Newbie

Hi there. Got my new 2014 Danbury T2 three months ago. Been away a few times already. Great trips. Love our van. However. Exasperated at too many examples of poor workmanship in Bristol. Bad paintwork finish, (now re-done.) Nearside wing mirror fell off! (Now replaced.) Canvas had two holes in it. (Now replaced.) Headliner had bare wood exposed. (Now re-done.) Offside under seat leaked whenever it rained. Also, from windscreen. (Now replaced.) Radio not working. (Now replaced.) Side of sink plastic strip hanging off. (Now mended.) High pitch whistling sound when on the move. (Apparently remedied. But still ongoing...) Upper bed base easily unhinged on the move and crashing back and forth. (Remedied with an extra bolt. Didn't work, that came loose too. Straps and poppers added. On the drive back to London, those broke and lo and behold, crash/bang from end to end. Ongoing...) We love our camper and the front line team of Sally, Simon, Daniel etc, lovely. But fed up with some appalling workmanship at Danbury. Especially after £42,000+ Hoping things get better and I don't have to keep going from London to Bristol (a long and expensive round trip) trying to get these things put right. Hanging in there and still love our new member of the family.

Welcome. Sadly yours sounds a tale of woe for a new Danbury. I hope it all gets sorted out quickly and completely, so you can enjoy your new purchase.

One trick re the catches for the roof bed (I too suffered from it un-bolting and then sliding/ banging) is to put an elastic band around the bolt, such that it keeps the bolt closed under tension. Failing an elastic band, I've also used one of those wire tie wraps.

Welcome to the forum and very sorry to hear all of your problems too..
You've found a like minded group of camper lovers , check out forthcoming events , the next two being the Northern Sleepover this coming weekend and then CamperJam first weekend in July.
Can you upload some pictures of your van? and hope to see you out about soon.

Welcome to forum. Don't worry too much it will all come good in the end, make Danbury aware and let them fix what they can for you. Otherwise have a nose through the forum, the search bar at the top is your friend,there's loads of info on here. If you can't find what your looking for, ask away

Welcome!

We hide a spare blanket above our folded up roof bed, it's enough to help stop (or slow) the bed sliding but not enough to restrict the closing of the roof and it's always handy to have a spare blanket on board!

Welcome and sympathies for your issues. I'm sure Danbury will sort you out eventually.

Meanwhile, enjoy the season and try to get along to a Forum event if you can.

2 tips for the sliding bed board situation:

1. I use a ball of blue tack on the bolt to stop it working loose - holds it nicely in place.
2. Get some central heating pipe foam insulation (£3 from B&Q) cut a line along its centre and clip it onto the front edge of the folded boards. This will a) slow down the slipping process should that occur and b) stop you from banging your head on the edge when raising/lowering the poptop.

We've all done it!

Hi and welcome

Hi and welcome.   

It sounds like you've had your fair share of problems but don't lose heart it'll all turn out fine in the end and you can begin to enjoy your BraziBay and have some fun.

Hi All. Thank you so much. What lovely people on here! We still love our van. 20 years of dreaming.... Broke, but happy despite the difficulties. One question? When putting the pop top down, how best to fold it in so that it's obviously not sticking out outside, but not doing so inside either? Thank you and see you soon at a meet! Best wishes.

Hello and welcome.

Hopefully things will be sorted out soon so you can relax and enjoy summer. As others have said above, this forum will be able to offer a solution or two

hi welcome .we have all been there and some are still there!! as abs says Danbury will get to the bottom of it all ,but you must persue the repairs.i know its frustrating but it will work out,look forward to seeing you at some of our meets.

TimV wrote:

2 tips for the sliding bed board situation:

1. I use a ball of blue tack on the bolt to stop it working loose - holds it nicely in place.
2. Get some central heating pipe foam insulation (£3 from B&Q) cut a line along its centre and clip it onto the front edge of the folded boards.  This will a) slow down the slipping process should that occur and b) stop you from banging your head on the edge when raising/lowering the poptop.

We've all done it!

no toolbox or self respecting DIyer should be without blue tack .My better half insists it's the answer to everything or at least until I get round to fixing / repairing something that's broke !

I think its hilarious that we are suggesting blue tack and bits of foam rubber etc to repair shoddy workmanship on a brand new vehicle. Sorry, but I'm appalled at the slapdash way our van was finished. I love our van, but had I known the tap and other bits were going to fall off or break within the first few weeks of use, I would have bought second hand. This isn't a popular opinion, but there you are....

