This doesn't keep me awake at night, but...

 

If the tailgate electrics fail (or some other fault), can it still be closed manually?

Or do I have to employ a security guard to watch over the car until I can get a transporter to bring it to a garage?

I suppose it depends ... I've had both struts fail individually and I've been able to close by hand.

 

I've also had a fault on the latching mechanism where a few times it was touch and go if it was going to lock .... I was a bit concerned because it was going to have a week sat in an airport carpark !! Not a good time for the boot to be left unlocked.

When mine was delivered I had no idea it even had an electric tailgate and the bloke parked it up then wandered off for the paperwork, having told me to help myself having a look around for damage etc.

 

Having done so, he still wasn't back so I went to have a look in the boot and helped myself by pressing the button and pushing the tailgate all the way up by myself. Needless to say within seconds he was over to advise that pushing up an electric tailgate isn't necessary!

 

The lesson from my story is, you can most certainly push it open by yourself. I'd therefore assume you can push it closed too (although it probably doesn't lock).

2 hours ago, Gax said:

When mine was delivered I had no idea it even had an electric tailgate and the bloke parked it up then wandered off for the paperwork, having told me to help myself having a look around for damage etc.

 

Having done so, he still wasn't back so I went to have a look in the boot and helped myself by pressing the button and pushing the tailgate all the way up by myself. Needless to say within seconds he was over to advise that pushing up an electric tailgate isn't necessary!

 

The lesson from my story is, you can most certainly push it open by yourself. I'd therefore assume you can push it closed too (although it probably doesn't lock).

 

Yes it does lock if the struts are faulty and you have to strong arm it.

Given a pair of so-called non-OE struts are are available for less than £250, I’d be replacing them. The ones on our 280 have always sounded like a mobile iron foundry when they’re operating, yet the ones on a mates S3 are almost completely silent, so Gawd knows which might fail first!

Edited 18 September, 20223 yr by numskull

4 hours ago, numskull said:

Given a pair of so-called non-OE struts are are available for less than £250, I’d be replacing them. The ones on our 280 have always sounded like a mobile iron foundry when they’re operating, yet the ones on a mates S3 are almost completely silent, so Gawd knows which might fail first!

I have seen the aftermarket ones at less than a 1/4 of the price, I do wonder about the quality as they are not even branded.

Yeah, but given the failure rate of the OE ones AS, it’s probably worth a punt as they come with a warranty, albeit what that might be worth.
I suspect they come out of the same factory as the VW OE ones used in China, because would the reverse-engineering, tooling, materials, manufacturing and distribution costs really make them a profit?