My R8 - not,impressed with audi dealers
Discussion
truck71 said:
Central booking service can put the car into Victoria Audi (behind Victoria station so central London)
Vic Audi are by a country mile the best dealership I have used. They aren't sullied by a sales dept so they can concentrate on the service bit of the business with no shiny suits to distract them. They seem to book work in much sooner than the others and always have a decent courtesy car available - last time it was the new shape A6. I have had the displeasure of Multistorey Audi. They serviced my car and changed the brake pads but couldn't complete an outstanding item so I said I'd bring it back later in the week. I did so and they gave the car back with a recommendation for......yes, new brake pads. I said either that you didn't fit them 3 days ago and charged me fraudulantly or you are trying to rip me off now - which one is it? They were unbelievably unapologetic about that.
Ahh, now that's interesting. I guess it could be an option if the car gets collected/ delivered from Chiswick. My beef is heading into central London of a morning when my commute is the other way however if the service is worth it then it may require some relationship building to get what I need. Thanks for the heads up.
I used my dealership 'once'.
Heard the horror stories at work - guy in the office got his £300 service paperwork showing '26 psi' in the spare wheel when he knew it was flat with a puncture and thought they might be cutting corners - they did apologise as there must have been an error.
I used them to fix the defective rear number plate light (wasn't just the bulb) that I thought might have been under warranty! It cost me £500.
Once they stripped the whole car down they called to ask if I wanted to spend £250 on a lighting controller box to fix the problem (no rear plate lamp is MOT failure), and by the way you just as well as it will cost £250 to but it back together. Following a rather heated debate I swore I would never use them again and never have.
Interstingly I've now had a request to complete a feedback form from the owners of Multistory Audi and having given an honest appraisal have had a subsequent communication directly from a chap who claims to want to know about my recent experience. So repeated feedback given (why not read the first one) and will report back on any proposed action if at all...
Not spectacularly local, but Camspec in Crawley have a master tech who is R8 trained I believe. Just make sure he does the actual work on your car and not the person who left the supplied oil in the boot of my car (having noticed it was there and without thinking to check the work sheet) and proceeded to fill it with the regular stuff they use for everything (nothing wrong with the oil they put in, it's the right spec, I just happened to have stacks of top quality esther oil in my garage to use!)
Aside from that mishap they have been consistently good at fault rectification on the cars I have.
Aside from that mishap they have been consistently good at fault rectification on the cars I have.
Adrian E said:
Not spectacularly local, but Camspec in Crawley have a master tech who is R8 trained I believe. Just make sure he does the actual work on your car and not the person who left the supplied oil in the boot of my car (having noticed it was there and without thinking to check the work sheet) and proceeded to fill it with the regular stuff they use for everything (nothing wrong with the oil they put in, it's the right spec, I just happened to have stacks of top quality esther oil in my garage to use!)
Aside from that mishap they have been consistently good at fault rectification on the cars I have.
Happens; techs get paid on their time efficiency and with routine service tasks they tend to be on autopilot.Aside from that mishap they have been consistently good at fault rectification on the cars I have.
Agreed, Dr G - they also didn't charge me for the oil they put in, as they correctly had noted on the job sheet to use what I supplied. When error pointed out they offered to drain and refill the following week with another new filter, but since my car does 4k a year I figured it was wasteful to bin 8-9 litres of perfectly reasonable VAG synthetic oil 
They've done brilliant job of sorting the alignment out on my S8 and fault finding electrical niggles
They've done brilliant job of sorting the alignment out on my S8 and fault finding electrical niggles
Anyone on here have any experience of Warrington Audi? I have recently bought an R8 and will be taking it for a service soon though it will probably be only an oil change. Usually steer clear of main dealers but all services so far have been done by Audi so makes sense to keep it going even though i know a very good BMW/Audi indy i have used many times before. Cheers.
Nedzilla - ironically WA were one of the stamps in my R8 service book so pre-purchase I called them and spent ~30 mins on the phone with a great lady called Diane who drilled into the system and gave me a detailed history on all services (at 6:00pm too). This doesn't recommend the work quality but at least this was great service.
One key factor in recent years was also repeatedly telling all service techs NOT to replace the K&N filter despite all the glary stickers on the airboxes. So far OK
I always wonder about supplying own oil ie only way to check they actually used it is to ask for empty cans and remains after the service.
One key factor in recent years was also repeatedly telling all service techs NOT to replace the K&N filter despite all the glary stickers on the airboxes. So far OK
I always wonder about supplying own oil ie only way to check they actually used it is to ask for empty cans and remains after the service.
Never had anything fancy to take for a service at Warrington Audi but have dropped off an A4 a few times. Customer Service was excellent, I'm sure it was Diane who dealt with it and she was fantastic.
Rear window regulator needed replacing and they couldn't get it done in a day as hoped so ended up sorting a courtesy car at about 6pm.
Have been to collect parts numerous times for various cars, covered in various states of oil/mess and they are always polite and happy to help!
Rear window regulator needed replacing and they couldn't get it done in a day as hoped so ended up sorting a courtesy car at about 6pm.
Have been to collect parts numerous times for various cars, covered in various states of oil/mess and they are always polite and happy to help!
