Paintwork warranty

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dgannon

Dolphin Grey 2007 S3
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Guys,

Had my car 3 months now and after having it pointed out by my local dealers the car has had a respray it looks like the laquer is going to soon start peeling off.

The car is a 2007 S3 in Dolphin grey (or maybe the other similar colour)

It's clear the respray is accross the off side drivers door and rear panel finishing about half way over the wheel arch.

When finding this out i contacted Tonbridge audi where i bought the car and asked how this will effect my paint warranty and also who had done the work? they said there should be no problem with it going through audi warranty if there are any problems...

where the door trim (middle at about knee height?) finishes near the rear arch the laquer is begining to flake - it's very early stages but still, it's happening....

Also the bodyshop who did the respray have finished the laquer about 1mm at all edges and it's starting to show up as white line down the edges of the door and bodywork in which the door closes into.

What should I do?

Get the local dealers to assess it (i'll have to initially complain about the laquer peeling round the trim) and get them to either put it through warranty or deal with Tonbridge?

Or

Call Tonbridge and tell them i want it sorted because it's not acceptable and that they should be footing the bill?

Thanks in advance

Dave
 
whoever done this respray is at fault. I would confront them with your findings. if they try to fob you off with some lame excuse ask for it in writing then seek legal advice. at the end of the day they are at fault and are liable.
 
I don't know who did it though... I've owned the car 3 months and it came from Audi to me with the paintwork done. They confirmed it wasn't done by their body shop, so surely i go back to them?

Dave
 
We helped a local customer with this problem last year. He bought an S3 with 50 miles on the clock in the May (and was told it was immaculate), but when he brought it into us for a detail in the December we discovered that half the car had been painted, and badly at that. He immediately complained, and the dealership where he bought the car from agreed to pay the local Audi dealer up here to fix it. The car went in twice, but actually came out worse (!), so in the end (and with our help) he pushed Audi UK and ended up handing the car back and getting almost all of his cash back (which he put towards a new S3 this time bought locally). It was a long and painful process, but the first thing I would do if I were you would be to get an independent paint report done, and then confront the dealership, saying you either want it fixed to a proper standard (by an approved Audi bodyshop), or your money back (I take it you were not told the car had seen paint at the time of buying?). ****** terrible when this happens to people, I just hope it's not the same car...
 
Well the reg of the car was GF07 OWW however the paintwork has not been done by Audi.

I've had a few conversations with the Sales Manager today and he's offered a £150 goodwill gesture which is rediculous when he knows it will cost at least 5 times that to have it corrected!!

I would love to go down the route of the rejection but after all the stress and hassle it caused me attempting to do this with BMW i'm not sure i can be bothered unless it's certain i will get a positive outcome?! I'm taking it to an audi dealer/bodyshop on Weds so they can do some tests and confirm to me whether or not they will repair the paint under warranty (they don't yet know it was carried out by a non audi garage) at the moment i have fingers crossed this will get the situation resolved.

Tonbridge are under the impression they sell the car with a mechanical warranty, not paintwork as it's a used car. If it was brand new the Sales manager said it would be a different story...

The salesman i bought the car from told me approximately a week after i bought the car that even though the paintwork wasn't done by audi it would be covered under warranty... Funnily enough he will not agree to confirming that... W*****!!!

In the summer when i have the cash i'll be contacting you for some detailing work etc... we may find you can tidy up the little bits on the paintwork that currently appear a bit crap! :)

Thanks,

Dave
 
Jees, dealerships and salesmen in particular get worse and worse. Slippery tongued swine. The car we dealt with was on a priivate plate, so no idea what the reg was swapped too once it was returned... but I will try to find out! Keep us posted on what the bodyshop say. I knoe it's a ball ache to consider the rejection route (and success is not guaranteed) but given the money involved, it's just not on when dealerships lie like this (or don't even appear to know their **** from their elbow when it comes to what is and is not covered by warranties). Grr. :wacko:
 
Sorry to hear about the hassle you're having mate. I don't want to hijack your thread but I think my recent situation might throw up a couple of anomalies in the Audi dealership spiel.

I got my B7 second hand last saturday from Edinburgh Lexus only to discover a couple of days later that there appears to be some respray work on one of my panels. I've to take the car back to Lexus and they will look at it and see what they can do. Very kind of them - it's going in anyway to have them fix the climate control that operates at the mo as just a heater blower.

Take a look at the pic below and spot the rear door paint:

NC1.gif


I did some investigating and contacted the previous 2 owners. The car has only been in their ownership and that of Highland Audi in Inverness.

