Yes. Yes. Yes. Effin Marvelous!

[stevec]

Just had an email from the dealer!

My stupidly spec'd S3 will be available from the dealers on Monday 16th April!!!

Yippee. Can't wait!

Fantastic.


So AL_B have you got a date yet? Must be due a call from the dealer too?

 

[mark88]

How much did it cost you?

 

[S3Didge]

Crap car don't waste your money !

 

[hardcore Hallam]

Nice one mate, what was your bulid date?

 

[AL_B]

Just had an email from the dealer!

My stupidly spec'd S3 will be available from the dealers on Monday 16th April!!!

Yippee. Can't wait!

Fantastic.


So AL_B have you got a date yet? Must be due a call from the dealer too?

Congratulations mate!!

I've been chatting with the dealer today (via email), they only mentioned that mine had been built and awaiting shipping. No mention of a possible delivery date.

I'll send them another email.

AL

 

[stevec]

How much did it cost you?

Unfortunately no discount whatsoever. None. I am going to discuss with them over a couple of other items like the paint protection now I know that JamJar offer the base S3 with 2K off it.

 

[stevec]

Nice one mate, what was your bulid date?

Oops, changed my signature so its not shown anymore. Build week was week 12.

 

[Spook]

Unfortunately no discount whatsoever. None. I am going to discuss with them over a couple of other items like the paint protection now I know that JamJar offer the base S3 with 2K off it.

Where did you get £2K from? I've just checked JamJar.com and the saving quoted for an S3 is £1,084.84

 

[stevec]

Where did you get £2K from? I've just checked JamJar.com and the saving quoted for an S3 is £1,084.84

Oops. Looks like your right! Oh well, must pay more attention next time as i was probably looking at the other V6 prices! Promise not to do it again!

 

[Spook]

Oops. Looks like your right! Oh well, must pay more attention next time as i was probably looking at the other V6 prices! Promise not to do it again!

Easy mistake to make when you're negotiating a price with a dealer....

 

[emzino]

Wow it sounds like you got your S3 kitted for life! Shouldn't need another car for say... forever! lol. You can live in that

 

[TDI-line]

Wow, nice spec Steve.

 

[stevec]

Yahoooooooo!

Car is at the dealers! Going to have a look tomorrow. Expected pickup on the 16th!

Hurry up, I want it now!

 

[mark88]

Seems a long time for the dealer to have the car until you pickup?

 

[newbiecrg]

Seems a long time for the dealer to have the car until you pickup?

A couple of weeks is nothing... believe me!

Pedro

 

[jo_sal77]

Seems a long time for the dealer to have the car until you pickup?

Mechanics have to have there little spin in it first, like some gnvq college graduate taking a test... SPIN .... Then the sales staff have to let the customers test it out for another... SPIN ... oh and then the show room stand, where customers get to admire and fiddle with all the nobs and seats all day.

makes me wonder! I'd be so annoyed if that happened.

 

[jo_sal77]

Seems a long time for the dealer to have the car until you pickup?

When my new A3 arrived, the dealer said it only took 2 or 3 days max to prepare for collection. Why should an S3 take so long to prepare!?!

 

[JohnS3]

Congrats Steve. You might want to talk to the dealer about the long wait, it only takes them day to prep the car for you. If you can give them a cover note as soon as possible then they really have no excuse for not handing it over to you. Push em hard and let us know when you have the keys.

 

[stevec]

I think this is going to be a long week.

Just been to see the car outside the showroom and it looks fantastic with the steering wheel and bucket seats. Yummy.

Well almost. Its got a registration on the car already, which I really hope is a deterrant, but it looks like the guys have registered it with a WN07 plate and this is after I told them I have an S3 xxx plate and gave them the registration forms for it two weekends ago.

Oh, yes then there is the matter of the headlining. I wanted black and now seem to have white, despite my best efforts at the ordering process and emailing the audi configurator output to the sales guy.