Possibly a little controversial but I think to be fair, some people are expecting premium tier quality from a vehicle little changed in 50 years. Yes, new vehicles may have a premium price tag but our vans shake, rattle and roll.

Sunny wrote:

Possibly a little controversial but I think to be fair, some people are expecting premium tier quality from a vehicle little changed in 50 years. Yes, new vehicles may have a premium price tag but our vans shake, rattle and roll.

Beg to differ with you on this sunny. The majority of the issues described in the op are specific to the conversion work and not that of Volkswagen. However all 'new builds' have a snag list and as long as they're sorted fairly and in a timely way, there's no reason why the owner shouldn't have years of happy adventures in their Kombi.

What happened to quality control and pre delivery checks also holding a ISO accreditation.

You would have thought by now Dandury would have come up with their own solutions to things like sliding bed boards, poor roof design, big holes in the floor for break pedals, poor cab heating etc.

Let's not lose our sense of proportion over this please. This is one Danbury campervan that has had a particular set of issues. It is NOT indicative of all of the Kombis that come out of Yate. I'm not defending Danbury, but there's no need to allow this particular story to be all encompassing.

It's what happens after a problem that matters, not the problem itself. All businesses get things wrong on occasions (even mine!   ) but if you deal with the issue promptly and on the correct basis you end up with a more loyal customer than one who hadn't had an issue.

Speaking personally, we've had nothing but satisfaction after we've had some things go wrong with Absinthe. I didn't rant (although I am capable of ranting) just pointed out the issues and they fixed them without any argument.

I'd be very happy to recommend them to a friend which says it all really.   

Do hang in there Jo1 , you have a special vehicle there and am sure Danbury will get it right for you but I've had more issues with my Company Audi A4 in the last two years than my Kombi (both 2012 registered). Just keep talking to them , fully appreciate it's a pain from London to Yate but am sure your will get things sorted sooner rather than later..

It is sad to hear that many of the issues sound like they should have been detected and resolved pre-collection but we did not have this experience so you do have our sympathy.

Anyway good luck and get yourself along to a club event as soon as you can.

AbsintheKombi wrote:

It's what happens after a problem that matters, not the problem itself. All businesses get things wrong on occasions (even mine!   ) but if you deal with the issue promptly and on the correct basis you end up with a more loyal customer than one who hadn't had an issue.

Speaking personally, we've had nothing but satisfaction after we've had some things go wrong with Absinthe. I didn't rant (although I am capable of ranting) just pointed out the issues and they fixed them without any argument.

I'd be very happy to recommend them to a friend which says it all really.    

I agree with Absinthe , our experience with Danbury is much the same - We have had a lot of support and help and can honestly say we would also recommend them.
I think, to a certain extent you also have to put it into perspective that there are some basic quality concerns about product ex brazil . It is in fact a bus being built with ancient tooling and more often than not out of date manufacturing techniques that would not be used on modern day car builds ....but we have become members of this elite club due to our passion for this classic iconic vehicle . After the initial shock you learn to embrace the issues it is far outweighed by the fun you get from using and owning them .  

Welcome Jo and hope you get things sorted soon - it has taken me a while to get the snags on mine sorted, but once they were done, its all been pleasure and no pain! Am sure this will be same for you very soon.

ANYWAY - Post a pic of your van please - we don't even know what colour it is yet! (hope its red - there should definitely be more red ones!!).

Welcome to the forum

if its any consolation I've had so much trouble with VW main dealers and new cars it would make you weep, best one so far - still on going

VW Golf GTI - brand new

Plug fell off the engine not a big deal that was the first warranty issue, but when I went to send it on a truck to spain I found the button to switch the interior ultrasonics was missing just a hole with a wire, nice PDI skills at factory and dealer! after a delay they took it in for investigation kept it a few days and delivered it back to my house when I got home I decided to have a look and the bodgers had only superglued the button in! cyno smoke every where and a dribble down the panel! as you can guess I was less than amused, they now have it again to replace the panel and the button now!

I wont bore you with the others but out of 4 polos only one has been good, one had brake issue!, 4 golfs only 1 good, 1 new beetle - shocking including lights falling out and wrong fog/reverse light fitted - euro bumper UK car 2 touaregs - both back under warranty one even had the wrong wheel bolts fitted by the dealer leaving the wheels loose!!

rattles and fiddles can be fixed and Danbury seem helpful