audi dealers - do they actually want my money?

[audigex]

After three weeks of trying to arrange a test drive, I'm starting to wonder if any audi dealer within 100 miles of me wants my money.

First I went on the online request a test drive form and was told a dealer (lake district Audi) would get back to me. After waiting over a week and not getting no reply, I decide to give them a ring and cut out the middleman. They told me they didn't have a car in the spec I wanted (5dr 2.0tdi 170, preferably black edition but I'd survive with sline. He told me they only had a 3dr 140 sline, only available a week later and couldn't get hold of anything closer.

Seeing as it was the best they could get I booked a test drive, then phoned dealers further away (Preston an hour away, Manchester and Liverpool at 2 hours) none of whom had anything vaguely similar available. Preston said they would ring me back as they may be able to get hold of a service demonstrator, Manchester said they would let me know if anything came up and Liverpool said nothing.

A week later and I've not heard from Preston or Manchester, nor a peep out of Liverpool... When lake district call me back to say that they've just sold the car I was going to test drive, and they're getting a sport 3dr 140 next week,... Managing to be a different model, spec and engine to what I want, all at once, and it's only available in another week, maybe. What use is that to me, they may as well have a land rover defender I might be able to test drive next march.

Seriously, do none of these people want to take 25,000 pounds off me? I've never known it be so difficult to spend so much money!

 

[Lings]

Sounds grim up north

 

[ayr_audi_nut]

I took my TTs into 2 Range rover garages and both never bothered getting back with a trade in price against a new vogue, when i called one back the guy told me he had forgotten......walked into Audi and they basically bit my hand off to get me to buy a new Q7, go figure in todays economic environment!!!!!

 

[warren_S5]

I keep a tweed sports jacket with elbow patches, some **** stained corduroy slacks, and some holey brogues for when I visit Audi. I also ensure I say yar as often as I can. As the dealer then thinks I'm a member of the landed gentry they don't jet wash me off the premises when I turn up car browsing. Once they've skunked me of the contents of my wallet and taken the checkered shirt from off my back they still let the dogs loose, but it's good sport!!

Seriously though, I can't wait for the recession to bite them as in the main they are complacent, presumptuous, arrogant and at best incompetent. The weakest part in the Audi supply chain is the UK dealer network!

 

[audigex]

To be honest I think the slow-as-**** factories pumping out one car a week are nearly as bad - I thought long and hard before deciding to go for the (optimistic) 4 month waiting period of an A3. The dealers are barely any better though - I phoned so they didn't see me, but I mentioned I was 21 in case it mattered for insurance. They also didn't seem too bothered about me when I went into the dealership until I started naming engines, specs, pointing out to my friend about which cars have the double exhaust and the word "cash"... they still didn't seem to be going out of their way to accommodate me, though. Answering my questions but not suggesting a test drive and then only giving me a "sort of close" spec to test drive.

Lake District Audi have completely lost my custom - unless I can't limp the car any further afield, I won't even be using them for servicing. If they mess me about for 3 weeks and then cancel 18 hours before the test drive, that's not customer service I want to be a party to.

Drive The Deal it is... and pot luck as to which dealer I go through. If they turn out to be useless, I'll just buy a ****ing Focus and be done with it.

Edit: one order provisionally placed with DriveTheDeal. Provisionally on account of the fact that they say in their terms that they don't promise they can get the price I want. A nice £3,000 discount on it, too.

Only issue I have is that they don't mention about warranty extension in the options - hopefully I can add that once I've been put in touch with the dealer.

 

[H3ppy]

Audi in Aberdeen are shocking as well, I'm 24, and they wanted a deposit before I test drove a £14000 a3 tdi! Why the he'll would I put money down before I drove the car? Fair enough £50 quid or something but they wanted £500!

"oh ok mr Audi salesman, Let me just check my wallet to see if I have any change"......... Ridiculous!

 

[audigex]

That's even more daft... I'm assuming you told them where they could stick their £14,000 A3 TDI?

 

[Sandra]

They obviously dont need the potential sale.

 

[H3ppy]

That's even more daft... I'm assuming you told them where they could stick their £14,000 A3 TDI?

Yup, got a shot of a friend of a friends after that. Didn't like it in the end anyway!

 

[audigex]

They obviously dont need the potential sale.

Barely even the need for the word potential - as long as I could get a reasonable discount (no more than a dealer would expect to do) and the car didn't put me off, they had the sale. The test drive was more of a formality to ensure I could get comfortable in it and there was nothing properly unusual that put me off - I figured if I was going to the dealer it was worth having a drive, but they've put me off dealing with them at all unless they happen to be the broker's dealer.

 

[audigex]

I think the option to edit that post has gone, so sorry for the double post: just thought I may as well use this thread to document my experiences using DriveTheDeal so others know what to expect - there are often people trying to decide whether to use them, maybe this will help.

Placed the order on the drive the deal website at about midnight on Friday (15th August). Didn't hear anything back from them on Saturday, they say they usually get back to you within 24 hours - assumedly the actually mean next working day. Not that I mind, but since they don't seem to send a confirmation email, I thought maybe the order had gone wrong.

Anyway, I got a phone call at 4pm today, however, just confirming that they had my order on their system: apologised that it was fairly late on, but he'd been trying to get an estimated delivery from the dealer as he didn't want to accidentally misquote me: I said I'd been quoted 10-12 weeks from dealers for build weeks, but adding on a few weeks for delivery and optimistic salesmen I was reckoning on 4-5 months anyway and not to worry too much about it ... the only issue will be if the dealer they use has a lot of orders so has a backlog, I suppose.

