Couple of weeks ago, I made a remark that the 5-year Mobility Guarantee found in Volkswagen Group Malaysia’s proposition was a little off as it required the breakdown to occur 100km from the owner’s residence AND repairs to be estimated to be longer than 48 hours (you can read about some of the terms HERE). Granted that these are terms and conditions for car rental assistance, I’ve had the unfortunate experience of facing a vehicle breakdown that the first official service center I had my car towed to said they needed 3 weeks to order the parts in and I do not qualify for any courtesy car because my car did not fail more than 100km from where I stayed. I was given the impression that the SC follows that ruling for ALL benefits granted in the Mobility Program.
The good news is Volkswagen Malaysia has tweaked its mobility guarantee programme as part of its ongoing efforts to boost customer satisfaction and it now offers more than 200 Volkswagen courtesy vehicles.
Mr Armin Keller, Managing Director of Volkswagen Malaysia said, “Volkswagen is the first OEM in Malaysia to embark on a fully sponsored mobility guarantee programme. We now have a complete mobility service to complement our comprehensive dealer network.” Customers are now entitled to collect a courtesy vehicle from Volkswagen authorized service centres when they send their vehicles for repair or service, should the duration exceed 24 hours. “Customer satisfaction is our utmost priority, and we will continue to invest in efforts which will help bring an enriched ownership and brand experience for our customers,” added Keller.
Now, “over 200 courtesy cars” sounds like a lot and in all seriousness, it is a substantial amount of capital incurred by a principal company for the convenience of its customers. However, we need to understand that they need to distribute those cars between all states with dealerships in Malaysia, most likely unequal quantities to cater for states that records higher number of sales (and its corresponding complaints).
Also, you need to take note of the number of VW vehicles on the road; if we take the last three years of sales (2012 – 13,003 units sold, 2013 – 9,538 units sold, 2014 Jan-Oct – 8,300 units sold), there are at least 40,000 VWs running around since 2010 when the first 7-speed DSG (DQ200) was launched in Malaysia in the form of the 6th Gen Golf TSI. Not all VWs sold during this period is DQ200 equipped so not all suffers from premature mechatronic failures but accidents and breakdowns do occur and these instances are very stressful to the owners. Which is why the allocation of these 200 odd courtesy cars are for cases of a vehicle breakdown AND the repair duration exceeds 24 hours. Regular checks and vehicle accident repairs are not included in this mobility guarantee programme so those who needs to change clutch packs and needs to park your cars there for 2 days, tough luck. At least you can pre-plan your schedule unlike those who’re faced with an unforeseen failure. As for accidents, well, no automaker gives you a replacement for such an incident anyway.
Good initiative. Looking forward to more.
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