I am so ticked off at Volkswagen I can hardly see straight....although I have liked my 1999 Passat wagon and dh's 2002 Golf a lot, I can tell you I won't be buying any more! LOUSY LOUSY LOUSY customer service when it comes to car seat safety!
Here's what happened: in 2002, when I was pregnant with my first, I took my VW to the dealership to have LATCH retrofitted. The dealer installed lower anchors, but told me at the time (incorrectly as it turns out) that top tethers could not be installed.
Well, thanks to the awesome CPS techs on this board, I recently learned that VW's technical bulletin issued in 2001 stated that a) top tethers could and should have been installed at the same time as the lower anchors and b) that VW would reimburse dealers for 2 complete LATCH retrofits in the outboard positions. So my old dealer was completely wrong and I should have gotten the top tethers back in 2002.
So now that we've moved from MD to NJ, and there's no feasible possibility of taking the car back to the old dealership to have them correct their screw-up, and now that I've gotten an estimate of roughly $700 PER anchor, VW says -- not our problem, we refuse to help you, and we won't reimburse you or the dealer for any top tether retrofits. I took it as high as I could within the company, to no avail.
They've just lost my business permanently! And given how many extremely expensive problems I've been having with my Passat lately (and it has less than 70,000 miles on it) I would recommend staying far, far away from VWs.
Here's what happened: in 2002, when I was pregnant with my first, I took my VW to the dealership to have LATCH retrofitted. The dealer installed lower anchors, but told me at the time (incorrectly as it turns out) that top tethers could not be installed.
Well, thanks to the awesome CPS techs on this board, I recently learned that VW's technical bulletin issued in 2001 stated that a) top tethers could and should have been installed at the same time as the lower anchors and b) that VW would reimburse dealers for 2 complete LATCH retrofits in the outboard positions. So my old dealer was completely wrong and I should have gotten the top tethers back in 2002.
So now that we've moved from MD to NJ, and there's no feasible possibility of taking the car back to the old dealership to have them correct their screw-up, and now that I've gotten an estimate of roughly $700 PER anchor, VW says -- not our problem, we refuse to help you, and we won't reimburse you or the dealer for any top tether retrofits. I took it as high as I could within the company, to no avail.
They've just lost my business permanently! And given how many extremely expensive problems I've been having with my Passat lately (and it has less than 70,000 miles on it) I would recommend staying far, far away from VWs.