A mother-of-two has detailed how she suffered nightmares and severe anxiety after her brand new $50,000 car ran into problems.
Ipswich woman Josephine Miller bought a Volkswagen Golf Alltrack from a Brisbane dealer in 2020.
He paid just under $50,000 for the SUV but it has had nothing but problems since he first got behind the wheel.
The mother-of-two said she had battled a southeast Queensland car dealership for three years over safety concerns and took to social media to tell her story.
He wrote, ‘My car is three years old this July and has obvious issues with the car showing a lemon.’
‘I lose sleep over it, I have nightmares, I have major anxiety and it’s something that never goes away,’ she said.
‘It’s just been an ongoing everyday problem. In comparison, my partner’s 20-year-old Holden has no problems.’
Mum-of-two Josephine Miller (pictured) has detailed the nightmare experience she endured after buying a brand new Volkswagen Golf Alltrack in 2020 which gave her nothing but problems.
Ms Miller told the Courier Mail that the ongoing problems had led to her losing her job as a bond cleaner.
‘We had to be told not to work when we took the car and we usually couldn’t work because we couldn’t afford our equipment because we were under so much pressure, if we were to damage the loan. Vehicles,’ he said.
His problem started when the stop/start button stopped working preventing him from starting the car.
‘I had to wait two weeks for them to diagnose my car and replace the button, so I couldn’t drive my car for those two weeks,’ he said.
HE SAYS THE CAR HAS HAD PROBLEMS WITH THE BRAKES AND ROTORS FROM THE TIME THE CAR WAS PURCHASED UNTIL IT WAS FIXED AT THE END OF THIS YEAR.
However, after repairs, he noticed that his car had a ‘major problem with acceleration’.
‘When I put the car in reverse after stopping it for a while, it would occasionally lose power and roll forward which was terrifying because our driveway is sloping and it would roll into our fence.’
But things got worse. Last year before Christmas, she noticed a pool of water on the floor which she immediately dried up but then again a few days later to find it had returned.
Diagnosis by Volkswagen found a problem with the air conditioning which caused it to leak.
Moisture causes mold to form in car carpets, causing the car to smell ‘unbearable’.
VA Australia ended up covering the $4000 cost of going ahead and fixing it at its dealership.
After being without her car for six weeks while it was repaired, the Queensland mother said once she returned the car’s transmission it got worse.
‘The reversal problems were becoming more frequent and I had to call them again,’ he said.
‘My car came back for diagnosis and repair and I allowed their master tech to drive my car to and from work for a week hoping it was diagnosed,’
‘Master Tech confirmed and replicated the loss of power and ordered a new mechatronics on the advice of VW head office from Germany, at which point I was without my car again for over six weeks.
‘When I picked up my car, they advised that they had replaced the mechatronics so that would fix it, but if it didn’t I would have to return the car to where I bought it for a replacement/buyback. Tired of all options.’
The mother-of-two says she has battled the south-east Queensland car dealership for three years over safety concerns and vehicle transmission issues (Image: Mrs Miller’s VW)
He said he noticed improvement for the first few days but it went downhill and the problems became worse than before.
‘It occasionally loses power when reversing, when driving it shutters back and forth and won’t engage the gear, then goes back,’ he said.
‘It happened on an incline or simply flat parking – people were stuck behind me when I was reversing out of the shopping car park.’
When he handed the car over to the dealership on May 15, he had been without it for just over a month while they evaluated it.
Yet they said there was no problem and returned the mother of two and gave her excellent advice on how to resolve the issue.
The Queensland mother said the dealership told her, ‘When it starts to lose power you need to floor it in reverse.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) told Ms Miller in June that they had contacted the dealer to discuss a solution but told her: ‘Unfortunately, they were not willing to offer you a remedy’.
The dealership told the OFT that the tests they performed found no faults with the transmission.
Last week local news outlet, Quest Newspapers contacted Volkswagen Australia which led to the car manufacturer reaching out to Ms Miller and told her the matter would be resolved within the next week.
VW Australia said it was working with its dealerships to find a solution for the Josephine. Daily Mail Australia has contacted the dealership for comment.
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