A father has claimed his family avoided disaster by feet after his electric Volkswagen ID.7 veered into the opposite lane on its own.
Ian Chisholm, 66, claims his EV developed a host of issues, including brakes violently kicking in of their own accord and then malfunctioning for periods of up to 30 seconds.
The car would also veer in the opposite direction to the steering wheel, the motorist claims, and its doors would randomly lock with terrified passengers inside.
Mr Chisholm is the latest in a string of ID owners who say they have experienced issues with their cars moving and braking against their will.
Last month, father-of-two Ken Hadley told the Daily Mail his VW ID.5 lost control on a busy motorway twice in three months, leaving him and his family terrified.
And weeks earlier Ashenafei Demissie wept in the dock after being cleared of causing death and serious injury by careless driving when his ID.4 accelerated forward and killed a five-year-old boy.
In the latest set of worrying claims, Mr Chisholm says only sheer luck prevented his entire family being involved in a head-on collision when the steering assist suddenly took on a mind of its own.
He and his wife were headed to dinner at a friend’s house in Great Dunmow, Essex when the VW allegedly started refusing to follow the instructions of its driver.
Ian Chisholm, pictured, has described the ‘scary’ moment he allegedly lost control of his electric Volkswagen ID.7 after the brakes stopped working and the lane assist system faltered
He claims his EV’s brakes suddenly started kicking in of their own accord and then began malfunctioning for periods of up to 30 seconds
Father-of-two Mr Chisholm said: ‘We’re going along a winding A-road, and going around a bend at 30 or 35mph, following the natural course of the road at an appropriate speed.
‘We are steering to the left, but the car is going right – full on to the right.
‘Had it gone right and there was a car at that point, I’d have possibly had a head-on collision. At that moment, there was nothing coming, it is normally a busy A-road.’
This was not the only time the vehicle’s lane assist has malfunctioned, according to Mr Chisholm, with each near-miss adding to the fear associated with an everyday drive.
‘We’ve been lucky so far that the car has not been involved in an accident,’ he added.
‘The lane assist was taking us all over the road – violently. You feel totally like you aren’t in control of the car.
‘It was driving to the left, driving to the right, waving and wiggling all down the road.’
To make matters worse, the car – which Mr Chisholm is leasing from Stable Vehicle Contracts through an agreement with VW Finance – is claimed to have started braking randomly and locking passengers in the car.
In the latest set of worrying claims, Mr Chisholm says only sheer luck prevented his entire family being involved in a head-on collision
The motorist said: ‘First thing that started happening was when we reversed off our drive, the emergency brake slammed on absolutely violently. That happened a few times.
‘My wife turned to me and said, “what are you doing? Why are you breaking? You almost put me through the windscreen”.
‘Then it happened to her going forward along the road.
‘And we also had this problem – you couldn’t open the driver’s door.’
Terrified to even get into the driver’s seat, Mr Chisholm visited his local dealership VW Group 1 Chelmsford in an attempt to get the vehicle fixed or replaced.
But the motorist said he was passed on to VW customers services instead and was even refused a courtesy car.
Customer services, in turn, referred him to the AA and the father-of-two was greeted by a man he claims had ‘no ability to check the problems’.
Nonetheless they said they had a temporary car ready for him at a nearby Enterprise Rentals and asked him to drop off his ID.7 at Chelmsford – they took the car in and then told him to head to Enterprise Rentals for a courtesy car.
The car would also veer in the opposite direction to the steering wheel, the motorist claims, and its doors would randomly lock with terrified passengers inside
After a week inspecting the vehicle, Mr Chisholm claimed they discovered a problem with the door handle – which in turn was causing the sudden braking – and replaced the part.
Mr Chisholm said he had heard from a host of other VW drivers who had experienced the same issue with the doors.
‘The locks are atrocious,’ he added.
‘We got the car back, started driving it, but it was still all over the place.’
A couple of weeks later, the motorist went to Group 1 and asked to speak to the service manager.
The pair went on a test drive together and the car seemed fine, with the manager insisting he could not provide a courtesy car and that Mr Chisholm had to contact the customer services team once again.
They then told him they could not give him another temporary vehicle because he had already had one for more than a week.
