Volkswagen Australia may recall some models over safety concerns
10 Jun 2013
German carmaker Volkswagen is expected to recall some models in Australia in order to repair ''faulty gear boxes'' as the troubled automobile major struggles to fix safety concerns.
The news comes more than a week after media reports said Volkswagen Australia is facing customer complains of dangerous loss of acceleration in its vehicles with automatic transmission.
The company said it is in talks with its German parent to initiate a recall of DSG automatic transmissions.
This follows earlier reports by Faifax Media claiming that several Volkswagen Golf owners in Australia had contacted them saying that they had experienced a sudden loss of power while driving – a potentially dangerous situation while driving through busy roads.
The report quoted some owners of Volkswagen Golf cars as saying that they had read reports about alleged coronial investigation into the death of a Volkswagen Golf driver on Melbourne's Monash Freeway in 2011.
Melissa Ryan, 32, was killed two years ago when her Golf was struck from behind by a truck. The truck driver and Ryan's family claimed her car slowed drastically for no obvious reason.
Volkswagen denied any link between the accident and claims made by other Volkswagen owners, saying ''there is … no correlation between the inquest, and the customer reports presented in the media regarding issues with diesel engines and DSG transmissions.
''The vehicle at the centre of the inquest is equipped with a petrol engine and a manual transmission. Neither of the customers interviewed for the story has a vehicle fitted with a DSG transmission either,'' the company said.
Fairfax media, meanwhile, quoted an anonymous source at Volkswagen Germany as saying that a recall was imminent, adding that Volkswagen Australia has been instructed to refer all media inquiries to Germany, in the interim.
Volkswagen, however, has made several recalls of these models over DSG-related issues in Singapore, Malaysia, China, Japan and the US, but the company claims those were related to Chinese-made gearboxes, not the European-made gearboxes fitted to Australian Volkswagens.