I ordered my last S3 from Germany over the phone and email 5 1/2 years ago with a guy who did not speak English as his native tongue and he got it spot on, even making sure I had not ordered optons correctly, emailed and faxed confirmation back to me. Now I deal with a guy in my backyard (relatively speaking) and its not looking too good...

I'm off to kick something.

 

[JamS3]

They don't seem to get it right quite often!

Mate ordered brand new A4 when the free BOSE offer was on and salesperson forgot to tick the box and it came without!

To be honest they have registered it on a "normal" plate to speed things up for you. I have a private plate too but it would have taken up to 3weeks longer to get the car registered on this plate due to retention certificates and document swapping to and from Swansea.

I got the car on my NV plate and when the V5 came through took it along with my retention certificate for my own plate to the local DVLA office and they did it there and then as it was already registered.

 

[stevec]

They don't seem to get it right quite often!

Mate ordered brand new A4 when the free BOSE offer was on and salesperson forgot to tick the box and it came without!

To be honest they have registered it on a "normal" plate to speed things up for you. I have a private plate too but it would have taken up to 3weeks longer to get the car registered on this plate due to retention certificates and document swapping to and from Swansea.

I got the car on my NV plate and when the V5 came through took it along with my retention certificate for my own plate to the local DVLA office and they did it there and then as it was already registered.

Problem is I object to the guys not doing this properly the first time as I told them from day 1 it would be on a private plate from new and its not been used before so it just needs to be newly registered. I'm certainly not going to pay the £80 registration fee to the dealer as its their choice to do it that way not mine.

I've been sitting here thinking about it and am going to get them to change the headlingin at their cost. I'm ******** if I am going to spend £34K on a car and it not be right.

What I can't fathom is why there is no feedback process from the dealer, I mean how complicated can it be to send confimation of the system order to the person after it's been entered?

Also in the age of project planning and tick boxes surely the Audi franchise expects brand consistency, is there no online project planning tools/checkboxes to deliver a car to a new owner? PDI is at least one process...

 

[JamS3]

I would not hold much faith in the PDI process too...

Mine came with paintwork defects on the front bumper on either side underneath the headlights! Missed at PDI pointed out and stated they would be sorted, picked car up....guess what....still there!

Turned out the blue foam bumper protection pads they put on the bumper to prevent damage on the boat had got water underneath and caused condensation underneath the lacquer. It went to their bodyshop and I watched whilst a heatlamp got rid of it all.

I would not hold out much hope of them changing the headlining for you, I bet they say you will have to take it as it is. Its a sorry state of affairs customer service nowadays as if you refuse the car they won't be bothered as they will just think someone else will come along a buy it!

 

[AL_B]

Steve,

That is such bad news mate. All excited for a new car, and they've messed up your order. Useless.

I still have had no word of when mine will arrive...hope all the bits I ordered have been fitted.

AL

 

[stevec]

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 I’m 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. It’s 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.

 

[mcmasman]

Glad they did all that for you, considering Audi as a luxury brand they should really pull up their pants and give their customers some proper service and compensation, especially when misunderstanding occurs. Don't be like another Mercedes.

A stress-free, happy buying expereince should come standard on all Audi's, don't you think?

 

[JohnS3]

Hi Steve,

Looks like your sales guy got his ZM (black trim, black headlining) and ZN (black trim, silver headlining) trim codes wrong, or perhaps someone mis-read them.

The whole process needs to be made more professional. I certainly kept asking my dealer for info on a weekly basis, (I'm sure it peed him off) But it had to be done or no-one would have bothered to do anything until the car turned up on the transporter.

I'm glad your happy with the outcome, not sure I'd like my headlining taking out.

 

[Plank]

Sounds like you got a good result in the end... well done.

By the way, fastest time from arrival in UK to handover to customer is 2 days. (1 day transfer from port direct to dealer, 1 day prep). I know because thats what mine took.

 

[JamS3]

John

Agree with you about the headlining!

I would have demanded cash compensation rather than my headlining getting ripped out and replaced!

 

[JohnS3]

I'm not sure they would have ripped it out. Carefully removed and replaced by skilled craftsmen is what Steve will be hoping for...

