I purchased a used VW from a VW dealer in March 2012. In August I had my car impounded by the DVLA because unknown to myself the car was actually un-taxed since February 2012. When I bought the car I was assured that the car was fully taxed until 31/12/2012. It has since come to light that the tax disc on display in the car was for the private registration number plate of the previous owner and was not registered to new car plate ever since the previous owner part-exchanged the car. VW bought a new tax disc for my car after I visited the showroom to sort out the matter. Until this point I had been unknowingly driving an untaxed car for over 4 months due to a mistake made by VW.

I was on annual leave when the car was impounded and it took a lot of my time on holiday to telephone the police, the nearby car pounds and Trace trying to find out if the car had been impounded or stolen. We were in London and missed most of an Olympics event that we had tickets to whilst waiting to talk to the police in person and report the car as lost or stolen.

VW offered me a free service for the inconvenience caused. I said that I wished to be reimbursed and compensated for the cost of releasing my car from the pound (£200), the 60 mile round trip to retrieve the car from the pound, lost annual leave for me and my partner, ticket cost for the missed Olympics event and a meaningful and substantial gesture of goodwill due to the stress of the situation. Plus my car insurance provider states that my car insurance is only valid if my car is taxed but because my car was untaxed my car insurance has been void for the last four months. Hypothetically, in the last four months if I wrote off an expensive car I’d be facing a huge bill. Given that my insurance has been void for the last four months I think it is only fair if VW also pay for the cost of these four months of my car insurance.

VW’s response to this was an increased offer of a 3-year service plan (worth £379) or £230 in cash for the car pound release fee + fuel. They admitted the mistake but reiterated that it was my responsibility to ensure that my car is in a road legal state (even though the salesman explicitly stated it was taxed until 31/12 and signed off on the tax disc being in place on vehicle handover).

Do you think VW’s new offer is fair? For a premium brand with supposedly excellent customer service this seems like derisory offer. We are brand loyal (my partner also owns a VW) and we think we deserve more reimbursement and compensation given the potential seriousness of the situation caused by a mistake by VW. We are considering taking this up with VW head office or taking legal advice – what do you think is best?

Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks.