I won't be buying any more Volkswagens!

the original dealer that didn't do the full install is your only real option. it's not your new dealers issue, and as of Jan 1 (I believe was the date) 2007 VW/Audi no longer will pay for the retrofits. lately, VW/Audi is leaving their dealers high and dry to deal with their own problems which is why they told you it wasn't VW's problem.

Reimbursement for KIDS program claims
Dealers: U.S., Canada
Date: January 17, 2007
The KIDS Program, a special promotion which offered customers a free retrofit for child seat tether anchors for some vehicles manufactured prior to the 2002 model year, was discontinued the end of 2006. The WIN system will accept and process claims for the retrofit reimbursement only through January 31, 2007.
The retrofit parts remain available for sale and installation to ensure customers that their child restraints may be installed with the appropriate vehicle hard-ware.
Specific questions about the retrofit reimbursement may be directed to your Regional Warranty Coordinator.

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Best Practice is to use the tether if the anchor is available. Period. This goes for installation with lower LATCH anchors or with seatbelt. According to Best Practice, it would be a "misuse" to install a front facing seat without the tether if the vehicle has an anchor for that seating position.

However, there are a few vehicles (mostly convertibles like the VW Beetle convertible) have lower LATCH anchors but do not have a top tether. In such instances, it is fine to install the seats using LATCH without the top tether.

Quirky, in addition to writing the CEO of the company (and you totally should do that!), I'd also complain to both the BBB and NHTSA. The squeeky wheel really does get the grease. It sounds like you have a valid complaint. Make some noise!

why would you complain to the NHTSA? top teathers are not a required safety feature are they? seems to me that not even all cars, except in very recent years, even had them. so what does the NHTSA have to do with it? BBB, sure, that's what they are there for since the previous dealer didn't do what they were supposed to do.

Why not complain to NHTSA? Tethers are a safety feature. They are required by law now, even though they weren't before.

because if they weren't required by law when the car was built, then it isn't reasonable to argue that. you will get nowhere with that one. guaranteed. unless there is some law saying manufacturers are required to retrofit all past year cars???? that would be like saying a car that was built before seat belts were required by law should be retrofitted in for free. just not gonna happen. see what I mean?

Again, why NOT report it to NHTSA? The worst that can happen is NHTSA will say, "Sorry, we can't help you." However, I reported a car seat issue to CPSC, who didn't have jurisdiction over that particular issue (I didn't realize it at the time). CPSC passed the complaint along to the manufacturer, who suddenly couldn't do enough to rectify the situation.

This isn't at all like your seatbelt analogy. In this case, the company lied to the consumer about the availability of a safety feature, which they were supposed to provide, and now they're saying they have no responsibility to fix their mistake. I disagree, and if complaining to NHTSA will provide her with the leverage she needs to make it right, more power to her!

good luck with that then. I'll be curious to find out the results. my money still says her only real option is to win against the dealer that didn't do the job completely to begin with.

Threaten to go to the media (and carry through if need be). If they know that they are going to buy a lot of neggative advertising by not helping you out, they'll be more co-operative. Besides the news stations are always looking for a juicy story. Just my :twocents: worth. It might help you out.

Defrost said:

I would go straight to the top of the OLD dealer - they are the ones who made the mistake in the first place. First of all, find out if they are even willing to correct their mistake - if they are willing to fix it if you bring it in, then you can "build" on that, explaining why you can't bring it to them at this point and why it took you so long to realize that they'd made the mistake.

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Sigh. I so wish I'd figured this whole thing out last year, a) before I moved out of state and b) before VW discontinued their reimbursement program! Hindsight is 20/20....

I spoke to the service manager at the old dealership today and got zero help from him except a statement that "the parts weren't available when we did the retrofit." Which makes no sense to me, because I remember being told that the top tethers COULDN'T be retrofitted, not that the parts were on backorder or anything. Oh, and their helpful advice was to call VW. Yeah, OK, thanks. So I'm going to try to close that loop and then start writing nasty-grams to everyone concerned:

1) Old dealer service center and owner
2) VW North America
3) NHTSA/CPSC (because heck, why not, it's just a cc)
4) BBB (ditto)

Thanks for all the input! At this point, if I do end up with VW/the dealership refusing to make good, I'm seriously considering selling the car and moving on to something different if a) I can talk dh into it and b) we can find the money in our budget....after the extremely expensive repairs we've faced in the last six months, and the fact that the Blue Book value is only $5000-$7000, it seems to me that it might be worthwhile finding something more reliable that already has the full LATCH system rather than spending more money on this car.