Gas Tank Woes.

[dswalterwi at gmail.com (Don Walter)]

Ah some juicy wording.  I kind of eluded to that to them on the phone.  Now
it will be in writing in the event of a BOOM!  Keep it comming.  I will
writing the letter in the next few days.  I thought someone on the list
wrote one that was very convincing to VWoA.

On 9/7/06, Allyn <amalventano1@tds.net> wrote:
>
> > Back in the early 90's my tank started leaking and vwoa would
> > NOT cover it.
> > The owner of the dealership and the service manager are both
> > friends of mine and couldn't get vwoa to budge.  Cost me
> > about $650 back then iirc.
> >
> > - Jan Folkson
> > NYC, NY
>
> This kind of crap is going to backfire on them.  I can see ignoring the
> tranny SMS syndrome thing, but blowing off a safety recall
> on known-defective tanks is completely rediculous.  Sure they keep saying
> 'no, yours is not one of the defective VINs'.  When I
> called VWOA in 2001, the lady on the other end admitted to me that they NO
> LONGER RETAINED the older vin# database, and she was
> UNABLE to tell me if my car was eligible or not.  I realize the actual
> safety hazard itself is rather far-fetched, but some day,
> some poor dubber is going to have just the right failure mode with gas
> dripping onto a hit heat-shield and *boom*.  Then they are
> going to find out about the recall and how VW previously denied the recall
> (or did it incorrectly / or installed a NOS similarly
> defective tank).  Then they are going to get a nice lawyer and suddenly
> those few dozen $600 recalls is going to look mighty cheap
> to some VW accountant.  Then some sleazy news reporter is going to catch
> wind of the story, spin it appropriately, and suddenly our
> favorite car (as well as VW's new IROC concept and anything else
> 'Scirocco') is going to be classed with the exploding Ford Pinto:
>
> >From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto#Safety_problems :
>
> "Ford was allegedly aware of this design flaw but refused to pay what was
> characterized as the minimal expense of a redesign.
> Instead, it was argued, Ford decided it would be cheaper to pay off
> possible lawsuits for resulting deaths. Mother Jones magazine
> obtained the cost-benefit analysis Ford had used to compare the cost of an
> $11 repair against the cost of paying off potential law
> suits. The characterization of Ford's design decision as gross disregard
> for human lives in favor of profits led to major lawsuits,
> inconclusive criminal charges, and a costly recall of all affected Pintos.
> Ford lost several million dollars and gained a reputation
> for manufacturing "the barbecue that seats four.""
>
> /rant
>
> Al
>
>
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-- 
Don Walter - Waukesha, WI
1986 8V Black Scirocco (Daily Driver)
1984 8V Audi 4000s (RIP 2/14/2006)
1986 2.0L 16V TEC 2 Black Scirocco (see progress at
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/708939)
1986 2L 16V Toronado Red Scirocco (Ben's Car)
1988 1.8 16V Toronado Red Scirocco (sold on 3/29/04)
1984 1.8 8V Pewter Scirocco (sold years ago)
1971 Karman Ghia (sold)
1969 Karman Ghia (sold)
1969 Beetle (sold)