A3 Saloon order - couple of questions

[AlB82]

Hi all,

New poster here.

I ordered a new A3 Saloon back in the first week of October and was given a provisional build date of mid January with a delivery date 1st wk of February. I've checked a few times with the garage and Audi have not yet confirmed these dates which tells me they are likely to slip quite a bit. The problem I have is I have an Audi A1 on PCP and it runs out end of Jan. The garage say I can just keep it and continue paying it and they will deduct they payments off the A3 cost.

Has anyone had the same problem? Did it work out ok? I can just imagine the admin nightmare coming my way when they screw it up.

Also, is it unusual to go 3 months with no confirmed build date? Feels like its going to be another couple of months before I get the car minimum.

 

[Cumbrian_bob]

I wouldnt worry too much about it. My car didnt get its confirmed actual build date untill pretty close to the real build date. It seems you have a guess build time then as that gets closer it becomes a couple of weeks, and a week before they actually know the exact date, even then its still dependent on the transport links getting the car to England.

As you already have an Audi on Audi finance which your local dealer would have setup s the agent then they re actually acting as the Audi finance company.

Just ask for an email to confirm the finance arrangements, shouldnt be a problem for them. Dont forget they will be FSA Approved so it should be fact and not opinion they are telling you.

Dont forget you have the benefit that the the trade in price of the car you have should have been locked, its worth double checking this as well. I did and my dealer honoured the trade in price knowing the potential delivery date, so while I was driving the car putting miles on it the price stays the same as long as I stay at reasonable milage (i.e. within the milage on the PCP deal).

Although its a little frustrating, you might actually be better off financially.

Dont forget the MOT will be due after three years (I think) make sure you dont get stung for that.

 

[AlB82]

Cheers for the reply.

My A1 was just a 2 yr PCP so ok regarding the MOT.

Good suggestion regarding getting a mail to confirm the finance arrangement as this is the only part that I'm nervous about. I'm sure they won't try and mess me around of course but safer to have it in writing.

Pleased to hear the build dates aren't alway confirmed well in advance, there may be a small chance I'll get my car in February as planned then!

 

[AlB82]

Looks like you were right Cumbrian_bob. I've just had my build date confirmed as 13th Jan with an expected delivery date to me of 10th of Feb. The question is now wether I just ask them to hold onto it until 1st March for the new plate (or whether I can even ask them to do this).

 

[PilotAudi]

Looks like you were right Cumbrian_bob. I've just had my build date confirmed as 13th Jan with an expected delivery date to me of 10th of Feb. The question is now wether I just ask them to hold onto it until 1st March for the new plate (or whether I can even ask them to do this).

You can and I would!

 

[AlB82]

So called the garage to get an update on my order and lo and behold my car actually arrived at the garage today. Nice of them to keep me posted!

So the bottom line is they've offered me an extra £500 on my trade in to take the car this week as opposed to waiting until March. If I don't take the deal I can try to sell my current car privately. What would you do?

 

[Psyman79]

Surely the £500 would just cancel out the extra value of having a 14 plate rather than a 63.

If thats not too much of an issue then take it and start enjoying. Try for more though

 

[AlB82]

Surely the £500 would just cancel out the extra value of having a 14 plate rather than a 63.

If thats not too much of an issue then take it and start enjoying. Try for more though

Yeah, the £500 is probably about right. I did ask for more but they backed away and said I'd got too good a deal already. I wasn't overly happy with my trade in value initially (10.5k for a 61 plate A1 Sport) which is why I was going to sell my car privately and hope to get another £1,000. However, this takes the hassle out of it and I did get a decent deal on the Saloon itself.

Might just take the offer!