I am writing this on behalf of my sister and niece who live in the Whitsundays in Queensland. I am doing some investigation to help my sister who is at breaking point due to this car. It is her only means of transporting her 15y/o daughter Jessi, who is severely disabled and has an electric wheelchair. This is the first of 2 problems the other which I will add a new entry for has now caused catastrophic engine damage and Jessi has not been able to leave the house for 8-10 weeks.

The vehicle was serviced as per the VW service schedule and ran like a dream until 8th December 2019, at which point the fan belt shredded and immobilized the vehicle with my niece on board.

They got Jessi home in a taxi and the van was towed to their local European vehicle mechanic who explained has seen this problem before with his VW van. She was advised that he could replace the belt to get us back on the road, which he did the next day and parts were ordered to prevent it from happening again (new pulleys and belts). She was told that the pulleys the vehicle was manufactured with are alloy, very sharp and over time wear the belt down and that is why this happens and, indeed, she was lucky that it hadn’t caused more extensive damage to the timing chain/cylinder head. My sister was very happy that this person "got" how important it was to get the vehicle back on the road fast to ensure she could get Jessi from A to B,

Parts were ordered and the vehicle went back to have the new pulleys and belts installed on 2nd January 2020. The work was carried out, She picked the vehicle up on the 3rd of Jan at a cost of $1415.00. She was advised to drop in a couple of weeks later so the mechanic could check over the vehicle and make sure all was okay, which she did and all was fine. No need for worry which was a relief and was fine until 4th March 2020.