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Here’s an interesting dilemma. Customer buys a new car, it could be any car but in this case it’s a VW Golf. The car is fitted with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) which basically stops you from accidentally running up the bum of the car in front.

As the car was in Ireland the costs are in Euros which I have conveniently converted to Sterling to save you checking exchange rates and grabbing your calculator. I’m like that! Anyway, the driver’s ACC warning light lit up on the dashboard. No I wouldn’t know either!

The light surprised him as nothing had happened other than the fact that he was driving the car normally. Off he toodled to the main dealer who said that the system was damaged, possibly from an impact. The cost to replace the ACC was going to be £1,145 and as it was the result of an impact the replacement would not be covered by the warranty.

As he hadn’t had an impact and as he had managed to safely drive a car for many years without this latest gadgetry he asked the dealer to simply disable it. The driver, Ben Smith, was told that the dealer couldn’t disable the set-up and because it was a serious road safety issue they wouldn’t let him drive the car away without signing a consent form. This is when it gets interesting.

He had the car towed away for an alternative inspection by an independent garage as he felt he was being forced into having work done that may not be necessary. He was shocked to learn that, according to the independent inspection, no damage had been caused to the unit, instead the report, according to Auto Express who saw the report, found that three sensor bracket sensor nuts had come loose, causing messages to appear.

The report also claimed that the bracket VW claimed had been broken was not the one found in the car. The fix cost Ben £46. OK one would assume that the dealer was trying it on and that they would apologise and Ben would continue driving his car in the knowledge that he won’t accidentally ram the car in front. But no! Auto Express contacted VW who explained that a mount was found to be broken (not according to the independent garage) as well as a cracked camera.

Not mentioned by the independent examiner. Of the independent fix VW said ‘Without repairing the vehicle as per manufacturer guidelines and calibration of the ACC system after replacement, (it wasn’t replaced by the way), the repair hasn’t brought the vehicle back to manufacturer specification. VW cannot guarantee that the vehicle will operate as the manufacturer intended.’ This implies that Ben could lose his warranty cover because he didn’t pay to have a repair carried out that wasn’t needed in the first place.

That is frightening but what wasn’t mentioned in the piece was the Government backed arbitration service called Motorcodes. This is what they say on their website: Motor Codes is the government-backed, self-regulatory body for the motor industry. Its voluntary membership of thousands of garages is committed to maintaining high standards covering new cars, the administration of new car warranties and car service and repair.

So as always I am providing more information than a major motoring magazine. If Ben gets in touch with Motorcodes they will have to look into his complaint and will give a legally binding ruling. The web address of Motorcodes is: http://www.motorcodes.co.uk/ By Graham Hill

Have you ever, lost or stood on your car key (I use the expression ‘key’ lightly). My brother in law once had his BMW key eaten by their dog, just before the car was due to be returned at the end of the lease.

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He wasn’t too worried until he saw the cost of the replacement. I was staggered to read a report from company, Recover Me, whose founding director, Robin Reames, revealed the cost of replacement keys on the UK’s top 10 selling models. He explained that finding out the cost of a replacement key is nigh on impossible until you need to replace it.

Hence the reason for revealing the costs, which average £206 per car. Of course the reason why the costs are going up and will continue to rise is the amount of information stored within the circuitry of the key. It’s like a mini black box. I remember taking my BMW 7 series in for a service a couple of years ago and the service agent asked for my key, not to drive the car but to see what needed to be done!

In order to make sure you take good care of your car keys here is a list of the top 10 selling cars with the cost of the replacement key alongside:

1. Ford Fiesta                          £220
2. Ford Focus                          £220
3. Vauxhall Corsa                  £135
4. Vauxhall Astra`                £130
5. VW Golf                               £190
6. Nissan Qashqai                £280
7. Fiat 500                              £230
8. BMW 3 Series                    £216
9. VW Polo                             £210
10. BMW 1 Series                    £233

Shocking or what, worth their weight in gold – literally!! By Graham Hill

You may be led to believe that manufacturers were simply concentrating on fuel consumption and CO2 output these days to the point of obsession, when designing cars, leaving everything else to simply tick over. And to an extent you are right with many manufacturers moving from full spare wheels to skinny spares and now the totally impractical Read more »

VW are currently leading the race towards accident free driving with a concept car that can operate completely driverless. Based on a Passat the car can be driven hands and feet free using many features already available on current production cars. The car can scan road conditions and make adjustments with the driver simply acting as an observer. Read more »