Well what a difference a couple of days make!
Had a meeting with the Audi Sales manager today for just over 1 hour. Decided I might get a bit emotional with the sales guy if I dealt with him which was a good move.
Nice chap and quite a bit of experience, too with Audi and Lexus. Both had a laugh talking about Japanese companies as I spend some time working with Panasonic
Anyway, he had the details from the brochure all ready to tell me that S3's only had silver headlining...
...and I had the detail from the Audi configurator saying that it was possible!
One call to Audi and he looks at me and very quickly apologies as they got it wrong.
So I have had a valuation on my current S3 (of which the Air Con has now packed up this weekend marvellous!) so I think along with the bills to tidy up an insanely small number of scratches, the fact that the discs and pads need replacing as these are from new and along with the car needing a service in 2K miles Im probably going to take his offer, its not great but I know any owner has over £2K of bills at least...
I got offered free GAP insurance due to all my troubles
...and they are going to replace the entire headlining and fittings, as well as guaranteeing the work and will update the log book to reflect the changes made.
Quite a result, for a bit of very sensible negotiation, I thought.
The other option was another 3 month wait for a S3 which I did not want, not cash payment for the incorrectly spec'd car, I mean I have paid over £7K of extras on the thing and did not want to be reminded of the detail each time I pulled down the sun visor.
Did sit in the bucket seats. ****** awesome! The steering wheel is fab too. You also sit a lot lower in the car than my current S3. Wicked.
Feeling a tad better now.
Oh and the issue with the 'wrong number plate' is something to do with new vehicles that these have a plate on them in the UK as its something about not being able to be re-register or register a car with no identity (did not push the issue much), but if you chose not to have the DVLA allocated plate, then this is allocated to the car but not 'fully registered', basically meaning my new S3 xxx plate will be the first 'registration' the car has.
Just have to wait a while now for the car...
Oh, yes you might like to know the fastest time from delivery in the UK to keys in the hand and drive away is 5 days. My problem was the sales guy did not tell me the car was in the UK. Its been from the 30th March!
We had a good long chat, the sales manger and I, and I think he's going to review new car process as he freely admits that what happened to me was not good enough when buying a specialist motor.
Good stuff indeed.