The end of the door lock saga - 39 days

Hauswagen were brilliant. They fixed the door lock and earlier than they'd said: 2007-11-19, fixed. 39 days my car had no lock.

Volkswagen really needs to stop it's policy that punishes car owners.

Response to that global warming video

This is a response to this
video. I can't seem to embed it. Something about adblock.







There are 2 comments I have on his argument:

The costs of responding to global warming:

1) In many ways the costs associated with responding to global warming would probably actually save us money and make businesses more efficient. (Using less oil more efficiently?) So they may not actually end up being costs.


2) The other thing about the costs of responding to global warming is that the main effects, especially initially, would fall onto the big energy companies. ie people might use less fossil fuel. While big energy might not in the long run lose out, they would certainly have to change a lot of things about the way they do business and in the short term their profit might just fall. This is why they are so resistant to the idea of global warming/climate change.

47 days to replace a car door lock

In the continuing story of the car break-in.

So yesterday, 2007-11-07, finally I was able to get all the documentation and my wife (the owner of the car) to Hauswagen and we have ordered the new lock which will take an estimated 20 days to arrive. If it arrives on time, it would make 47 days since the car was broken into. Hauswagen were good and helpful but the fact remains that the whole process with Volkswagen is effectively helping thieves.

In order to make my car secure I had to seal the lock and make it completely unusable. The fox only has one side door lock and a lock on the hatch. It is possible to open the car with the radio key but the problem is that the radio key is very unreliable. Occasionally I have dropped it and the batteries move and the circuit loses power and I have to take it apart and reseat the batteries and then the key has to be "resynchronised" with the car. Easy if you have a working door lock. Climbing in through the hatch with the alarm going off is going to be interesting.

So my question still is: "why is Volkswagen policy deliberately making it easy for thieves to steal my car?"

I should say here that it would be very simple to make a lock that can't be opened by a screw driver. Why aren't these used by car companies?

Perhaps this might explain some of it: Who owns car companies?

The story continues here ...

My letter to Volkswagen

Here is my letter to Volkswagen:

On Thursday 2007-10-11 at around 8:50PM we parked our car, a Volkswagen Fox, in Rome to attend a concert. When we returned to the car after the concert, we found the windows open and the door lock broken (probably with something like a simple screwdriver). The car had been searched but I don't believe they found anything of value.

Now anything key shaped inserted into the lock and turned causes the car to unlock and the windows to open. The alarm does not go off. Apparently this is some kind of Volkswagen "security feature".

Since then the story has only gotten worse. I took the car to a mechanic who told me that all I need to fix the lock is the set of tumblers which would be a 5 minute job to replace. But then he told me that he couldn't get a replacement lock, to get one I had to take all the documentation and the special spare key with security number to a Volkswagen dealer and the closest one was HausWagen on via del Foro Italica.

I took the documentation to Hauswagen but they said they could do nothing without the registered owner of the car being present, who is in this case my wife. They would have to write a police report although it is not clear to me whether this is at the insistence of the police or Volkswagen. He could not give me an alternative lock or anything else without my wife coming to the office. Even when all the paperwork was complete it would take 20 days to get a new lock.

So Volkswagen is insisting that we drive a car that is not secure.

If our car is damaged or stolen in the thirty or so days it takes to get a replacement lock I will consider holding Volkswagen legally liable for that damage.

At this point in time all I can say is don't buy a Volkswagen if this is their attitude to security.

The story continues here .... and finishes finally here.