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VW Allspace fitted with redundant levers that VW won't sort out

I took delivery of a new 21 plate VW Tiguan Allspace in July 2021. On collection from the dealer I noticed a couple of levers in the boot which didn't appear to do anything - the dealer didn't know what they were for and suggested I contacted VW UK customer services to find out. My hunch was that they were legacy levers to drop the rear two seats (seats 6 + 7) which was no longer required as they had moved the lever to the top of the actual seat in the boot, rather than the side of the boot. After a very protracted series of emails and phone calls with VW UK and them trying all sorts of guessing games as to what the levers might be for (having designed the vehicle one would have expected that they could have said straight away) they seem to agree that the two levers in the boot of the Tiguan Alpsace are in fact legacy and redundant. I asked VW to supply & fit trim plates to plate off the levers that don't do anything as otherwise it's just confusing and eventually someone is going to snap them off trying to use them. I was told by Jay at VW Customer Support that I need just to tell people not to try to use the levers! I responded to Jay that as an architect I don't get houses built with loads of power sockets and light switches which aren't actually wired in and tell my clients not to use them! Jay effectively said, well sorry, that's how it is, he's asked around and VW aren't prepared to sort this out and I would need to complain to the Motor Ombudsman. Which I have done.It's a shame that VW is working against its dealers in destroying goodwill, but unfortunately they are and I would obviously need to think long and hard about buying another vehicle from the VW Group stable. Call me old-fashioned but if I make a mistake with a design I sort it out - not just step back, say sorry and shrug and tell my clients they've just got to suck it up.

Date of experience: Sep 10, 2021