Let's see if they have the audacity to keep using "German quality" arguments against rivals around the world, after closing the factories in their homeland.
Firstly, sorry for going off topic but picking up on the German quality thing. With VW, I think this is case of them living on their past glories, if the so called legendary VW German build quality ever was such a thing. IMHO many car manufacturers have overtaken VW in terms of build quality. If makes me smile when I periodically read comments on VW forums of VW’s being premium cars. Really? I might be wrong but I’ve always considered VW to be a manufacturer of mainstream, volume products; not premium vehicles.
Three of the five VW’s I owned were German built (at VW’s Wolfsburg production facility) and IMHO two of them fell somewhat short of the so called legendary German build quality. Those two cars had a fair few uneven panel gaps and had to go back to the
dealer for them to adjust / correct. One of those cars also had bumper strips that should have been the same colour as the car; the inserts on the rear bumper were the wrong colour! It makes you wonder if there’s actually a post-build QC process in the factory or if the
dealership carried out a PDI prior to the customer collecting the car
.
The last VW I owned - built in VW’s Kariega factory in South Africa - was also quite poorly built; multiple uneven panel gaps and the plastic petrol filler flap could only be described as extremely flimsy and poorly fitting. There was also a dent in the rear right quarter panel on collection day; the dent might have happened after the car left the factory but wherever / whenever it happened, it should have been fixed before I saw the car!
. I was on the verge of rejecting the car, but this was during Covid and I’d waited many months for it to be built and didn’t want to wait a similar length of time for a replacement. Oh, and one of the weld seams between the roof and side panel above the driver’s door also started showing signs of corrosion at around 18 months old (not due to stone chip damage or any other external damage). Poor build quality plus declining customer
service at the
dealership during my ownership of that car pushed me to leave VW after 22 years and I’ve no regrets in having done so.
The best built VW I owned was a previous generation Polo GTI built at Pamplona in Spain; almost perfect apart from a small paint imperfection on the nearside sill.
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