Late 2020, I got a great deal on a 3-year lease for a 2020 model VW with 0 miles. Brand new car. Works as it should except for the ApplePlay – the media software that enables GPS, audio and other limited iPhone access.
Originally, ApplePlay would work as intended when we’d first plug in our phones. However, if the phone were to be unplugged, or the cable disconnected momentarily, ApplePlay would not reconnect after plugging back in. It would only do so after the car were turned off for at least 5 minutes.
This doesn’t seem like such huge issue, but, for reasons I won’t get into, it really is. But that’s beside the point. We bought a brand new car. It should work as advertised.
We dealt with it for a couple months and then made an appointment with the dealership to get it fixed. That was 7 weeks ago. They’ve tried all of the manual resets you can imagine, say they’ve been in constant contact with VW manufacturer tech support and gone as far as replacing the entire unit with a brand new one.
Nothing helped. In fact, with the replacement unit, the problem got worse: now it doesn’t even connect the first time. You plug in the phone and the display reads, “Waiting for iPhone to connect,” or something similar.
After 7 weeks, I got a text message from our contact at the dealership effectively saying, “Our guys said it’s a software issue with Apple and there’s nothing we can do. Please return the loaner car and come pick up yours.” They also left a phone number for VW corporate support.
Just got off the phone with the guy from corporate support assigned to my case. He told me that the only thing that can be done is to bring our car to another dealership in town to see if they can fix it. And then to a 3rd dealership if that doesn’t work.
I asked how VW would take care of it if the next dealership(s) still can’t find a solution. He said he doesn’t have an answer.
We’ve been back and forth from the original dealership (2 hour round trip) 5 times in 7 weeks. We’ve were given a 3rd party rental car for 6 of those weeks that is in no way comparable to the car we’re leasing. Now in a loaner car. We’re coming up on the 3rd monthly payment for our car that’s been out of our possession for nearly 2 months.
I feel strongly that this is a VW problem and not a me problem.
Does anyone have any experience with something like this? Or knowledge about the dealership’s / manufacturer’s responsibility? I’m at my wits’ end. PLEASE HELP!
TL;DR – New car lease. Media system hasn’t worked properly from the start. It’s an important feature of the car. Dealership can’t fix it after 7+ weeks in the shop. Escalated to corporate rep. Rep appears useless, telling us to bring car to yet another dealership, etc. Did not explain what happens if it can’t be fixed at all.
EDIT: Such an incredible resource in these forums. Thank you for such quick responses! I’ve spoken to a lawyer (thanks, jeisensc), read the statute and understand quite a bit more re my options than I did about an hour ago. For now, following the instructions from the corporate rep. Would be very interested to hear anyone’s firsthand account / knowledge of Lemon Law action. Thanks again.