Audi Main Dealers Phfff.......

[5wany]

Perusing Audis used cars internet site and seen a 3 year old A3 in the colour spec we were happy with 2 weeks ago paid £1k deposit. Car gets prep (aye right) by dealers & ready for pick up today.

So travelled 600 miles round trip from Scotland down to a South Yorkshire dealers to get "our new" motor. All excited an smiling. Gets to the dealers, usual hellos of handshakes, how are you doing, like a coffee? Oh yes that would be nice. (Costa coffee no less). Salesman says I'll just bring your car around, big smiles, OK I says, see it coming round... parks in front of showroom, I'm at door ready to look at my car... WELL what a let down.....

Stuff I could live with & typical for age mileage:
Had some ripple effects on the door skin of previous dents pushed out, but only seen on very close inspection.
Couple very minor bonnet chips and 1 on roof line.
Valeting was p155 poor, car was supposedly lifeshined, still had tar spots (so there now sealed in ) The leather interior still had crumbs (almost a full packet crisps) between the folds. The dash looked like Oliver with his oily rag had given it a quick wipe.
Every customer's a winner here.

Stuff I thought was a joke, and rejected the car on:
Passenger door truly chipped...5 or 6 pin sized door ding chips & 3 (3-4mm) poorly touched in ones on side mould trim, it also had a gouge (probably stiletto hell) on passenger aluminium door step trim.
A corker of a dented stone chip on bonnet, about 7-9mm diameter. Wished I'd took a pic to show u.
Windscreen had some small stone chips, but 1 at passenger top had a chunk, about 3-4mm wide and over 1mm deep, not cracked, but only going to happen if it’s not filled soon.
Driver’s interior aluminium door trim had some minor scratching.

So I says to salesman standing next to me.... "Not happy mate, I'm going to reject the car"... "Oh but we even put a new front grill on for you".... (I had noticed from internet pics it had a bit damage, so they agreed to renew)..."of course you did" I replied "it was broken it had to be done anyway."

So in pops the salesman to get the sales controller, by this time my wife's out looking at it, I points out the above to her, the bonnet dent / chip really pleases her. "No way, not buying it, bunch of time wasting *****" and of she trots to our car. Oh this is going really well I thinks. Have'nt even drunk my free coffee.

Salesman & sales controller come back out, points out to SC rejecting the car because....xyz, right away he says "no problem we will give you a full refund".

So long story short up the road we came without buying. Oh yeah also out of pocket for the fuel & overnight stay..........Audi Main Dealers Phfff.......

Moral of story, i'll never again trust the Audi Approved statement:

"As part of Approved Used Car Program, each car undergoes a series of stringent checks:

• we will undertake rectification work, ensuring the car meets our meticulous standards before it reaches the forecourt
• Comprehensive reconditioning and valeting
• ......."

Life on the ground differ's somewhat from the ivory towers Ingolstadt HQ commands.

DISCLAIMER: These are my opinions only and reflect solely to this car discussed.

 

[FranA3]

most main stealers are like that matey unfortunatly , did they offer you a disscount for the work to be done by you once you had bought the car ?? my boss is way better than that i work in the car trade so have seen most of the main stealers at work lol the valeting is done by a amateur's mate they do valets on a price per car so they do it as quick as poss to get the most money for that day not like i do in my work of per hour so the quality is much better than most other garages

 

[5wany]

most main stealers are like that matey unfortunatly , did they offer you a disscount for the work to be done by you once you had bought the car ?? my boss is way better than that i work in the car trade so have seen most of the main stealers at work lol the valeting is done by a amateur's mate they do valets on a price per car so they do it as quick as poss to get the most money for that day not like i do in my work of per hour so the quality is much better than most other garages

They did try to steer me in the direction of, you can take the car and get it painted (bonnet) and send us the bill, honest we'll pay you. The SC reckoned £100 should cover it.
Must think I'm a chump, any decent paint shop would want at least £350-400 to do a proper job on it. If anyone quoted £100 they must be painting it with their hairy ****. And why should I have the hassle running around fixing it.

