I am seeking some help and guidance on a matter relating to my mother's Volkswagen Up which she purchased brand new from Volkswagen Liverpool in September 2012 and in which she has travelled a mere 1604 miles. My mother lives in Southport and three weeks ago, whilst driving her car, she began to have a problem with the clutch, which, in turn, disabled the car. Under the Volkswagen Roadside recovery plan her car was taken to the local Volkswagen dealership in Southport - Corkhills.

Corkhills immediately did a quick diagnosis of the problem and advised my mother that the clutch plate had burned out and that this may have had a knock on effect with other flywheel components that meant that the likely cost of repair would be about £1000. To make matters worse my mother was told that the repair / replacement of the clutch plate was not covered by the Volkswagen factory warranty and this immediately threw her into a panic. I contacted Liverpool Volkswagen to see what I should do but they were non - committal as they had not seen the car and could not comment until they did.

I then contacted Volkswagen Customer Services to explain the situation and they too were quick to point out that the clutch and associated parts were not covered by the warranty but they would step in and sort out goodwill with Liverpool Volkswagen once the vehicle had been towed to their garage. Meanwhile events were taken out of my control when my mother, rather impatiently, decided to instruct Corkhills to do the repair. The situation as it stands at the moment is that neither of the two garages are prepared to offer any goodwill towards the cost of the repair and Volkswagen Customer Care does not see the problem as a fault of in either the part or the vehicle itself.