VOLKSWAGEN continues to face the wrath of prospective Passat customers who are still waiting for vehicles ordered months ago. The manufacturer's dealer network is working hard to place every spare vehicle in the country with a waiting customer, but some are not prepared to accept an alternative vehicle.

Toshiba facilities manager Brian Selwood is still waiting for a Passat 1.6 SE after placing an order through contract hire company Motorent in September. He subsequently changed the colour specified but was told it would make no difference to the January delivery date. He has still not received a firm delivery date.

'How does Volkswagen schedule its work?' asked Selwood. 'What I can't understand is why it can't even give a build date, whereas if I order a Mercedes or a BMW, they tell me when it will arrive and it does.' A Volkswagen spokeswoman said the dealer had never confirmed a delivery date for the car but had done everything it could to source a car, including offering the driver an otherwise identical car in silver which was unacceptable because the metallic paint did not fit in with Toshiba's fleet policy.

'A January delivery date was requested, but not promised,' said the spokeswoman. 'Our dealers have not been promising delivery dates for months because of the supply situation. The alternative vehicle is still with the dealer and still available to the customer if he wants it.'