TBH I'm dissapointed in not getting the car, but glad I did reject it as days down the line I would have regretted buying it in that condition.

Just really annoyed that people can't be straight with you about the condition of the car. When I travel hundreads of miles with the wife and my 1 year old daughter to a Main Dealer I expect a bit more. The condition of the car is what I'd expect from "Billy Bangers Best Buys" advertised in the free paper.

 

[greg1903]

That's shocking. You should maybe put your complaint to Audi customer service. Nae sure it'll make muckle difference, but you never know - they might compensate you for travel costs.

 

[sub39h]

yeah definitely worth flagging with Audi HQ re: your travel costs.

in regards to the bonnet £400 would be at Audi Approved rates, otherwise you should be looking at £200ish. i wouldn't accept unless the paint was totally rectified tbh. sounds like a pile of garbage and i'm very surprised that an Audi dealership allowed a car to even be considered for sale in that condition.

depends on the dealership tbh i seem to have gotten a good hand. bought new from Leeds Audi, nothing but stellar service, considered buying new off two Audi dealerships in Birmingham and got stellar service, including them basically giving me a car for a day instead of a test drive. was a V6 A5 too.

I got my Audi Approved car from Teesside Audi, with stellar service. we found a tyre fault about 4 months later and they refunded that basically no questions asked.

get my car serviced at Birmingham Audi Approved and get fantastic service there as well

i'm fairly surprised that this has happened tbh

 

[crunchie]

I've seen some rough Audis for sale in dealer forecourts but yours sounds like one of the worst.
I'd be phoning HQ and putting a complaint in!
Some poor ****** that knows no better will buy it eventually I'm sure.
Audi laughing all the way to the bank!

 

[auroan]

Some dealers are bad, but others are really good. I've bought cars from both Harrogate and York Audi for really good rates and both dealers have been top dollar in both sales, after sales/service and parts.

It wasn't Doncaster Audi by any chance was it ?

 

[5wany]

It wasn't Doncaster Audi by any chance was it ?

No not Doncaster

sub39h,
I'm very surprised as well, they tried to sell it with the bodywork in that condition. I'm no fool and anticipated it would likely have some very small stonechips even with 22k on it, but if these are touched in properly and t-cut & polished they become almost invisible. But some were so large and some clown just dubbed a splodge of touch in paint on them then went for lunch I think. The condition was something I would see at an auction, and then know that was the reason it was being sold at auction.

I think the dealers though hey this is a nice spec car with low miles, we'll sell this & and assumed people will trade of the condition for the low miles/spec. NOT ME.

BTW they have already listed the car back on Audi's site with pics to follow, guess there will be no close ups of bonnet. The investigative few of you should be able to work out the car.

 

[auroan]

Well there are two at sheffield, a silver and a blue one and both around 22k miles with pics ? Thats the only south yorkshire dealer A3 I can find.

 

[5wany]

Well there are two at sheffield, a silver and a blue one and both around 22k miles with pics ? Thats the only south yorkshire dealer A3 I can find.

Yup, your pretty hot:thumbsup:

Was the Akoya with red leather.

 

[sub39h]

akoya with RED leather?!

 

[5wany]

akoya with RED leather?!

Yup its a pretty nice combo, if your into that sort of thing. It's back up on Audi main site if your interested.
Post won't take link, but if you search and list must haves as : diesel, leather, bose, cruise, pdc, you'll find it (170bhp sport £14985). Incidently, they have used the pics showing the front chrome part of the grill still broken.

Also had bought a oem bluetooth kit in advance ready to fit this weekend, so that's now on ebay if anyone's interested, will also post link on classifieds;

AUDI Bluetooth KIT - A3 A4 A6 TT UHV Rns-e BNS on eBay (end time 26-Mar-11 20:17:10 GMT)

Man still p11sed of about this whole thing

 

[heeman10]

Atrocious.

 

[A3_Rider]

Lol @ 100 point check thingy...

They really do not do this, ever.

