I am a young father of 5 kids and my wife is a full time stay at home Mom. I work 7 days a week to provide for my family. I purchased a brand new 2011 Volkswagen Minivan from Open Road of Staten Island in July of 2012. Since then, I have had nothing but problems with various mechanical issues (mostly transmission). I have been in and out of the service department for the past 3 years and frankly I am fed up.
The past two times I have brought it into service the vehicle was there for two months each time. In the meantime, I have reached out to Volkswagen customer care department and they along with Open Road of Staten Island agreed that while my vehicle is in repair they would cover a rental. So I went through the proper channels and rented a vehicle through Enterprise.
I picked up my minivan from the dealer on August 15th, 2015 after about 2 months in repair and promptly returned the rental. I noticed on my credit card statement I was billed for three different amounts of $640, $1100, and $1280 all effective 9/30/15. I called Enterprise and they stated Open Road has denied coverage of all charges. I reached out to Open Road of Staten Island and guess what? They sold the dealership to Island Volkswagen. I noticed Open Road of Bridgewater, New Jersey was still doing business so I payed them a visit to try to resolve my situation.
They stated that even though both dealerships are the same owner thay car operated independently. I presented them with all the evidence I have stating that all rental coverage will be paid for by Open Road/Volkswagen Customer Care and have yet to hear anything back. To add insult to injury, my car is still giving me the same transmission problems such as not shifting properly, shaking when in reverse gear, oil leaking, etc. I only have 55,125 miles on the vehicle.
This is insane. We have no other means to get around. My wife desperately relies on that car for the kids school and shopping. I am wasting valuable time and money and I am afraid that without shaming these people I am going to achieve nothing. I feel like I have been getting the run around since day one. I even attempted to reach out to the CEO of VW of America Mr. Michael Horn. I got a call back from Katy Fox who is Mr. Horn's assistant. They purchased an extended warranty through Fidelity for me. But so far I haven't had anybody at their dealership diagnose the problem and fix it once and for all. Now I am out for the rental costs which is creating a real financial burden for me.
#2Author of original report
Sun, November 08, 2015
This is an update to my previous report. The minivan has been repaired and I was compensated for the rental. Although the experience was negative, I wish to retract my previous report. Would I buy a VW product again? Not likely.