It comes after Ken Hadley, pictured, left, with his wife and daughter, said he was left terrified of their electric Volkswagen after it allegedly lost control on a busy motorway twice
The father claims his life was at the mercy of his ID.5, pictured, as it veered across a three-lane road into the left-hand reservation before swerving back again and into the right-hand reservation
‘I went down to Group 1 and told the service manager the car is a death trap, it is unsafe and unroadworthy,’ he said.
Around eight weeks before Christmas, VW Customer Service passed him on to VW Finance who said a case officer would get back to him within 48 hours.
It was more than a month before he heard back from their team, he claims.
Mr Chisholm said: ‘At the beginning of the New Year, I got an email from VW Finance telling me they weren’t able to deal with my query – and I had six months to go to the financial ombudsman.’
The lane control has since improved and is now ’90 per cent’ corrected, the motorist claims, but the brakes have continued to cause problems despite the dealership not finding the source of the issue.
‘We have even had a couple of occasions where for 10 to 30 seconds, I’ve had no brakes and they have completely disappeared,’ he said.
‘Either the brakes lock up or you’ve got no brakes at all. They are a major problem.’
And the worrying prospect of being trapped in the allegedly faulty vehicle has only got worse, he claims, with other doors now experiencing issues.
He has provided evidence to a case involving a similar accident, which saw Ashenafei Demissie cleared of causing death and serious injury by careless driving after his VW ID.4 accelerated forward and killed Fareed Amir, five, pictured
Mr Chisholm added: ‘The rear passenger door lock has gone, you can’t open the car door at all. There are issues with the software all round.
‘I have now bought four glass safety hammers, and put them in every door because if that car got involved in an accident, if the steering suddenly packed up or the brakes packed up, and all the locks went, we could be in a situation where we can’t get out the car.
‘I want the car gone. But VW Finance have told me to go to the ombudsman and VW customer services say it’s not their problem.
‘The service is just atrocious, it is non-existent.’
A Volkswagen spokesperson said: ‘From the technical side, the car was inspected and the software checked and adjusted; a physical repair was also made to the door handles.
‘Both faults were quickly identified and rectified by the dealer with no requirement for further escalation, and the customer’s original case was closed in November.
‘From a financial point of view, my colleagues at VWFS [Volkswagen Financial Services] advise that they have spoken to Mr Chisholm and offered him the opportunity as a discretionary gesture to end the agreement, a proposal with which I understand he is happy.’
It comes after motorist Ken Hadley claimed his life was at the mercy of his out-of-control VW ID.5 as it veered across a three-lane road into the left-hand reservation before swerving back again and into the right-hand reservation in a nightmare ordeal in October.
The near-miss came after he claims the exact same thing happened to his wife, disabled daughter and father-in-law on a motorway in July, provoking his partner to throw the keys on the floor and refuse to drive the vehicle in future.
Heading back from a meeting in Leamington Spa, West Midlands on October 29, the father-of-two claims he suddenly lost control of his Volkswagen despite travelling at just 40mph and not entering a bend when it happened.
Mr Demissie was behind the wheel of a Volkswagen ID.4 when it suddenly accelerated forward, killing Fareed
Mr Hadley described the terrifying moment ‘all four wheels started operating independently’ and a flashing red warning sign popped up on the dashboard.
‘The car started swerving all over the place,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘It slammed me into the left-hand reservation, lifted the car, dragged me across all the lanes, smacked me into the right-hand reservation and as it brought me back into the middle, I think the impact of that turned the warning light off, and I managed to gain control.
‘If I had hit another car, not only would I have potentially been dead or seriously injured, I could have killed multiple people and nobody would have ever got to the bottom of it.
‘It would have potentially just been put down to my bad driving. And the same with my wife’s incident.
‘To lose complete control of a vehicle, with the steering completely disabled, is one hell of a scary experience.’
A Volkswagen spokesperson said in response to Mr Hadley’s claims that his vehicle was inspected and no fault or defect was found, including when it was returned to Germany for further, detailed examination. They are unaware of any other similar incidents.
Mr Hadley has since been in contact with solicitors working on Demissie’s case which eventually saw him cleared of causing death and serious injury by careless driving after his VW ID.4 accelerated forward and killed a five-year-old boy.