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Volkswagen fixes seat belt flaw with zip ties that snap apart when braking
- hugg 8y agoI was confused by the title at first, but they actually mean braking, not breaking.
- sekh60 8y agoI find the tone odd at the end, like they were trying to elicit some sympathy for VW for still dealing with emissions scandal fallout. Is this a sign of how things are at VW these days? We are probably going to need a "new for us" car in the not too distant future and I have been suggesting to my spouse that we get another VW since out mechanics who we love only only on VW and Audi Cars.
- ahje 8y agoMaybe it's because I live in Finland, but that's not how I interpret it. On the contrary, I interpreted it as the writer implies that this is another publicity scandal in the wake of the emissions scandal. Cultural differences?
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoI agree. The sentence in question is this one: Reporters are in discussions with the manufacturer and expect that the company will need to another set of recalls for the automaker still suffering from the emissions cheating scandal. The tone and context of the sentence indicates this is bad news for VAG as it piles on yet more negative media attention.
- codeduck 8y agoVW and AUDI do make good cars.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoIt depends on your definition of good. If by good you mean: needs a new turbo at 223,000 kilometers, and removing and replacing the alternator is a 6 hour job, then yes I agree, my 2004 VW T5 Transporter is a great car! The alternator in the T4 was accessible from underneath the car. I suppose they intend for you to sell the car to someone else before those things need doing. Oh wait, that's me. I'm suspicious of any claims that "auto manufacture x makes good cars, because the auto manufactures mostly don't make very much of the car at all. Toyota have a reputation of assembling a reliable set of components. VW not so much. The trouble with all of this is we can't know what is a good new car* to buy today, because we don't have statistics on maintenance and repair costs for new cars. I reckon your best bet is to look at those guides that detail maintenance and repair costs of used vehicles, then find one you like in your price range.
- ginko 8y agoSo needing some repairs after over 200,000 kilometers is considered unreliable these days?
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoI'll admit I'm having a bit of a whine. But yes, a turbo diesel engine shouldn't need a new turbo before 500,000k. It's not uncommon to hear "oh, the turbos a bit tired", but it shouldn't be pumping the entire oil content of the engine out in to the engine bay every three months at 220,000k. I say I'm having whinge because, of course, I understand how mean time to failure rates work. My larger point was more about checking the reliability stats though.
- wolfi1 8y agothere was a time when the diesel fuel pumps of a certain brand were the predetermined braking point of many diesel cars. but the turbo itself...
- rusk 8y ago
- netsharc 8y ago"Braking". God damn...
- tmalsburg2 8y agoNon-native speaker here. Could you please elaborate?
- velmu 8y agoThe title was "breaking", when it should have been "braking". This is fixed now.
- Yetanfou 8y agobraking: the act of stopping motion, generally by means of friction against a moving surface breaking: the act of rendering something unusable by means of destruction (see 'sabotage' when done wilfully) The pronunciation of 'braking' and 'breaking' is /ˈbɹeɪkɪŋ/, they are homophones ('same-sounds'). See also: https://writingexplained.org/break-vs-brake-difference https://writingexplained.org/break-vs-brake-difference
- OliverJones 8y agoCable ties inducted to Botched-repair Hall of Fame, take their place alongside duct tape and baling wire!
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoOnly half sarcastically: I wasn't aware there was a genuine legitimate use for cable ties. I suppose they could be used to tie cables to things, and I suspect electricians and their ilk probably actually do use them for that. But the general public? I'm willing to bet the general public is not using cable ties for tying cables to things.
- blattimwind 8y agoUse on humans is discouraged because of nerve damage. Apart from that, I don't care...
- dingaling 8y agoMy local odds-and-ends shop sells cables ties in bags of 100. As do the 'pound shops' where everything costs 1GBP, even those items not worth that much. Someone is buying them on the high street.
- Doxin 8y agoYou'll generally want to not use them on electrical wires either. The plastic bites into the insulation and can wear fully through over time.
- amarant 8y agowow, the reasons not to get a VW just keeps on piling up huh?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- foxyv 8y agoAfter seeing my friend struggle with her Golf, with it spending more time disassembled for various unrelated issues than actually on the road, I am staying very far away from VW cars.
