Having a brand-new car that lets you down happens. When bizarre malfunctions pile up, and they’re impossible to reproduce, the story becomes a true soap opera. And when no one believes you, the discomfort only grows. In Belgium, a motorist says he’s been living with unexplained electronic faults for years. They cut the power to his pickup while he’s driving. They would have already caused several hardware accidents. His insurer eventually refused to cover him, while the workshop maintains that nothing is wrong with his vehicle.
At the center of this saga is a latest-generation Volkswagen Amarok pickup bought new on April 11, 2023. The bill came to €68,432.88, at a workshop in Loenhout, near Antwerp. Three years later, the Belgian owner, Roel Vermeiren, says he’s dragging the pickup around like a ball and chain. He talks of recurring breakdowns, fruitless trips back to the shop, and steps taken that went nowhere. He claims that these sudden power losses make the vehicle dangerous to drive. And as the incidents multiply, he feels increasingly alone against a system he can’t beat.
A brand-new Volkswagen Amarok that keeps breaking down as soon as it leaves the shop
The delivery day sets the tone. Roel Vermeiren leaves the dealer in a gleaming new pickup, but doesn’t get far. “I had barely rolled 500 meters when the driver-assistance systems, including Front Assist and Side Assist, failed and the dashboard locked up,” the customer recalls, quoted by the Belgian outlet 7 sur 7. A quick U-turn back to the shop, plugged into the diagnostic tool, no fault detected. And once again, he’s handed back the vehicle, with assurances that everything is functioning.
In the following months, the on-board computer kept throwing glitches. Vermeiren started seeing messages like “snow plow off” with no relation to the real world. His Amarok is certainly not a snowplow. The workshop eventually acknowledged a minor software bug, but repairs dragged on for months because parts were scarce. One day, at a roundabout, the system that should anticipate hard braking — Front Assist — failed to trigger. “A vehicle cut me off […], I couldn’t brake in time […] I hit it at about 30 miles per hour,” explains the Belgian driver. Later, new chills ran down his spine as the Amarok suddenly lost all power in the middle of traffic. “It happened notably on the Ring road around Antwerp and later in Lummen, where I even ended up against the guardrail.”
Faults that can’t be found, a skeptical shop, and a fatalistic expert on the reliability of new cars
Despite the warnings, the shop found no anomaly with the diagnostic scanner. It even went so far as to suspect that the customer was turning off the ignition while driving to trigger engine stalls. To prove his good faith, Roel installed a dashcam inside the cab, designed to record the next breakdown. A fresh loss of power occurs, and the camera records a driver’s hands gripping the steering wheel. “The shop rejected the footage, saying it had been tampered with.” Vermeiren then invoked his legal protections and hired an expert to try the vehicle himself. “It stalled after only 2,000 miles, even though I had told him the problem appeared every 4,000 miles,” recounts Roel Vermeiren, who laments that the test was too short to reproduce the fault.
Disheartened, Roel Vermeiren is now seeking cancellation of the sale and an €20,000 compensation for the costs he’s incurred. His insurer has refused to cover him after three material accidents. The mechanic stops replying, and the court-appointed expert delays in issuing a verdict. “I feel like everyone is in on it to push me to quit,” laments Roel. Asked for a reaction to the case, mobility expert Brecht Vanhaelewyn offers a broader perspective. He looks at the state of drivers facing these electronic faults. “At many brands, the customer service department acts as the first line of defense to reject claims,” he explains. Yet market studies show that the reliability of new vehicles is seriously undermined by software glitches. The systems aren’t tested enough, and manufacturers plan to fix issues later via updates,” he explains, cited by Ouest-France. In Roel’s case, the specialist deems the likelihood of a sale being canceled as low. “A manufacturer will hardly refund the full purchase price, because that would be an admission of fault. You’re stepping into an arena where the other side is armed with lawyers and well-honed procedures.” His advice is pragmatic: a poor settlement may be better than a bad lawsuit. “Sometimes it’s possible to negotiate a goodwill gesture through your legal protection insurance, because going to court is expensive,” he cautions.
