As we're often having a go at the main dealers thought I'd post a rare moment of excellent service I received today from Walton Audi.
Having changed the brake fluid at the weekend and bled the clutch slave cylinder I was unfortunate enough to have the clutch master cylinder (MC) fail. Pretty common problem it would seem and simply just bad luck (thanks Tufty for the advice). Didn't fancy changing it on the driveway so rang around to get some quotes. Don't have many Audi specialists around here (Badger 5 used to be my local expert) so even gave the main dealer a try. Couldn't believe it when Walton Audi came in the cheapest at £227 inc VAT which included the MC which is £68.44 + VAT. They gave me a guarantee that I would not be charged more than that and said the job is expected to take 1.1 hrs. I thought good luck and crack on! It would take me that amount of time just to get to the damn thing.
Picked it up this afternoon to find the job in-fact took around 6 hrs to complete. They reckoned the 1.1 hrs Audi quote for the job is most likely for a left hand drive car! I was expecting them to try and get me to fork out for the extra labour (especially as the car had been valeted) but they said they would honour the original quote and only charged me for 1.1 hrs - result! In-fact the MC was slightly cheaper than they had quoted so I paid a total of £218. The MC also comes with a 2 yr guarantee which is pretty reasonable. The car drives superbly, clutch feels much lighter and the brakes thank god work great (which was the reason I bled the system in the first place!). The service manager was surprised to see my car with RNSE and the newer 8P steering wheel and it was nice to see several customers admiring the car on the forecourt and ignoring the newer models it was sat around - perhaps I won't sell it just yet??
Audi offer a reduced labour rate for customers with older cars and I was charged £90 per hr instead of £120. This would have been expensive if they had quoted me for the correct amount of time in the first place but it would seem they have to honour the original quote regardless. Lesson here is don't rule out the main dealers. If Audi have underestimated the labour time and you ask them to guarantee the price quoted then you've got a result. I'm not suggesting using them over the specialist and even at £90 per hr they're twice as expensive as most, but in this instance I really lucked in. Food for thought.....
Having changed the brake fluid at the weekend and bled the clutch slave cylinder I was unfortunate enough to have the clutch master cylinder (MC) fail. Pretty common problem it would seem and simply just bad luck (thanks Tufty for the advice). Didn't fancy changing it on the driveway so rang around to get some quotes. Don't have many Audi specialists around here (Badger 5 used to be my local expert) so even gave the main dealer a try. Couldn't believe it when Walton Audi came in the cheapest at £227 inc VAT which included the MC which is £68.44 + VAT. They gave me a guarantee that I would not be charged more than that and said the job is expected to take 1.1 hrs. I thought good luck and crack on! It would take me that amount of time just to get to the damn thing.
Picked it up this afternoon to find the job in-fact took around 6 hrs to complete. They reckoned the 1.1 hrs Audi quote for the job is most likely for a left hand drive car! I was expecting them to try and get me to fork out for the extra labour (especially as the car had been valeted) but they said they would honour the original quote and only charged me for 1.1 hrs - result! In-fact the MC was slightly cheaper than they had quoted so I paid a total of £218. The MC also comes with a 2 yr guarantee which is pretty reasonable. The car drives superbly, clutch feels much lighter and the brakes thank god work great (which was the reason I bled the system in the first place!). The service manager was surprised to see my car with RNSE and the newer 8P steering wheel and it was nice to see several customers admiring the car on the forecourt and ignoring the newer models it was sat around - perhaps I won't sell it just yet??
Audi offer a reduced labour rate for customers with older cars and I was charged £90 per hr instead of £120. This would have been expensive if they had quoted me for the correct amount of time in the first place but it would seem they have to honour the original quote regardless. Lesson here is don't rule out the main dealers. If Audi have underestimated the labour time and you ask them to guarantee the price quoted then you've got a result. I'm not suggesting using them over the specialist and even at £90 per hr they're twice as expensive as most, but in this instance I really lucked in. Food for thought.....
