I was discussing fuel economy, dual mass flywheel reliability and DPF reliability with a VW service manager I chatted to recently.
He said that VW have had lots of problems with DPF's - but more often than not it was because customers had only used the car for short journeys and the DPF never had a chance to regenerate. Dual mass flywheel problems were also exacerbated by poor gear changing and allowing the car to lurch.
He also admitted that the most common complaint from customers was fuel economy being well below the published data. But more often than not this was due to drivers wearing lead boots - or not using the correct gear to suit the driving conditions.
He said it was standard practice at the dealership when people complained about the DPF or fuel economy, and insisted that it could not be due to their driving style, to sit them down with a coffee, take the car to the workshop, plug it into the computer and take a print-out of the last 14 day's journeys.
He said that most customers were surprised and shocked to be shown that they had been regularly cruising at 90 mph, or accelerating wildly, or not using the correct gears, or just using the car on short journeys, or whatever......he spent a few hours every week trying to educate complaining customers that it was them and not the car at fault.
I must admit that I did not appreciate quite how much historical data is stored by some cars for diagnostic purposes.
