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Forget Netflix, Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription (www.autoexpress.co.uk)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/enshittification@lemmy.world
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[–] 23 points 1 year ago (4 children)

That’s bullshit. That vintage of VW has like two sensors on the turbo. They’re easy to get to and cost like $100 tops.

And $5,000 to replace a turbo is nuts. A new turbo can be around $1,500 but it’s less than six or eight hours of labor for a good mechanic.

I’m an idiot code monkey and I replaced mine in my garage in a weekend.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    +1 to this. $5k is BS, Especially if we're talking USD, but this also sounds like classic VW making a simple repair a massive job, replacing unnecessary parts, charging exorbitant prices and throwing away perfectly good components that end up in landfill, and best part is in the end it probably wasn't even what they diagnosed to actually be the cause of the problem, dealerships love to fix symptoms, not causes. A good independent Euro specialist would have loved that job.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago

    I had the VW dealer quote me $6,000 for a new turbo when the actually problem is probably a clogged catalytic converter.

    Also they told me I put in the wrong turbo but it’s literally the same part number and manufacturer as the one I pulled out.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    The price was $4-5,000 in Canadian dollars, so probably a bit over USD $3,000. And this came from my local mechanic, who sourced it from Volkswagen but also called around to scrapyards to see about just buying a sensor.

    It's not like he had anything to gain. He actually recommended that we sell the car, and he knew that he would be losing business because my wife's new car is electric and he doesn't service those.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    That makes a bit more sense, but buying direct from VW is where you spend all that money.

    I got the same turbo from the same company that built my stock one for $900 Freedom Bucks. They’ve gone up in price a bit due to inflation and tariffs but are still a ton cheaper than “official” parts.

    If you help me get Canadian asylum I’d be happy to swap it out for you.

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