VW Dealers and Sheet Metal

[Pahnda]

Are VW Dealers told to make sure they talk about body panels and joints for 90% of the demo then swear they will make customers show feats of human strength?

I am looking to get a car in the next month or so and am mostly looking at the G or IS but thought the Passat CC looked worth checking out at least. So when I got there and talked with the dealer he kept having me bend random things (hood, trunk, a few panels). I wouldn't have thought anything of that but then I remembered back to a couple years ago.

Back then I was checking out a current (at that time) Passat sedan since I was just around a VW dealer. Same thing with then; different guy but he kept having me try to bend things. I particularly remember him hanging off the door saying how amazing they are.

Does VW use adamantium sheet metal that's an inch thick or something? It must be pretty special to talk about for nearly half an hour.

Anyway; For completeness, here's a short list of what 'facts' escaped his idea factory:

- Infiniti and Lexus get dings SUPER easy (yeah, right..) but VW never gets them because SUPAR AW3S0ME sheet metal.
- All VWs are super reinforced tanks because of their sheet metal. Thus in a collision they show, arguably, much less damage than comparable sedans.

Couple awesome ones that are totally not biased:
- Asian Imports copied EVERYTHING from the Germans and aren't as reliable as VW and Audi (I sorta laughed at the last part).
- The reason why the country hills Superstore has a long lineup at the tills all the time: Too many Asians...

[urban.one]

Originally posted by Pahnda - The reason why the country hills Superstore has a long lineup at the tills all the time: Too many Asians... [/B]

[20incheyes]

When I use to own a bodyshop (We were Euro focused) we'd occasionally comment how the Japanese cars sheetmetal was similar to a tin can.

[Pahnda]

Originally posted by 20incheyes
When I use to own a bodyshop (We were Euro focused) we'd occasionally comment how the Japanese cars sheetmetal was similar to a tin can.

Without having taken panels off and looking at them (when I searched on google I couldn't find average thicknesses or anything ). It's hard to know what kind of difference there is. But thaks for the insight. I would assume he had some kind of truth to what he was saying, especially since it sounded scripted from VW, haha.

But still, it seems like VW is targeting an older market with logic like that. It's like how some older people say smaller coupes/sedans are deathtraps regardless of how much safety engineering has been done.

Maybe I'm wrong and most people my age are into having thicker, heavier sheet metal for the off chance of a collision though...

[quazimoto]

It is a FACT that the the VWs for the most part do hold up better in collisions. I'm not sure if it is because the sheet metal is thicker or anything like that though. I work for the police and handle a lot of the collision data and some of the photos you see clearly show how well VWs do hold up in low speed collisions compared to other vehicles. By low speed I mean accidents typically at 60km/h or slower.

One accident I recall a sunfire hitting a VW. it was a front impact where the driver side of each car hit into each other as the car was turning. The VW had a broken headlight and slightly damaged hood. The sunfire was absolutely crushed in the front.

That being said my experience with VW sales people is they are the lowest of the low and will say just about anything to sell you a car. I bought a used car from the VW dealership on Northland only to find out the inspection sheet they had given me was so far off base.

New timing belt on the sheet was the equivelant of a 220,000 KM timing belt apparently. When I bought my new TDI it didn't get much better as the sales person couldn't even tell me if the engine used a timing belt or a timing chain and actually told me, "there is no major difference between the two".

Whatever you do never ever ever take your car to a VW dealership to have work performed. Their mechanics are not bright whatsoever. When my turbocharger had blown they wanted to take apart the entire engine saying the pistons were likely damaged in the process.

[QuasarCav]

Originally posted by Pahnda

- The reason why the country hills Superstore has a long lineup at the tills all the time: Too many Asians...

This is somewhat true. The FOB asians will check the prices on everything that goes through the till while grumbling under their breath and their carts are comprised mostly of produce items that scan a bit slower.

Your best bet is to line up behind a middle aged white guy as they usually buy processed food and don't talk much.

[luv2ride_bikes]

Originally posted by QuasarCav




This is somewhat true. The FOB asians will check the prices on everything that goes through the till while grumbling under their breath and their carts are comprised mostly of produce items that scan a bit slower.

Your best bet is to line up behind a middle aged white guy as they usually buy processed food and don't talk much.

And how does this have to do with the VW Dealers and Sheet Metal?

[whiskas]

They've exhausted their pitches about superior german adhesives, and now have to switch to superior german (mexican) steel.

[atgilchrist]

I have no idea if it's the sheet metal, but I do love how vw's door close with a nice, solid THUNK. It just feels well built or something.

[Ashers]

I do feel the german sheet metal is thicker and the cars feel more solid... but dent resistant? Yeah Right! I work at the airport, and either VW's dent like normal cars, or the people that park near me take random swings at my car with sledgehammers.

[Moezer]

from 2000 and down they are 100% german made 2000 and up they are 50 german and 50 mexican made

[Supa Dexta]

My trucks sheet metal is paper thin... And the pig still weighs 7k lbs.

[cancer man]

Originally posted by Moezer
from 2000 and down they are 100% german made 2000 and up they are 50 german and 50 mexican made

where did you pull that number from?? check out 1993 and up..
mostly mexico except for the cab and passat
anything that starts with 3VW is mexican.

[quazimoto]

Mleh they still hold up friggin well in accidents. Just the VW dealerships are worse than used car sales people. They will out right lie to you to make sales. I mean crap I'm getting 1000+ km per tank on my TDI. A car that does that kind of mileage you would think should sell itself without any of the BS they try to tell you.

[Aleks]

The Civic SI does feel like a tin can compared to the GTI so does the WRX. Anyone that's driven or been in them back to back would agree.