Scirocco Central

My 'Roc is no longer pristine and new

Driving up the M5 some debris flew at the car from nowhere and what looked like a plastic wing mirror housing bounced off my drivers door, leaving a 2 inch long scratch (to the metal) and tiny dent.

Taking this to the local VW dealer's body shop thinking it would be about £200-300 i was astonished to get a quote for repair of £855 !!!!!!! (This included £495 worth of labour)

As my insurance excess is £500 I thought that it was going to have to be an insurance job at that point. My insurers sent me to their approved body shop, whose quote was..........£309

So, although I would like to get the job done by VW (to keep 12 year perforation warranty etc), I would have to stump up best part of £900

Has anyone else had this level of disparity with VW body shops??

mine went to a non VW approved, but Lex approved bodyshop locally, they did a great job, at a fraction of the price.

You need to push the insurance companies to use the 'Approved VW' bodyshops, otherwise this could have an effect on resale of your car. Sounds dumb but any excuse!

I'd also want ot go with a VW approved repairer on a car this new. Have you tried any other VW dealers for a quote, might be worth a go.

Deacon

Be careful about bodyshops - VW approved does not always mean good. Apologies for the long post - this is what happened to me at a VW approved repairer:-

I bought my previous car (Golf GT Sport TDI 170) from VW Benfield in Newcastle, and when a bus swiped my legally parked car, I insisted that it went to Benfield's VW approved bodyshop - what a mistake.

It needed new bumpers front and back, a new nearside front wheel, a new rear offside wheel, and everything else attached to that wheel (suspension, brakes, chassis arm etc) was replaced, along with the offside rear quarter panel and sill. £6000 repair bill on a 4 week old car!

I was told it was a 2 week job once they had all the parts in. 2 weeks later all the parts were in, 2 weeks after that, my car still hadn't been touched. I eventually got the car back 7 weeks after Benfield got their mitts on it.

The day I got it back, the rain was lashing down and it was dark, so I hadn't noticed that the brakes were squealing as they hadn't been reassembled properly. I had noticed that my top-up bottle of oil that came with the car had vanished without trace. The car didn't brake well either, so I'd assumed everything was a little stiff and it would loosen up on the 10 mile drive home. The next morning I noticed that all the trim they'd removed when spraying and fitting the rear quarter panel was covered in oily black handprints. The brakes were also still shockingly bad - the car was a potential deathtrap.

Despite my concerns on the brakes, they refused to send a recovery vehicle out for it and made me drive the car back to the workshop. They blamed the brakes on slight disc misalignment (as I spoke to 1 technician) and then on a small piece of gravel between the dsc and the caliper (as I spoke to another). The oil stains were cleaned up on the trim and 3 weeks later I got a voucher for the oil bottle replacement.

The only thing i'd been happy about was the visual appearance of the paintwork on the new rear quarter panel and bumpers.

8 months later, the wheel arch of the new rear quarter panel began to rust, so it was straight back - how they managed to get a galvanised panel to rust is beyond me! They must have seriously compromised the zinc coat when dressing the panel prior to painting.

I complainted to VW UK at this point, and they got the workshop to offer me a free valet at any time of my choosing within 12 months. I declined, stating that I had no confidence in them doing a good job, after the state they'd left the Golf interior after i'd orginally got my repaired car back. VW insisted that I accept the free valet so that they could close the complaint case as "customer satisfied" - I refused.

The rear quarter panel was repainted and they glued up the wheel arch liners to the rear quarter panel so that you couldn't see what had gone on behind there. It all looked good again, but a few weeks later I got a small chip on the rear quarter panel and was appaulled how thin the top coat of paint was (solid Tornado Red) compared to the thickness of the factory coat (as seen by the depth of a stone chip on the bonnet) - it appeared to be less than 1/2 as thick on the repaired panel.

The car was 17 months old and started to rust again at the wheel arch - so I part ex'ed it for the Scirocco.

I wish i'd gone for the insurance approved repairer! I may still have had that Golf now! Go for the nearest VW approved repairer that your insurance company also approves, rather than the one at your local dealer if you insurance company doesn't approve them. The insurance companies audit these places on a regular basis, so they have to be good or the insurance company will pay out again for the remedial work.

Definitely not "customer satisfied" there maisbitt!!

I think I'm going to go for the £309 job - but pay privately. My problem is my £500 excess - the insurer wont pay the $855 that VW have quoted as their own repairers have quoted £309. But £309 is £181 LESS than my excess - therefore I would be stupid to do the work under the insurance, but I dont really want to pay £855 to repair a 2inch scratch.

I attach a couple of picture to show what VW think costs £855 to repair (crappy red arrow not actually on the car hehehe)

have you tried a mobile unit like a "chips away" franchise? If the dent is small enough not to have stretched the skin, I bet they'd sort that for about £100 - 120.

They take the door trim trim off and tap the dent out from the inside of the door with perspex-type precision chisels, then they'd get to work on the paint.

They did a dent on the boot of my Polo about 6 years ago for £60, and painted in all my bonnet chips, it looked like new - I couldn't see the remnants of the dent from any angle (and it had been dented along a curve).

I feel your pain

I agree about VW "approved" bodyshops. The one my dealer use is terrible and is known for being terrible.

When I have my bonnet resprayed because of all the stonechips I will be going to a local small bodyshop which I have always been very impressed with.

Be wary with "smart repairs" also I have had done and seen some very bodged jobs. But I guess it depends on the location of the damage and the skill of the person doing the job.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

Halford are great for paint, shouldnt cost you too much, only advise is dont do it in the rain.

sciroccoboy wrote:Halford are great for paint, shouldnt cost you too much, only advise is dont do it in the rain.

That is a whole new minefield in itself!!

I took mine to CF motoring services in Newcastle, they resprayed both scratches, and the colour match is superb, not easy on viper green i would imagine.

i work in a vw approved bodyshop, and i bet that would cost you around 400 pounds here at the most, as it is in the centre of the door so no need for blending the panels either side

Well, went with the local body shop - they had the car for two days and £309 later its looks as good as new