- jacquesm 8y agoThat's pretty silly. The overhead of a recall on a cheap fix versus a proper fix is such that risking another recall is simply stupid. Besides the obvious image damage. Models affected: recent model years Volkswagen polo, Seat Ibiza and Arona.
- stephengillie 8y agoThey don't have time to do it the right way the first time, but they have time to do it twice.
- gambiting 8y agoBecause any recall done the second time will be done by the dealerships, which will simply bill VW for the time spent on this. The first one was done at factory, which slows down production and results in delays.
- detaro 8y agoWhat makes you think that it'll happen that way?
- gambiting 8y agoBecause as I said in another post, I'm literally about to pick up a brand new Polo this Friday - my car was manufactured, was awaiting loading in South Africa, and then had to be returned to factory specifically because of the seatbelt recall - which delayed delivery by about 4 weeks. If VW now issues a second recall, it will be done by my local dealership - how else could it work?
- detaro 8y agoBut that's the same as the first recall? Already sold vehicles go back to the dealership, those "in transit" get fixed by the factory?
- deleted 8y ago
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoHow is this even possible? It ties together the two rear seat belt buckles to prevent them being squeezed together and leading the bottom one to be unbuckled by itself while driving. It should be obvious to anyone who dabbles in physics that the seat belt buckles should be fixed to the vehicle in a way that makes this impossible to happen. The pictures in the reference linked to Tekniikan Maailma[1] show the obvious absurdity of the design. 1. https://tekniikanmaailma.fi/tm-testasi-uudelleen-volkswagen-konsernin-turvavyokorjaus-on-kelvoton-korjaus-hajoaa-ensimmaisessa-jarrutuksessa/ https://tekniikanmaailma.fi/tm-testasi-uudelleen-volkswagen-...
- cptskippy 8y agoSadly this doesn't strike me as unusual. I am trying to remember the car I was in, an 80s American car for sure, but the two back seat buckles were similar to this but had a rivet driven through the nylon strap to keep them ganged together.
- mc32 8y agoOne would hope design would have improved over the last 30 - 40 years....
- fgheorghe 8y agoGerman quality I would say.
- Humdeee 8y agoRecall #2: metal zip ties
- maltalex 8y agoThis is very disturbing. From what I’ve read, VW isn’t the kind of company that leaves room for improvisation. So this was probably some sort of process around this decision. How did they end up doing THAT?
- rusk 8y ago> VW isn’t the kind of company that leaves room for improvisation I would have thought so, but the last few years have sewn the seeds of doubt in my mind. I would have always been a Volkswagen driver but I'd think twice now before splurging on anything from the last few years.
- Maybestring 8y agoI would bet poor correlation between a static seatbelt pull test and an actual crash.
- gambiting 8y agoHa, so I'm actually taking delivery of a brand new Polo this Friday, which was delayed 4 weeks in production because they had to rectify the seatbelt issue. I'll be very curious to see how it was fixed on my particular car.
- compcoffee 8y agoThere was an defect, they tried to fix it, fix was approved by a regulatory body, it didn't work, so they recalled the cars. Hanlon's razor: what is the story here that puts it on the front page?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- detaro 8y agoThere was a defect, they recalled the cars to fix them, the fixed cars go back to customers and the issue they were recalled for can still happen. > The remedy is not a valid one, since the TM tested a recall repaired car and found that the zip ties snap apart at during a strong braking. This means after such an event the fatal flaw in Volkswagen seat belts remains in place, rendering the recall useless.
- compcoffee 8y ago>There was a defect, they recalled the cars to fix them, the fixed cars go back to customers and the issue they were recalled for can still happen. Right, it has been acknowledged that the fix did not work. Waste of time and money for everyone involved. How would you like a recall process like this to work? Not everything is a scandal.
- detaro 8y agoSo because it isn't a "scandal" it's not interesting news that a major company half-assed a fix for safety problem?
- velmu 8y agoThe fix was such that it never should have been approved?
- smcl 8y agoThe continued decline of standards at a major manufacturer of automobiles, that's pretty interesting to me. Poor design happens, but when given opportunity to resolve this they attempted to resolve it with zip ties. That's embarrassingly cowboy, especially in the wake of the emissions scandal. It's kind of impressive that the regulatory body permitted it too.
- amelius 8y agoThat's bad, but if software was physical, I suppose this is what it would look like all the time.