Team-BHP - Quality lapses & fit/finish issues in my brand new VW Vento TSI AT

Quote:

Originally Posted by gt3t0uring (Post 5404268)

Hi, congratulations on the new car!

As for the misalignment of stalks, I have observed the same in my Polo (MY'22). What I've seen is that the stalks are purposely misaligned. As seen in the photo below:

Attachment 2359398

The cutout for LHS stalk, by design, is placed a little lower than the RHS stalk. My guess would be to keep the left stalk within the reach of left hand when it is in its most upwards position. And yes, the whole column is tilted to the left in my Polo too but it never caught my attention. The best you could do is live with it and enjoy the drive. Good luck:thumbs up

Regards

Hey ! Thank You . Misalignment of stalks itself is an eyesore and bad engineering to say the least.

Off late, I haven’t observed this kind of setting with any Indian car maker whosoever it may be, including Volkswagen’s MQB-A0-IN platform vehicles too.

This kind of "uneven stalks" setting has been observed only in The Polo, Ameo & Vento and is ‘unacceptably’ common. But, this is how it usually is - When the Upper Steering Column cover is aligned straight with respect to driver’s position, the right stalk has to sit slightly lower than than that of the left stalk, which is the correct setting atleast for the above mentioned vehicles. I also own a MY'2011 VW Polo GT TDI which has no such issue wherein, the Steering Column Cover-Stalk Assembly setting is same as mentioned above and I’ve also compared it with my friends cars and also many cars in the workshop during that period of time. All of them had the same setting which was normal on these cars as ascertained by VW itself . My friend's MY'12 Vento stalk assembly picture attached below.

But, The Tilted Steering Column (ascertained by the steering column cover tilted left) & subsequently the Stalks Assembly tilted towards the left, which has been observed in my MY'22 Vento is not common and a disaster in modern engineering. I wonder how this could have happened with a renowned brand like VW with one of the best automation technologies in the world. I still wish it was only a mistake that could have occurred during putting things together at Factory.

In general, The ‘stalks assembly unit’ is held in place by a clamp on the steering column behind the clockspring at a particular point by a screw. Hence, If the left stalk is lower than the right stalk, it clearly means, the steering column is tilted to the left and hence all the parts sliding onto it are tilted, which is a wrong setting and shouldn’t be that way as seen on my MY'22 Vento. As per my understanding, the cutout of left stalk appears lower than right stalk because, the column cover is tilted left and has got nothing to do with reachability. This is absolutely careless work whoever has done it at the factory.

And another MY'21 Vento is perfectly alright and no such issue had been observed. Picture below.

Another inference - When I had gone to collect my fuel coupon after delivery of my car, I had also seen a brand new, two day old Vento MY'22 at workshop getting things meddled with at exactly the same ‘Steering assembly’ area because the upper steering column cover was not clinging onto the lower column cover even after multiple tries by VW service team. The car owner was not a happy man as per my interaction with him. Unfortunately, I hadn’t observed the defects in my car by then, as it was already dark. There sure is some manufacturing defect in the Steering Assembly unit of MY'22 Polo and Vento vehicles. It’s not one random vehicle we are talking about here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vedirah (Post 5404540)

Hi, I have a 2022 model Polo with rain sensing wipers function. By any chance, are the right side stalks set to the auto mode? If that's the case, there will be this misalignment between the left and right stalks. Set it to the "off" position and check if the stalks are at the same level. If not, then there is an alignment issue.

When checking for steering alignment issue, I'd much rather believe the tire alignment report than comparing it to other elements on the dash. In the end all that matters is whether the steering and the tires are aligned properly. Of course, if the dash elements are misaligned, they can be an eyesore but that can be easily corrected.

Unfortunately, it's not the issue with the rain sensing wipers.

As you've mentioned and as long as the tires & steering are aligned, the car can only go straight but the whole experience of driving a car upwards of INR 14 Lacs with such horrendous engineering is unacceptable. And yes, it's an eyesore and it does not give you a feeling of satisfaction or enthusiasm to drive the car when your steering is not aligned with the column cover and when your steering's Reach & Rake keeps making weird squeaky noises just because it isn't in place.

And when I had gone for a wheel alignment to correct the Off-Centre Steering Wheel which had come from factory itself, the alignment guy had locked the steering wheel with respect to the tilted steering column cover and after the toe adjustment, as expected the steering was again off-centre and was aligned in respect with the tilted column cover.

Hence, I'd like to say that things have to stay at their intended place for good.

There seems to be a considerable drop in quality, fit and finish in the new VW cars.