OWNER 1 - Gets a new car every six months and is a repeat Audi customer at Highland Audi. He is known well to them and they quite clearly recall the car I'm talking about. Incidentally, Highland Audi can never get the car to appear on their records when I provide them with the two plate registrations it's had. Oh, and neither can Audi UK! Is this normal or bizarre? They find it with the chassis details though. I'm not happy at this. The first owner traded the car back to them at just under 6k miles and told me categorically that no bodywork was carried out while he was the owner.

Highland Audi had this car in their possession for 2 weeks after that and sold it on to the second owner.

OWNER 2 - The did not have any bodywork done on the car but said they noticed the defect after their first proper wash, but did nothing about it as it is only apparent in certain lighting.

Both owners have nothing to hide and told me that if a scratch or dent had been repaired then they would not hide the fact from me. Why should they?

I then started to ask some questions of HA. They told me that under no circumstances would a 1 yr old car be sent by them to a non-approved Audi bodyshop to have work carried out. So they gave me their Inverness-based approved bodyshop's details. I contacted the bodyshop and was told that they did not do any body work on the car.

But clearly the respray was carried out in that 2 week period while it was in their possession. I have no doubt.

I took the car yesterday to my local approved bodyshop and the guy said right away that the door had been resprayed. Prior to that visit I took paint thickness readings and they reached 200 microns in parts. That is a respray! Factory thickness can be in an approx. range of 120ish microns up to about 150ish microns, give or take.

Now, it is interesting to hear that your Audi dealer who sold you the car had it resprayed outwith the Audi 'network' particularly considering the age of the car. That is contrary to what Highland Audi told me. You would think that it would be Audi UK policy one way or the other.

If you buy an Audi new and 2 months later you get a wee respray carried out then how do Audi know you have had it done outwith their approved network, let alone that you have had it done at all? Simple - they send it to their approved bodyshop to have paint readings taken. Now, this is despite other Audi approved bodyshops telling me in the past that they never measure paint thickness!!!!!!! Amazing that, isn't it?

I am convined that Highland Audi are hiding something here and they had it repaired outwith their approved network so that when they invite you to consult their approved bodyshop, then they report no record of the repair. My local approved place tell me that is part of their contract to blend in with the other panels so that there is a paint match. That's why it's more expensive. Blending in has not been carried out on my car, needless to say.

I'm going to phone all the bodyshops in the Inverness and surrounding area in the next few days. Will keep you posted.

Would be interesting to get more members' experiences and possible advice on this type of issue.

Regards,

JOHN
​
 
Just got pointed in this direction from the General Section by John. This just goes to prove, in my opinion, that buying from a dealership isn't always the best option. You pay these stupid inflated prices with the hope that you are getting a decent car, but in actual fact, it's no different to buying it privately off someone from Pistonheads, unless you needed to part exchange to make the purchase.

I have however had success on a warranty claim on my 99 S3 from my local dealership(Birmingham Audi in Solihull) for the common bubbling of the roof gutters, depite the car being 7 years old, they honoured the 12 year Galvanised warranty on my car. I know it's a different claim altogether, but I was directed to a Warranty guy who deals with all the Warranty stuff, not the sales guy or sales manager, and he sorted me out! I think every dealership is suppose have someone employed in this position to aid you in the event of a Warranty claim, you should see if you can speak to this guy to get a definitive answer, cos the chap I dealt with was very honest and decent, and measured the paint thickness of my car on the spot.

Maybe I was just lucky, but it's worth a try.

Hope you get it sorted soon anyways, I'd hate to own a car on '07' plate, knowing it's not as good condition as it should be, and hope Audi foots the bill for the repair.
 
I had laquer coming off my 3 year old car six months after buying from the stealers,I wasn't happy but they did sort it out.what ****** me off the most was the sales guy saying why are you so angry?
 
Hi guys,

some interesting posts above so thanks for the interest.

Audi UK have rejected the claim because the laquer is starting to peel from where it meets the trim - this means whoever did the previous repair did not take the trim off and do a proper job. Audi won't warranty this because for it tobe an approved repair this work would have needed to be done correctly by removing the trim, spraying the area and replacing the trim!

The Sales manager at the dealership was an idiot constantly interrupting me and always avoiding answering questions which would make them liable (understandable I guess)... - a complete W***** to say the least.

As the warranty claim has been rejected i've taken my complaint to Audi UK and threatened with rejection if it's not resolved.

