My letter to Eric Kent at VDO

[Bradley Peet <btpeet@effervescent.com>]

Perhaps I didn't use the phrase "vast majority" correctly in that sentence.

My intent was to refute your claim that "the vast majority of VDO odometers 
[in 1980's Volkswagens] have a life span in excess of the original 
vehicle".  It is my contention that a significant number of the 1980's 
Volkswagens that are still in service have VDO speedometers that have 
failed or are malfunctioning, with the cracking of the odometer drive gear 
being the most common problem.

It helps obviously helps your case that many 1980's Volkswagens are no 
longer in service due to things like body damage and corrosion.  But, we 
must also keep in mind that many of these failures go unreported.

My experience and the experience of countless others has been that VDO 
odometers are especially prone to failure after approximately 10 years or 
100,000 miles.  I consider this premature failure because 1) a VW can last 
for much longer than that if properly maintained, and 2) the VDO odometer 
has six digits which indicates that it can and should function well into 
hundreds of thousands of miles range.

I will not return my instrument cluster to VDO because I was already 
foolish enough to attempt repair on the failing odometer.  However, it 
would be of tremendous help to many VW owners if VDO would just agree to 
sell or otherwise distribute replacement odometer drive gears.

Sincerely,
Bradley Peet

On Friday, August 29, 1997 4:41 PM, Kent, Eric [SMTP:EKent@vdo.com] wrote:
> Dear Mr. Peet,
>
> I understand your concern and can sympathize with the cost of repairs on
> parts that fail earlier than you expected.  VDO constantly monitors
> field returns of our products, and feedback from customers like you is
> important.  This valuable information is used to adjust warranty claims
> when they are within the warranty period and also to make improvements
> in future product design.
>
> However, having read your letter, I believe your accusation is not
> accurate.  During the "1980's" VDO manufactured a wide variety of
> speedometer designs for VW (and other makes).  Your term "vast majority"
> is contradictory to the evidence, even if there are a "few thousand"
> cases of failure versus the more than 2 million speedometers produced.
> >Again, let me stress, I am unaware of any consistent failure or recall
> campaign for 1980's VW speedometers. A warranty problem of the magnitude
> you describe would certainly have been visible and your impression that
> we don't take the issue seriously is simply not true.  While I don't
> doubt your sincerity, VDO can only fix problems that our customer allows
> us to verify through the return of failed product.  I'm sure you'll
> agree, it is impossible for myself or anyone else to make accurate
> judgment of product quality without hard data collection, organized
> testing, and mutual review of failures.  Anything else is just hearsay,
> inaccurate, and potentially damaging to the parties involved.
>
> In your case, while your eleven year old Scirocco is far outside of the
> warranty period, and administration of VW warranty claims is exclusively
> the responsibility of VW of America, VDO would like to try and resolve
> the issue to your satisfaction.  Please give me your shipping address so
> I can issue a return call tag to your attention.  When the tag arrives,
> use it to send the complete instrument cluster, carefully packed, to my
> attention.  Once we have the instrument in our service department we can
> examine it and take appropriate action for our mutual benefit.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> E. Kent
>
> >----------
> >From: 	Bradley Peet[SMTP:btpeet@effervescent.com]
> >Sent: 	Thursday, August 28, 1997 4:34 PM
> >To: 	Kent, Eric
> >Cc: 	Klinger, Reg
> >Subject: 	VW OEM Speedometers
> >
> >Mr. Kent,
> >
> >The vast majority of 1980's of VDO (OEM VW) odometers do NOT have a life 
> >span beyond that of the vehicle.  I have experienced drive gear cracking 
on
> >more than one VW I have owned and I'm absolutely certain many others 
have
> >experienced the same thing.  I am appalled at your assertion that there 
is
> >no evidence of chronic VDO odometer problems on the vehicles mentioned.
> >
> >Anyone who owns a 1980's VW and has had a problem with the speedo can 
tell
> >you the dealer charges for a new speedometer are in excess of $200 and 
that
> >doesn't even cover labor.
> >
> >Perhaps you will take this matter more seriously when presented with a 
few
> >thousand signatures from VW owners who've been plagued with these
> >unreliable and defective odometers over the years.
> >
> >Sincerely,
> >Bradley Peet
> >Seattle, WA
> >

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