW but I have to say that I was not too impressed with what they refer to as as 'customer services' and in my view it was a complete waste of time.

Although I was extremely annoyed (as you might see from previous posting of mine) it seems to me the dealers have no more information than the VW customer services as to the progress of the orders. The dealer eventually called me on Friday 21st May to tell me that the vehicle had left the factory and the following week confirmed that the van was on the ship. Yesterday they confirmed that the vehicle is at Sheerness awaiting delivery and that they had the chassis number ready to progress the delivery. Hopefully the vehicle will therefore be delivered this week or by the beginning of next week and ready for pickup three days later.

It seems that since the end of last year VW has had a gestation period of nine months or so. Hopefully, therefore, you will not have to wait too much longer.
 
Ordered my ocean in September (estd delivery Feb 2021) and have been has frustrated as you as you, quite clearly, are.

I managed to get in touch with VW but I have to say that I was not too impressed with what they refer to as as 'customer services' and in my view it was a complete waste of time.

Although I was extremely annoyed (as you might see from previous posting of mine) it seems to me the dealers have no more information no more information the VW customer services as to the progress of the orders. The dealer eventually called me on Friday 21st May to tell me that the vehicle had left the factory and the following week confirmed that the van was on the ship. Yesterday they confirmed that the vehicle is at Sheerness awaiting delivery and that they had the chassis number ready to progress the delivery. Hopefully the vehicle will therefore be delivered this week or by the beginning of next week and ready for pickup three days later.

It seems that since the end of last year VW has had a gestation period of nine months or so. Hopefully, therefore, you will not have to wait too much longer.
Thanks Stephen I really hope you're right! Very pleased to hear that yours is now in the UK at least. Looking forward to seeing it when it arrives!
I have just emailed the dealer again but my guts are telling me it'll be September....
 
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