Volkswagen: How to waste a perfectly good community

Thanks to Volkswagen of America, the VW sitting in front of my house — my fourth — is sure to be my last. Not only that, I’m blogging and posting on Satisfaction about my negative experience. (You can read the full details there if you want, but the nutshell is my transmission blew up just barely out of warranty, VWoA accepted my request for help with the matter, and promptly declined it without explanation.)

The point isn’t that my transmission blew up; transmissions blow up. The point is not even that they have a proprietary part that seems to be known by mechanics to be extremely sensitive, want more than half the trade-in value of the car to replace it, and abjectly refuse to stand behind their product.

A little history: the first car I can remember my family owning when I was a child was a rust orange ‘71 squareback that my dad used to commute 80 miles in daily. I’ve owned two Jettas, and currently own two vw’s — the dead Jetta in question and a ‘71 karmann ghia convertible that I love driving (when it’s not raining or too hot or too cold) and proudly tune and troubleshoot myself. I have aftermarket vw parts and replicas catalogs coming to my house, occasionally go to vw-centric swap meets and online classifieds, have been invited to join VW clubs and rallies, and once even entered an air-cooled vw car show (2nd row, middle).

As I’ve said before, the Bug was a true platform. And trust me, I’m far from a true enthusiast compared to many of these folks - these things have just sort of happened as a by-product of owning a vintage car.

So what happens when I call VWoA with this problem? After I make a point of sharing my history and noting that a transmission failure inside of 75,000 miles is unacceptable to the point that I wouldn’t buy another VW if they didn’t help me, they decline to help me.

What amazes me most, though, is that they do so without offering me anything - not even a favorable trade-in or modest incentive on an upsell to a new car (which I would have been very likely to go for under the circumstances).

When I tell my mechanic about my experience with VWoA, he just laughs. Then he shows me the cease-and-desist letter VWoA sent him, because he had the letters “VW” in the name of his business (as in, “____’s VW Repair”). He tells me how he had to buy all new letterhead, new signage, etc., under threat of lawsuit, and that they even tried to collect a settlement from him for the business he had done in alleged violation of their trademark. He tells me everybody knows how poorly they treat their community of fans and customers, and how all the independent mechanics he knows consider them the enemy.

Thinking back on my experiences and visits to the swap meets, I notice I can’t recall any official VW presence there. A quick search shows plenty of examples of C&D’s chilling the community. Unbelievably, they sent one to a rec.autos.makers.vw.aircooled moderator. There’s even an official statement about it, noting that they’ve successfully pursued actions purusant to, among other things, domain names with the letters “vw” in them, such as “anyvwpart.com”.

I do understand trademark protection (setting aside the dubiousness of some of these claims). I also appreciate that random extensions of warranties cost real operating dollars. But what VW just doesn’t seem to get is the opportunity they’re missing to embrace, rather than alienate, their enthusiast community. There’s so much more they could be doing to put their fans to work for them.

Where are the community moderators? Where are the mechanic’s reps? Insiders blogs and message boards, official leaks to influencers, loyalty discounts? How long will it take for vw to discover and claim their brand on Satisfaction? By contrast, another german car manufacturer seems to know how to nurture its life-long fans - and actually use the internet.

In the meantime, I’ll be shopping for a car from another manufacturer. If anyone can recommend a modern car that behaves just a bit more like a supported platform and ecosystem, I’m all ears.

posted on Friday, October 12th, 2007 at 10:29 pm Category: personal, web2.0. Comment or trackback.