At the end of the day i bought a car thinking it had a full paint warranty at it doesn't. Misreprsentation on sale under SOGA will be the 1st route i take, which i'm sure they will strugle to wiggle their way out of. If they don't, i'm that ****** off i'll take a drive down there insist on speaking to the Dealer Principal or his next in command and then ensure any customers present at the time are aware of what these guys are like - then i'll probably get arrested :(

This is the 3rd car i could potentially get stung on because the men in suits selling cars tell huge f'ing lies and get away with it. I will be battling to the end!!!

So any more advice and good contacts i can use within audi for the complaints side of things would be appreciated.

Cheers

Dave
 
Dave, who had the car resprayed outside of the approved network? If it was the previous owner, then contact them from their details in the service book. If the details are not complete, or you can't get their phone number from 118 118 then ask the dealership to get in touch with them. They should be able to provide you with the bodyshop's details and there should be a 3-year warranty for their craftsmanship. Then get them to do it properly under THEIR warranty. Many bodyshops offer such warranties, particularly if it was done through an insurance policy. Just a thought.

But it's amazing isn't it, that Audi dealerships can measure paint thickness when it comes to warranty issues but not before selling a car? It doesn't take long to gauge a car and the gauge needn't be expensive for most Audi panel substrates.

Cheers.
 
yes they are good at spotting bodywork repair where warranty issues come into play (even though I have had the roof rails redone thanks to the warranty)

I would contact any paintshops in the area by previous owner if all else fails
 
Yeh mate, I've got my list of bodyshops within a 10 mile radius. Needless to say, I only found one of them to be open this morning at 9.30! Tried about 10 then. I will be getting on the case on Monday and it may take a couple of days in between other commitments. I'd like to think that if I persevere then I'll get the repair shop that replies 'yes, we resprayed a door for them'. I will personally drive the 140 miles to collect the paperwork to prove it. Quite exciting really. If only. But if I do find them then it's fair to say that there's going to be a bit of a rumble and I'm going to turn up in person and confront them. Then again, I may draw a blank if they've been too clever. I'm also going to speak again to my local Audi approved shop to see if they can help in tracking the job down. You never know?

Cheers
 
Good grief... sorry to hear all this John, just another classic example of the odd way in which dealerships work. Never an in-depth formal approach when selling, but always an in-depth formal approach when potential cost to them is involved. To add to the DW comments, dealerships do sometimes sub out work to non-approved bodyshops (even Porsche have been known to do this up here in Aberdeen), and just because a bodyshop is approved does not in any way mean they do good work. The Audi approved bodyshop in Aberdeen turns out truly awful work from time to time (going back to my first input to this thread), so there are truly no guarantee's in this game. Fingers crossed for you. :yes:
 
Right chaps, I got some new information this morning from someone directly involved in the game that is being played here.

Remember I told you that Highland Audi told me that they never have bodywork carried out out with their own approved bodyshop? Well, this is in fact a bare-faced lie. I spoke with 2 guys this morning who can confirm that they know others who have carried out frequent smart repair work for them in the past few years. I could be only a few phone calls from even getting the name of the guy who smart-repaired my door.

So, what we have here, are Audi dealerships deliberately turning Audi paintwork warranties into dust.

Could I, and others, be in a stronger position upon discovering these 'mysterious' botched paint jobs that previous owners know nothing about?

Yes, the saga continues, but I'm getting ever closer to the Inverness jugular - before heading to Audi UK.
 
Good news, now drive the nail home. Completely disgraceful behaviour given that Audi is a prestige brand and you expect a high quality experience when buying one (new or used). It would be nice if Audi UK would make public their views on behavior like this. Keep us posted. :icon_thumright:
 
Rich, I need a poss wee favour to track down a tel. no for me. Someone in Elgin who may hold the final key. Can't find it on google or any other business search but I'm told it exists. Can I phone u tmrw morn?

Tried to PM you.
 
I've got a similar issue to the OP. My car is two years old now, I bought it a year ago from a local dealer. Recently I've noticed the clear coat flaking off the front bumper, there are no obvious signs of paint repair so I think it's straightforward failure.

I pointed this out to Tonbridge Audi at it's last service and despite neither supplying the car originally nor re-selling it to me they agreed to a repair under warranty after consulting with Audi UK.

The car is in next Monday to have this issue corrected. I can't understand why they're messing you around with goodwill gestures and the like.
 
Cheers Rich.
Will also post my update on my paint problem with Audi. But Audi Aberdeen are refusing to supply new car and only interested in repair. So I said I will except a replacement vehicle 1-2 years old with similar mileage and spec.

Sid
 
I take it the used one will come with free swirls too then? I thought you might have problems when it came to the crunch... keep us posted! :yes:
 
After having delayed my repair for two weeks, my car went in on Monday for the respray and I'm now nervously awaiting the results :(
 
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