THE FAIR WEATHER CAMPER VAN

This is a Volkswagen California Ocean Camper Van.

I have read the advertisements and specs and nowhere does it say the roof leaks when extended in the rain.

So I thought my friend was having me on when I was told the story.

Now, what is the point of a camper van that leaks in the rain? I am baffled.

The VW dealer purported to fix my friend's camper van but finally lost patience and as much as admitted that it was supposed to leak, so what's the problem?

And that seemed close to a true answer when you look at the California Club site and see pages and pages of people complaining about leaks.

I am not a consumer lawyer but my understanding is that when a firm sells you something as new it is supposed to work, and it seems to me that an integral part of working in this case is that it doesn't leak in the rain.

And these things cost a mint. You'd spend your life savings on one of them.

So we know where the dealer stands - six months after the purchase the roof still leaks.

And where do Volkwagen stand on this issue? Are they hoping that the dealers will shut the complainers up and they won't have to deal with it.

Now, apart from their title "Volks Wagen" having evolved from the Beetle, promoted by one Adolph Hitler to bring cars to the people, the firm itself was involved in a massive recall when it turned out they were fidding emissions tests.

The leaky roofs are not on the same mega scale, so why are they not fixing them.

It looks as though it will take a court case, and the consequential reputational damage to both VW and the dealers involved to sort this out once and for all.

And just for the record, I drove a Beetle way back. Lovely car to drive and economical in their day. And the roof never once leaked.

Stay tuned.

-o0o-

Update
Well, the van has vanished from my friend’s driveway and she is absolutely refusing to talk about it.

Now I have a nose for this sort of thing since I followed Stuart Syvret’s campaign attempting to hold the authorities in Jersey (CI) to account for their complicity in, and attempt to cover up, child sex abuse on the island.

Strangely for a man who could never stop talking, Stuart went silent on one of the court cases he was taking against the authorities. His friends wondered what was going on and it finally emerged, or they came to the reasonable conclusion, that he had been served with a gag order. Not just any old gag order, but one which prohibited from revealing the gag order. This is known as a super-gag order.

In more modern times, just give a thought to Stormy Daniels.

I read somewhere that legislation is on the way making NDAs unenforceable, but I can’t remember whether that is here or in the US or somewhere else. If it’s not here it should be. NDAs are always entered into under some form of duress and the only justification for them can be commercial secrecy and not a denial of human or customer rights.

I’ll finish with a quote from a recently published novel. The statement is made by a bit of a bragging idiot attempting to impress his girlfriend and no doubt eventually get inside her pants as soon as he can manage to get his tongue out of her mouth.

“And Volkswagen was started by the Nazis” he said “So Cass shouldn’t be sorry if her dad’s business [a Volkswagen dealership] closed down.”