Edit: A second call this morning to check that I was happy with(/accept) the delivery time (5 or 6 months!?!) and to confirm the spec. I was expecting a long wait, but even so, Jan/Feb came as a bit of a shock... I was hoping for christmas-new year, maybe slipping into January due to christmas. If I want this car, though, that's how I have to get it, I suppose. Adjusted the specs slightly (put the badges back on it, I figured it's easier to take them off than add them) and asked about hill-hold assist which hadn't been available online - perfectly timed, as it turned out, as the dealer phoned literally 10 seconds after I asked and could confirm that it could be added. I got a missed call off an unknown number (possibly the dealer) while I was on the phone to the broker, but they've not called back yet.

 

[audigex]

Got a letter today from the broker confirming the spec and that my deposit had been taken - I've not spoken to the dealer directly yet, I'm going to get in contact with them tomorrow via the number on their website just to check everything is okay, but it's been about as smooth as it could be so far other than the long lead time.

Only problem so far is that they don't seem to have specified the non-smoking pack... I'll mention this when I ring them, hopefully it shouldn't be a problem at this early stage.

 

[audigex]

Checked in today after hearing literally nothing from Audi since the 6th September when I phoned them to make sure that my warranty had been added to the order. 4.5 months since the car was ordered and still no confirmed build date, although they've said to "expect delivery at the end of March" - over 8 months from order to delivery assuming no delays now. 6 weeks from build start to delivery seems an awfully long time, and I'll be having words with them if it does actually take that long - they originally told me end of Feb/start of March.

To be honest, I'm not as fussed about the end of February - I'd hold it for the 12 plate anyway given the option - but it doesn't take 6 weeks to get from Germany to the UK. I could push it here in that time.

 

[jagojon]

same build date as mine mate, could be on the same boat

 

[audigex]

Boat buddies!

When did you order yours, out of interest?

 

[jagojon]

Boat buddies!

When did you order yours, out of interest?

middle of july matey , same sh!t experience when i wanted a demo to try too!

wanted to try a 140tdi A3 sportback, sent me a 170tdi A4 estate and told me it was 140 and all they could get. only drove it 100yds and instantly knew it wasnt a 140, found the PDI sheet in the glovebox, defo 170, but as mines a company car i can only have a 140 due to the tax liabilty and me being a tight wad!

my boss was even worse, he wanted to order an A5 coupe 3.0 tdi quattro, in the end the messed him about that much he ordered a 335d bmw coupe

have got to the point now that I am not that bothered if my A3 turns up at all! Audi customer service..... dont make me laugh, more like Aldi customer service and thats being unfair to Aldi!!!!

all the best, bet you get yours before me!!!

jon

 

[marktdisport]

i think someone should copy any paste this thread and send to them just to show how racked off we are with there poor sales and aftersales service we get

 

[audigex]

Forgot to update this - I emailed them again at the end of week 8 (after being told build week was 6) and was told it had just come out of the factory and they'd let me know when it shipped. Then heard nothing until last thursday when I got a call to say it was coming into stock and to arrange delivery... for this wednesday she's finally nearly here.

Almost exactly 7 months ordering to delivery: I don't think I'll regret my choice of car, but I wouldn't do a dealer order with this sort of wait again. The experience with Audi has been mixed - the lady I'm dealing with at Gloucester/Blade Audi (I won't name names) has been very friendly, replied to my emails promptly and accurately (although occasionally missed one of the queries while answering the others in the email).

My main criticism is lack of unprompted communication. All it would need is an automated email after 3 months saying nothing had changed (to save me having to ask), another automated email once the build week changed, another email once it confirmed (if different to when it changed), one when it came out of the factory, one when it shipped and the phone call I got. It sounds like a lot, but it's less than an email a month, and it could easily be automated: they had to put in more effort to reply to me when I asked, and it's the same number of responses. Again, no criticism of the saleslady I dealt with, they obviously don't have the system to do it.

But yeah, from the actual ordering to nearly-delivery I've little complaint other than I'd have liked a few extra emails to keep me informed, rather than feeling like I'd been forgotten after 5 months ... and to be treated with a bit of respect when I initially went in for a test drive at Lake District Audi. Pics to follow.

 

[TFSI]

Many years ago when i bought my first new A3 i walked into my nearest dealer in shorts, t -shirt and trainers and when a salesman finally decided to approach me he looked me up and down said very little and thrust an A3 brochure into my hand, i walked out and bought the car from a dealer a little further away. That first dealer has now missed out on four new A3's because of the stupidity of one of its so called sales staff. Moron did not know wether i was spending £40 or 40,000...................Absolute dipstick.

 

[murran]

wait 7 months for a car? thats rediculous.
if i was buying a hand built ferrari or a veyron id expect to wait that long, but not a run of the mill car you see on the road everyday.

 

[audigex]

To be fair to Aud re the wait, they never hid it from me (well, one earlier dealer did, the one I actually bought from was totally up front with it though). They told me it would probably be end of feb/start of march to them, and it got to them on the 8th. I'm not sure I'd do the same wait again - it feels like a very long time ago that I ordered this car - but I knew what I was getting in to.

 

[audigex]

And the final update to the "Jon buys a car" tale... a happy ending as she turns up in perfect condition at 11 this morning. Only criticism is that when she got handed over, the fuel had just ticked over onto the reserve - they used my own diesel to deliver it to me.

The delivery chap was very nice though.

Here she is: