My VW Caravelle engine failed at 66,621 miles
- Thread starter abulliedpensioner
- Start date
Even a search today indicates at least a couple of independent garages in Plymouth (where the OP is from) advertising they have ODIS access.
Wonder if either are the garage who are now apparently blocked from it?
@abulliedpensioner have you sought legal advice yet?
Gutted for the op. If I had the money I’d pay for a new engine 
Thjs isnt news. Theyve been in trouble since they were caught cheating their way round emissions standards and ended up being slapped with worldwide fines totalling €34 billion. Since then theyve staggered from one crisis to another, desperately trying to find/save the money required to keep such a large business afloat.
Indeed, all this happened before your van was even built, and still you bought from them...
As did I, but choice is limited if one wants a new/newly new camper, and I was under no illusion about VW's behaviour going back as far as WWII. If my van blows up tomorrow I wont be pretending I thought it was a quality product from a company that helps old ladies across the road and is kind to animals.
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abulliedpensioner
Member
Our Caravelle has been the most unreliable car we have ever owned and we bought a new 1977 Austin Allegro. At least it was easily repaired. It is about the standard of my first car, a 1966 Hillman Imp, yet again, easily repaired. From day one we had trouble with the electric sliding doors. Complained to dealer who would do nothing without witnessing it first. This was, as usual, an intermittent fault. Even a video at the side of a busy road would cut no ice. Needless to say something was done after warranty finished. Repair not that good and I am constantly worried the doors will open whilst wew are travelling. I have no faith in VW. This was a clue as to the quality of manufacture and how poor/greedy the dealership and VW are. Woeful. I could go on....
Repeat repeat 
My 1st Bird had one.
Seats laid flat like her
Or was it a Maxi? My youth was a blur but had its ups and downs.
Seats laid flat like her
Or was it a Maxi? My youth was a blur but had its ups and downs.
"Bought a new Allegro in 1977" so could easily now be a late 70s early 80 year old bot, some of the bots on YouTube are well into their teens so 80 is a bit of a stretch but then I've still got two gold teeth from 1988 when the wife was having me modded... mind you they're Ford teeth and not VW.
Random fact of the day:- VW supplied the heaters for the prison huts at Auschwitz.
... and we know how that went...
It's all checks and balances but as an old duffer with chicks that have flown the nest you feel a duty to offer/ram down people's throat shortcuts to avoid some of the humiliations and blood letting that beset our miserable lives... innit?
They also are responsible for working slave labourers to death, and abandoning babies born to slave labourers to die. Plant managers specifically requested slave labour, and many were simoky executed when their utility was expended. Unpleasant. They then lied about it as long as they possibly could, and only finally admitted in the 90s when most of the survivors had died and the compo bill was comveniently minimised.
Volkswagen 'let babies die'
The German car giant Volkswagen was responsible for the murder during the second world war of up to 400 infants, the children of slave labourers forced to work at the firm's factories, according to a German television investigation.
Volkswagen’s Nazi-Era Blood Crimes
Its executives—not Nazi officials—oversaw the murder of hundreds of infants of slave laborers.
www.thenation.com
In the 70s VW Brazil were a bit naughty, luring in rural yokels with big promises and essentially enslaving them via debt bondage, stupid long working ours and dreadful conditons. This continued into the mid 80s, and just last year the Brazillian courts finally bent them over for a good legal rogering.
Volkswagen, Oxen, Timber, and Slave Labour in Brazil
verfassungsblog.de
Then 15 odd years ago they decided the deaths of thousands from air pollution every year was a better option for their shareholders than properly developing encom systems.
They really are not very nice people at all.
And the idea of "quality" is all smoke and mirrors. On the one hand theres clever advertising, and on the other there is a deliberate attempt to give an impression of quality without actually delivering it. The way VW "tune" their car doors to sound a certain way when closing costs next to nothing but fools the gullible. For decades, survey after survey such as JD Power, What Cars Reliability index, etc, show the reality of VW ownership yet schmucks still fall for the quality myth. The only good news is that so many people fall for it we can benefit with excellent residual values.
I dont want to have a downer, I love my van, but I was under no illusion when I bought it as the the sort of people the VW board are, and have a very sceptical view about any claims of it being a "quality" product. I walked into ownership with my eyes open - I hope it doesn't go wrong, but if it does I couldn't claim to be surprised.