At least they got his phone prep in the right place, someone on here got the damn thing stuck on the dash by mistake!

 

[JamS3]

Thats true!

Still would not want it removed any way.

Stevec

Give Audi UK customer services a ring and complain, I got compensation for my troubles even though a heat lamp brought the car back to perfect condition.

I'm sure you would get well compensated if the car came not correct to you!

 

[AL_B]

Mine is allegedly bobbing up and down, on the ship [hopefully]. Not sure how long it will take from landing at Grimsby to the dealer...not long hopefully, as both are up-north.

I keep watching the Milltek vid ( http://www.millteksport.com/media.file.cfm?fileid=409), with the volume up a bit, to keep me going - just listen to that turbo whistle.

AL

 

[Spook]

I'm not sure they would have ripped it out. Carefully removed and replaced by skilled craftsmen is what Steve will be hoping for...

Unfortunately, the 'wrong' ZN trim code will forever be shown on the vehicle data sticker, to tell every subsequent buyer who may care to look that there has been a significant modification to the standard trim spec.

This would be reason enough for me to ask for cash compensation in addition to replacement of the headlining, in the (unlikely) event that I did decide to accept the car after the dealer's ****-up.

 

[stevec]

Unfortunately, the 'wrong' ZN trim code will forever be shown on the vehicle data sticker, to tell every subsequent buyer who may care to look that there has been a significant modification to the standard trim spec.

This would be reason enough for me to ask for cash compensation in addition to replacement of the headlining, in the (unlikely) event that I did decide to accept the car after the dealer's ****-up.

Got that covered too, informed the sales manager that I expect that the job is professionally done, if there is any problem it will be back with him to resolve. He is going to vet the work before i touch the car, and I said I am expecting the log book and the vehicle build sticker to be updated to reflect the trim change, meaning they have to discuss this with Audi and get their sign off. Thats his problem to resolve.

I did um and ahh about the compensation over the change but did not want the next (potentially) 5 years of the car ownership pulling down a white sun visor, I am also not going to have a problem with the wrong trim in the car not shown on the Audi log book for the car come next trade in either.

The dealer messed up and they are going to put it right, by Audi, to their knowledge and standard. Given the committment by the Sales Manager todate he is going to see this through and so far is delivering.

As to the not about ripping out headlining comments lads, appreciated, but this is just a car, expensive one but still its just a car, its not like I am going to take a spatula and a kitchen knife to the car on a saturday afternoon and do it myself, this is a trained fitter who is going to spend a day to put this matter right using the right tools. Anyway how do any of us know we have not got major warranty issues lurking on our cars as it was built on a Friday at 5pm? We don't actually.

I know we joke about quality of work of some dealers but so far the Bristol Audi parts and service people have, over the past 5 years, outshone the sales team (in their last 3 months dealing with me) and my current S3 has had a number of items of work completed on it very well indeed.

I've also had the pleasure of using a Newport top Audi mechanic, now works in Audi Cardiff, who was the dogs ******** and sorted out my brake issues on the 1.8TQ a few years ago (documented to death on Audiworld).

As for compensation I just want to drive a new S3, preferably today. I'm not in the 'its you fault so pay me culture' - sorry lads. I want the car I ordered in my possession so I can go out and enjoy it.

I just hope its as much fun when it arrives after the aggro it's caused so far.

 

[Plank]

Spot on attitude - Kudos!

It is only a car. And a mass-produced one at that!

Can't understand why people get so neurotic about them! It must spoil all their enjoyment because they spend the whole time worrying!

 

[klauster]

congrats on the S3 m8y.... roll on Monday.

As with most companies it boils down to individuals rather than trusting the 'company' they will get it right. Really annoying when a salesperson gets it wrong, and its an indication of them being good at their job...

which alot of them arent!

