[Willie]

FYI- I have confirmation in writing from VIA (Volkswagen in America) that the HPFP is covered to 5 years/60K miles.

Now then, I've noted some interesting statements here about warranties. Let me explain in outline how they work in the automotive world.

The dealer performs the required work on your vehicle. If the repair is covered under warranty, the bill is sent to the manufacturer, not you. However, there can be differences is how the dealer is paid for the work. Some manufacturers reimbuse the dealer at retail for parts and labor. Some simply replace the parts used and pay the labor at a discounted rate, so the dealer is essentially losing money fixing the factories problem. Some do a combination, unless you know someone in service department management, it's hard to determine.

Obviously, the manufacturer that allows the dealer to make money fixing their mistakes gets much more enthusiastic dealer cooperation with correcting the manufacturers (and your) problems. Some dealerships do know the value of enthusiastic assistance with warranty issues. Some just don't care.

 

[larrysmiths1]

At the time that I worked for Volkswagen "85 through '01, warranty repairs were reimbursed as follows:
Parts were paid @ VW's suggested list price. Yes the dealership made some money on parts, the difference between "cost" and "list".
Labor was reimbursed @ factory repair times. Warranty time (factory) is generally less than labor times you would find in Mitchel or Chilton books. The aforementioned labor books usually were about 6 months behind due to them having to base it on factory times.
After doing a given job a few times, most good techs were able to do the job in the allotted time. If however after doing the job several times, it couldn't be done in that time, there was a way of submitting a time study to get the times increased.
Labor time Increases were VERY rare. VW records are in true German fashion "impeccably" kept, and all they needed to do was provide the complaining dealership with photocopy's of time stubs/repair orders where some guy somewhere did the job in the allotted time. They also would send you step by step Instructions with the Times for each step broken down. The times were also based on doing the entire job with hand tools only, however also assumed you had all your parts on the bench at the time the job started.
The only job I ever recall increasing was ring and pinion replacement in 020 gearboxes. They went from 6.9 hours to 7.9 after 3 or 4 years. I'm not sure why, I had done a couple hundred and was able to start at 8:00am and drive the car to lunch at about 1:00.
The pen is mightier than the wrench and "creative writing" was a great way to be reimbursed. As long as you didn't push too hard and it sounded plausible it flew. Of course one had to save those "novels" for when you really needed them, the Rep. had a hard time believing that EVERY car you worked on was so problematic;-)