New car collection - what to expect from dealer?

CamS4 · Aug 4, 2015

So in a few weeks I pick up not only my first Audi, but my first new car.

I'm counting the days until collection day but while it's a big thing for me, for the dealer I'm just another customer.

So my question is: what can I expect from the dealer in making the collection day an experience? Are certain freebies on the cards?

scotty76 · Aug 4, 2015

I got a thorough handover of the car in a specially roped off bit of the showroom. The sales guy went through all the controls and answered any questions I had. Freebies: I got a litre of topup oil and a bottle of champagne.

ruairi83 · Aug 4, 2015

Ask for flowers for Mrs or pick item from merchandise shop. Your paying top dollar for car so why not...

CamS4 · Aug 5, 2015

Ok, sounds good. Is free tank of fuel standard?

jdp1962 · Aug 5, 2015

Officially, half a tank of fuel is included, but mine was full. I too got the handover in what I termed the departure lounge, plus a bottle of champagne. I also managed to blag one or two ad hoc extras. just little things I'd expressed an interest in and the sales staff said "here, on us".

jdp1962 · Aug 5, 2015

scotty76 said:
II got a litre of topup oil and a bottle of champagne.

@scotty76, knowing how confused you get, I hope you remembered which was which

scotty76 · Aug 5, 2015

Mine had half a tank of petrol which as @jdp1962 says is I think standard. Didn't last long.

scotty76 · Aug 5, 2015

jdp1962 said:
@scotty76, knowing how confused you get, I hope you remembered which was which

Got it spot on Jeff. My knees feel great, well lubricated and the car farts champagne bubbles.

mcfc1987 · Aug 5, 2015

Picked mine up last week, car was undercover in the delivery suite with a thank you Mr and Mrs xxxx display board next to it.
Signed all paper work, dealer then did an embarrassing "reveal" where I think he expected us to start crying. The wife was then given a pretty epic bunch of flowers, oil was in the boot, car had just over half a tank of fuel.
Dealer then asked if there was anything I wanted to know about the controls, he set my Bluetooth up, showed me a few bits, asked what phone/MP3 I had then went and got me the correct lead to plug it into my glove box.
Lots of hand shaking, smiles and a very swift handover

Bristle Hound · Aug 5, 2015

For ours - Full tank of fuel (that didn't last long either lol), litre of top up oil (which they all should have as this gets added at the factory), AMI cables (again should come from the factory with them if you have it fitted)
I specifically asked the Dealer NOT to prep the car or have the big reveal thing with the silver sheet, so had a filthy car in the 'Delivery Suite', which I was more than happy with
& that was it for me. Nowt else, however I was able to negotiate the 1st two services for free (£600-£700 for a S4) for taking the car 2 weeks early
Having already had a B8 A4 before there wasn't a lot for the Salesman to show me TBH

There is a train of thought that says if your getting lots & lots of freebies on collection then you haven't haggled hard enough when buying your car ...

elpeterol · Aug 5, 2015

No freebies for me just another attempt to sell me gap insurance!!!

silentbrown · Aug 5, 2015

The feedback you give to Audi UK is important to the dealership and the salesperson. Expect the Business Manager to try and lodge the phrase 'extremely satisfied' in your frontal lobe several times.

We were asked if there had been anything in the sales process that had been unsatisfactory. I mentioned a couple of minor niggles like the inability to track the car progress online, and next thing we were offered a slap-up meal at their expense.

If Audi merchandise is your thing, then this would be the time to try and load up on that, as the dealer mark-up on it is probably huge.

scotty76 · Aug 5, 2015

silentbrown said:
If Audi merchandise is your thing, then this would be the time to try and load up on that, as the dealer mark-up on it is probably huge.

I would think this is the best bet. Petrol will is an inflexible expense to the dealer whereas as @silentbrown says the merchandise will have a large margin.

Anthony566 · Aug 5, 2015

I got full tank, flowers, booze, Audi key rings and something else but I cant for the life of me remember what ....

Dippy · Aug 5, 2015

Bristle Hound said:
There is a train of thought that says if your getting lots & lots of freebies on collection then you haven't haggled hard enough when buying your car ...

Possibly true. I negotiated really hard on mine so all I got was less than half a tank of fuel!

mcfc1987 · Aug 5, 2015

If your not getting free GAP insurance and free servicing then your doing something wrong with your negotiations

GeoffDunk · Aug 6, 2015

I had the following:

No cover as I didn't want the big unveiling
1st 2 services included
Flowers for the Mrs + a bottle of fiz
Full tank of fuel
RS4 Floormats front & rear
Keyrings
Unmbrella
LED Audi pen torch
Large Audi storage cup/ashtray thingy
All the ipod/phone leads (at least one is STD)
Luggae Net (STD)

No GAP insurance be cause its a ripoff and basically B*ll&*ks.

The wife spent nearly 5 hours negotiating so we know it was an excellent deal as it was all of the above plus a big reduction in the orginal price of the car, OTR should have been £66k, we paid less than £58k.

We got a very simular deal at BMW when she purchased her X5, its fully loaded and she spent the best part of 6 hrs negotiating that deal. I think she wore them down and gave here the price and extras she wanted just to get us out of the showroom as they wanted to close up LOL.

She does love to haggle!

All this has worked out well for the dealer as she is now ready to trade her X5 in for a new Q7 so we will go back to the same dealer and same salesman and do it all again...................he'll hide up when we arrive!!!!

Dippy · Aug 6, 2015

Sounds good Geoff, but then again it is an RS!

I negotiated just over £9K off my nearly fully loaded S5 sportback. If anyone can match that and say that they also got free GAP and free servicing then I shall possibly feel aggrieved. However Audi GAP is too limited for me anyway, and I'll be getting mine serviced way before the free one would be due.

Jariah · Apr 14, 2016

I have just ordered my new a3, i've done so through finance, can i expect some sort of handover experience for a financed car or is this something only people who have bought their car get??

jdp1962 · Apr 14, 2016

Shouldn't make any difference whether you've bought on finance, cash or barter.

rossdagley · Apr 14, 2016

List price for mine was £68k. I paid £57k with GAP and first service included. For my 4 hours of haggling, on the collection day I got a full tank of fuel and a 'please don't come back again!" in a friendly manner

They chucked in an RS4 keyring I fancied the look of and had mentioned a week or so previous but that was it. I thought it was nice of them to remember the keyring.

Regarding finance, you'll always get a better price taking finance over paying cash. If you have the cash, STILL take finance, and pay it off within 14 days (without charge).

Jariah · Apr 14, 2016

jdp1962 said:
Shouldn't make any difference whether you've bought on finance, cash or barter.

Appreciate the response!

New car collection - what to expect from dealer?

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