Saying that, Phil at West London Audi got mine spot on

 

[Spook]

Got that covered too, informed the sales manager that I expect that the job is professionally done, if there is any problem it will be back with him to resolve. He is going to vet the work before i touch the car, and I said I am expecting the log book and the vehicle build sticker to be updated to reflect the trim change, meaning they have to discuss this with Audi and get their sign off. Thats his problem to resolve.

I did um and ahh about the compensation over the change but did not want the next (potentially) 5 years of the car ownership pulling down a white sun visor, I am also not going to have a problem with the wrong trim in the car not shown on the Audi log book for the car come next trade in either.

The dealer messed up and they are going to put it right, by Audi, to their knowledge and standard. Given the committment by the Sales Manager todate he is going to see this through and so far is delivering.

As to the not about ripping out headlining comments lads, appreciated, but this is just a car, expensive one but still its just a car, its not like I am going to take a spatula and a kitchen knife to the car on a saturday afternoon and do it myself, this is a trained fitter who is going to spend a day to put this matter right using the right tools. Anyway how do any of us know we have not got major warranty issues lurking on our cars as it was built on a Friday at 5pm? We don't actually.

I know we joke about quality of work of some dealers but so far the Bristol Audi parts and service people have, over the past 5 years, outshone the sales team (in their last 3 months dealing with me) and my current S3 has had a number of items of work completed on it very well indeed.

I've also had the pleasure of using a Newport top Audi mechanic, now works in Audi Cardiff, who was the dogs ******** and sorted out my brake issues on the 1.8TQ a few years ago (documented to death on Audiworld).

As for compensation I just want to drive a new S3, preferably today. I'm not in the 'its you fault so pay me culture' - sorry lads. I want the car I ordered in my possession so I can go out and enjoy it.

I just hope its as much fun when it arrives after the aggro it's caused so far.

Given that Audi won't even officially sanction simple modifications to their vehicles after build like retrofitting cruise control, I'd be astonished if the dealer could persuade the factory to retrospectively change something as fundamental as the vehicle data sticker that now forms part of the car's Certificate of Conformity.

As for the compensation point, your call of course, but it's got nothing to do with the "compensation culture". Quite simply, the dealer failed to supply the vehicle you ordered, and you did them a favour by accepting it when you didn't have to; they should therefore have offered you compensation without you having to ask!

I admire your absolute faith in your dealer, but from long experience I fear I detect the unmistakeable whiff of BS about some of the promises that are being made to you....

 

[Plank]

Does it really matter if the build sticker has the wrong trim code on it somewhere? You'd have to be a real anorak to spot the error, so what does it matter?

The guys going to be getting the car he wanted.

He's happy with the outcome.

He's confident that the job will be done right.

And if it's not, I'm sure he knows what to do.

The end.

 

[Spook]

Does it really matter if the build sticker has the wrong trim code on it somewhere? You'd have to be a real anorak to spot the error, so what does it matter?

The guys going to be getting the car he wanted.

He's happy with the outcome.

He's confident that the job will be done right.

And if it's not, I'm sure he knows what to do.

The end.

Call me pedantic if you like, but I'd think it mattered if I'd just spent £30k+ on a new car.

 

[Plank]

But you haven't.

SteveC has.

And he's happy.

So stop trying to spook him!

P.S. Why do people keep banding "if I'd spent £30k on a car... blah blah blah" as if that makes it something special? 30k really isn't a lot for a new car these days... especially in the premium sector...

 

[Spook]

But you haven't.

Actually, I have - see my sig.

P.S. Why do people keep banding "if I'd spent £30k on a car... blah blah blah" as if that makes it something special? 30k really isn't a lot for a new car these days... especially in the premium sector...

Christ, I don't know how high up Forbes rich list you are, but £30k is a hell of a lot of money for me. I might be less bothered about detail if I'd ordered a £10k Ford Mondeo, but when spending £30k on a premium car I expect to get exactly what I ordered ....

And he's happy.

So stop trying to spook him!

Don't think he is, poor lad, otherwise he wouldn't be baring his soul in this bear-pit, sorry, forum. And it's just spook doin' what he does best (cue evil laugh.....)