Royal Ford of the Boston Globe bashes VW/Audi on ignition coils

[Brett Dikeman]

Folks, thought you'd like to see this:

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/026/auto/No_easy_fix_for_failing_ignition_coils_in_Audis_VWs+.shtml

A lovely piece of work, particularly damaging since Ford usually
heaps praise on every Audi press car he gets.  If you read Mr. Ford's
article, you learn that:

-Audi Client relations is extending the warrantee

-people with broken down cars that take a while to fix get free
rental replacements until the car's ready

-plant where coils are made has gone to triple shifts

-there's a limited supply of the coil packs, so dealers are for now
limiting their repairs to just the packs that have blown for now(to
get as many people back on the road as possible given limited supply.
The company reps state this outright even though a child could see
the logic, yet, well, see below.)

Far as I can tell from Mr. Ford's own article, Audi and VW are doing
everything right; they're prioritizing, fessing up to the mistake,
and treating people fairly.

So why do I come away from reading the article, feeling like Audi and
VW just got their teeth kicked in?

Mr. Ford takes issue with the policy of replacing only the faulty
packs due to short supply, yet offers no suggestions of his own on
how the situation might be handled in a better manner, probably
because there IS no better way.  Based on some magical ability to
evaluate the VAG supply chain, Mr. Ford further chastises dealerships
for not replacing all the packs now(because obviously, "supply has
doubled" means "there are enough to start replacing every pack in the
car", right?)  All this is offset, supposedly, by one line saying the
problem is Bremi's fault.

   I especially enjoyed the hysterics about getting stranded.  Nothing
like terrifying people that their car will grind to a halt in the
middle of 128 or at the top of Pinkham's Notch; we even get the image
of the family with the 2.5 kids and golden retriever sewed into the
back seat, terrified their evil car will leave them stranded in
Vermont, because, after all, "up there" is "the wilderness" full of
"savages".  No, no 60 minutes dramatization here, folks.  Move along.

In a further example of excellent journalism, we see quotes from "the
Internet"(no site names, no poster names, no followup; apparently too
much effort to even email the posters and find out more).  Because,
if it came from the internet(particularly a chat board- I suspect the
comments probably came from VWvortex), nobody EVER exaggerates, lies,
stretches the truth, etc. Yessir, nothin' but the facts, ma'am.

But ah, yes, Mr. Ford's favorite vehicle, the 4-runner, is the
pinnacle of reliability, so run right out and buy 4-runners
folks!(side note- the article about the 4-runner had been featured
for weeks on the boston.com website with an extremely favorable tag
line.  Mr. Ford does all but lick Toyota's boots clean in the review.)

Brett
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