I checked out and test drove the VW taigun yesterday as a possible replacement for my Compass. Prior to this the last time i drove a VW was in 2009 and it was the base petrol variant of the Jetta 1.6 MT. I remember that the quality and fit/finish was top notch and flawless, be it paint quality, interiors, plastic quality.

However yesterday's look at the taigun left me disappointed. I felt that the material quality in my Maruti espresso was of better fit and finish. The grey plastic insert in the VW dashboard looked cheap, overall plastics used felt not so premium for a car costing 22 lakhs on road. This was the 1.5 automatic top model.

Another disappointment was with exterior paint quality. It is, quite possible that i am extra observant when it comes to inspecting paint on a car as i got a new Jeep compass delivered with paint defects. But now VW is the 3rd manufacturer apart from Jeep and Mahindra where I saw the same paint issue on the display vehicles in Pune showroom. The issue is debris particles painted over, ie. poor surface preparation prior to application of paint or poor mixing of paint.

There was heavy orange peel effect on the taiguns and the virtus on display. The top end taigun had several places with bumpy texture on the painted exterior as if paint was applied without checking if surfaces were free of dust particles or debris.

When i questioned the sales rep regarding the paint, a couple of the sales team had a discussion and later i was told that paint quality is 'normal' for the segment and pricing of the car. To this i pointed out that my Maruti suzuki espresso dec 2021 model does not have this issue. To this there was no explanation.

I have dropped VW as a future purchase as a result of yesterday's observations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gt3t0uring (Post 5406518)

Thank you for the detailed post, you've done your research very well and your idea of poor installation at the factory is the most probable cause of it. I'm surprised too, to see such small yet noticable thing getting away without being caught.

For me though it's not as big of deal, yes it looks
atrocious but not enough to me to get the whole steering wheel opened.

Regards

Hi, Kindly share the pictures of your car's Steering Assembly Area on the dashboard if possible.

You are right. Trusting the dealership with meddling with the steering assembly on a brand new car is not a good idea. I am trying to get someone from VW factory look into this directly.

Few Examples of bad dealership experiences :

1) They have no idea that a 'Steering Angle Sensor' exists on the Vento's steering and that it can be calibrated if it's deviated.

2) For an Off-Centre steering wheel caused by their pathetic Wheel Alignment, they open up the steering wheel and meddle with the splined shaft on the column which is absolutely a big 'NO' instead of correcting it with the Wheel Alignment itself.

They are horrible in diagnosis. They open up everything and then think what has to be done :Frustrati . It's a nightmare if an issue pops up with the vehicle as we have to deal with these untrained dealerships . More or less they have mostly become hubs for change of worn out or damaged parts and that's all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pavi (Post 5406569)

Just wanted to understand the pattern here. Were the ones with correct alignment, having auto wipers? In case of auto wipers an additional setting also would be there between the off and intermittent position.
Does this also attribute to the Indian vendors.

My MY'2011 Polo didn't have auto wipers. An MY'2021 Vento (pic attached in previous replies) has Auto Wipers and the setting for Auto Wipers on the stalk exists in Indian VWs as well. Both the above mentioned vehicles have rightly placed stalk assembly & column cover alignment with respect to the driver is perfect too.

The issue in my MY'22 Vento is a Left side tilted Column and subsequently, left side tilted parts that slid onto it. It's either an installation issue or a manufacturing defect.

Quote:

Originally Posted by teja030 (Post 5406476)

This kind of "uneven stalks" setting has been observed only in The Polo, Ameo & Vento and is ‘unacceptably’ common. But, this is how it usually is - When the Upper Steering Column cover is aligned straight with respect to driver’s position, the right stalk has to sit slightly lower than than that of the left stalk, which is the correct setting atleast for the above mentioned vehicles.

But, The Tilted Steering Column (ascertained by the steering column cover tilted left) & subsequently the Stalks Assembly tilted towards the left, which has been observed in my MY'22 Vento is not common and a disaster in modern engineering.

Hi Teja,

Thanks for your detailed observations! I can confirm my 2022 Polo also has this issue. I did notice it before, but I thought that's how it is designed. Did not think about it twice. But now that you have pointed this out, it definitely is an eyesore!

Quote:

Originally Posted by vedirah (Post 5409148)

Hi Vedirah !

It’s an eyesore for sure. A Swift and i10 in the family have perfect alignments around the steering compartment. What I see on my Vento gives me an Ouch! each time and takes away all the fun. There are more flaws on my Vento which have been documented earlier in this thread of which you may have a look too. Probably, all this is bonus when you buy ‘about to’ phase out vehicles.

Nevertheless, kindly share images of your steering column upper cover in a straight ahead position with respect to the driver for me to understand the amount of column tilt.

I have been planning to document more number of such cases and escalate this to VW and try getting an explanation & solution from their Factory and not their dealerships.