Rob, I would largely agree with what you say. A lot of makers have had serious problems and recalls lately, but unfortunately I think VW have stuck their heads in the sand and treated their customers like idiots about the whole thing. This has only stirred things up and the press see a chance to pounce. Possibly a bit of tall poppy syndrome too I think.
If VW said "We are listening to our customers and attempting to address any shortcomings" then their customers, ie us, would be a lot happier and the bad press would probably go away. Unfortunately, the recent problems...and there appears to be two separate issues going on at the same time....possibly involves a death and the press are looking for a cover-up. I see on the news tonight that the ACCC are threatening to force VW Australia to do a recall (
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-06/volkswagen-recall-powers/4737772). This sort of news certainly has the media's attention. The common denominator in all the stories are the words "...the death of a Melbourne woman...". There's nothing like a death story to get the press interested, and lets face it, they aren't all that concerned about letting the truth get in the road of a good story.
There seems to be an issue with DSG's shuddering again, and a separate issue involving a possible electrical fault with diesel injectors that causes them to shut off at highway speeds with many people reporting in other forums that their injectors were replaced after reporting a problem.
Let's not forget though that the 6 speed DSG is a first generation design and there will be issues that will be corrected down the track. Even the 7 speed is only a second generation it and has had problems due to design issues. People may not be aware that there have been some
huge design changes (starting with the model types that start with an N) with the 6
and 7 speed DSG's. So, developmental work is ongoing with the DSG gearbox even though it is in full production. Get a copy of ELSAWIN or ETKA and you can see for yourselves how much thay have been updated and changed.
I would hope that Skoda would listen to their Aussie customers to try and avoid losing any market share but I suspect that Big Daddy VW probably has them by the short and curley's and is probably threatening to squeeze tight if they don't follow the corporate line. Just my opinion anyway.
Edited by: plbxr