My worry with main dealers now is whether or not they actually do a car service i.e. when mine needs pollen filter replacements, Gearbox oil, etc

 

[FranA3]

They did try to steer me in the direction of, you can take the car and get it painted (bonnet) and send us the bill, honest we'll pay you. The SC reckoned £100 should cover it.
Must think I'm a chump, any decent paint shop would want at least £350-400 to do a proper job on it. If anyone quoted £100 they must be painting it with their hairy ****. And why should I have the hassle running around fixing it.

TBH I'm dissapointed in not getting the car, but glad I did reject it as days down the line I would have regretted buying it in that condition.

Just really annoyed that people can't be straight with you about the condition of the car. When I travel hundreads of miles with the wife and my 1 year old daughter to a Main Dealer I expect a bit more. The condition of the car is what I'd expect from "Billy Bangers Best Buys" advertised in the free paper.

i know exactly what you mean mate you prob get better service in places like i work for example if any paint needs to be done its done , any dents are sorted , any mechanical defects are done strait away so if the car sells it can go out strait away without the cusomer having to come back at a later date as in most of the time nowadays loads of people buy cars from the internet so live far away we sell cars to people who live as far away as cyprus, jersey , scotland , ireland etc... main dealers aren't allways the best place to buy used cars it seams

 

[JCMCN]

A few years ago I bought a demonstrator A3 from Sheffield and found everything exceeded all expectations. Customer service, car condition, ability to haggle all brilliant. They even gave me a free hat which had a £10 tag on it. They also called me 4 weeks later to check I was pleased

My Local Audi Dealer has so far treated me like absolute crap And this was after spending 20k+ on a new A3. If I had my way I would make them all unemployable and level the site.

It would be interesting for someone to start a Post on Good/ Bad Dealers, Then we would know who to avoid and maybe they would pull their trousers up.

 

[h5djr]

A few years ago I bought a demonstrator A3 from Sheffield and found everything exceeded all expectations. Customer service, car condition, ability to haggle all brilliant. They even gave me a free hat which had a £10 tag on it. They also called me 4 weeks later to check I was pleased

My Local Audi Dealer has so far treated me like absolute crap And this was after spending 20k+ on a new A3. If I had my way I would make them all unemployable and level the site.

It would be interesting for someone to start a Post on Good/ Bad Dealers, Then we would know who to avoid and maybe they would pull their trousers up.

I have used Huntingdon Audi for all seven of my new A3s and they have done the maintenance work on all of them. I am very happy with the service I get from them. All dealers are independent companies with an Audi franchise and some are good and some are not so good.

My wife has a Polo and uses Bedford VW which is part of the same Vindis Group and is very peased with the service she gets from them. I have also heard good reports of Bedford Audi, which is also part of the same group. Perhaps the fact that the Vindis Group is owned and run by the two Vindis brothers, who take a very keen interest in the day-to-day running of the garages helps.

 

[PilotAudi]

Is it the one at Sheffield RE08. Probably an Ex Audi car with that spec and Reading Reg no.


I only ever had one bad experience with Audi. A company called Dovercourt years ago who have now been taken over. A lot of it is down to effective leadership and management at the centre. Sounds like you have had a bad experience. I would go back and seek a resolution and contact Audi UK Customer care.

 

[5wany]

Is it the one at Sheffield RE08........................Sounds like you have had a bad experience. I would go back and seek a resolution and contact Audi UK Customer care.

that's the car..... thought about contacting Audi themselves bth don't hold out much hope of them doing anything constructive & can't be bothered with the hassle (I've had enough for this week).

Everyone has different experiences, mines just turned out to be crap from this dealer.

 

[5wany]

Just to update, I received the V5 docs yesterday from the DVLA and sent them to the dealer who would only refund my deposit once they got these. ( They had put the car in my name when taxing it)
So hopefully get my depost back by end week.

I also took delivery of the Rns-e new model that I bought in anticipation of getting car so its now on ebay if anyones interested.

AUDI A3 S3 Rns-e OEM SAT GPS NEW 2010 CHROME MEDIA on eBay (end time 06-Apr-11 21:03:42 BST)

cheers