Edited by SmithyAG on Wednesday 17th September 18:43
Cheers guys. I did nip into warrington Audi a couple of months ago albeit only for a litre of oil and a wheel bolt cap and to be fair it is a very nice set up and I was treated like royalty! Like you say though,doesn't really say anything about how this will reflect on the quality of the work done by the tech but I can certainly see what the extortionate labour rates pay for!!
Nowhere near your neck of the woods, but Leeds Audi are the worst.
Leeds Audi took two trips to sort a faulty radiator, four trips to sort a faulty iPod dock and two to fix the rear boot lock. That was on a '10 A3, yes the car was crap. The dealer, worse.
They have a particularly surly team of staff who would rather argue with you than do their bloody job, and if you're not wearing the same cheap-ass M&S suit as them then they'll look down on you.
Previous to this, they were doing the Quattro service on my sister's A3, drained it, never refilled it and the thing seized up on the M621.
Enough to make me never want an Audi again.
York Audi were amazing with my first ever (2nd hand, not from them) Audi purchase. Found out the service history of my car, did some recall work, nice courtesy car.
Leeds Audi took two trips to sort a faulty radiator, four trips to sort a faulty iPod dock and two to fix the rear boot lock. That was on a '10 A3, yes the car was crap. The dealer, worse.
They have a particularly surly team of staff who would rather argue with you than do their bloody job, and if you're not wearing the same cheap-ass M&S suit as them then they'll look down on you.
Previous to this, they were doing the Quattro service on my sister's A3, drained it, never refilled it and the thing seized up on the M621.
Enough to make me never want an Audi again.
York Audi were amazing with my first ever (2nd hand, not from them) Audi purchase. Found out the service history of my car, did some recall work, nice courtesy car.
Interesting reading re all these Audi horror stories.
My dad used to have an A8 and it was in the dealership more than it was out. He bought it from them, a year old with about 20k on the clock.
One time it refused to start so was taken in on the back of a truck to Guildford Audi. He went with it in the truck to get a courtesy car (A4 tdi) and asked them to look at the sat nav screen which was clicking when it went in/out of the dash. They had it for 3 weeks with no contact with dad. Dad called to ask what was happenning and they told him they couldn't fix the "non start" issue at the moment because other paying customers were booked in!! He went mental, was upgraded to an A6 and told it would be finished by the end of the week. 2 weeks go past, dad calls Audi who say there was a problem with a couple of the injectors and they have ordered a whole new set as they can't just replace a couple so it would take some time but it would be ready by the end of the week. Dad was upgraded to an A8 after moaning that he'd paid A8 money but was driving an A6. Another 2 weeks pass. Dad calls Audi who tell him only 6 of the injectors had arrived but that would be ok so they were being fitted and the car would be returned soon. Dad said on their advice they must replace all 8 of them (which they did) and a further week later he gets his car back. Asd soon as he got in, he noticed a massive chip in the wood where some oik had tried to jimmy the sat nav screen out with a screw driver. Dad went back into the dealer to explain they'd damaged his car and they said "it's not possible for us to damage your car" - BS! They eventually replaced it.
I feel so sorry for him, after his terrible experience he just wants a car manufacturer to look after him so he's turned to Lexus and now drives an utterly boring LS460. Ugh.
Another point to note - this came from a friend of mine about a year or so ago who worked at Audi as a mechanic - when Audi carry out an oil change, they don't drain the oil via the sump nut, they suck it out with a little vacuum, a bit like the thing a dentist's assistant uses. This means that any tiny metal fragments/other unwanted debris stays in the bottom of the sump/churns around the engine. Not brilliant.
Sorry its a long post.
My dad used to have an A8 and it was in the dealership more than it was out. He bought it from them, a year old with about 20k on the clock.
One time it refused to start so was taken in on the back of a truck to Guildford Audi. He went with it in the truck to get a courtesy car (A4 tdi) and asked them to look at the sat nav screen which was clicking when it went in/out of the dash. They had it for 3 weeks with no contact with dad. Dad called to ask what was happenning and they told him they couldn't fix the "non start" issue at the moment because other paying customers were booked in!! He went mental, was upgraded to an A6 and told it would be finished by the end of the week. 2 weeks go past, dad calls Audi who say there was a problem with a couple of the injectors and they have ordered a whole new set as they can't just replace a couple so it would take some time but it would be ready by the end of the week. Dad was upgraded to an A8 after moaning that he'd paid A8 money but was driving an A6. Another 2 weeks pass. Dad calls Audi who tell him only 6 of the injectors had arrived but that would be ok so they were being fitted and the car would be returned soon. Dad said on their advice they must replace all 8 of them (which they did) and a further week later he gets his car back. Asd soon as he got in, he noticed a massive chip in the wood where some oik had tried to jimmy the sat nav screen out with a screw driver. Dad went back into the dealer to explain they'd damaged his car and they said "it's not possible for us to damage your car" - BS! They eventually replaced it.
I feel so sorry for him, after his terrible experience he just wants a car manufacturer to look after him so he's turned to Lexus and now drives an utterly boring LS460. Ugh.
Another point to note - this came from a friend of mine about a year or so ago who worked at Audi as a mechanic - when Audi carry out an oil change, they don't drain the oil via the sump nut, they suck it out with a little vacuum, a bit like the thing a dentist's assistant uses. This means that any tiny metal fragments/other unwanted debris stays in the bottom of the sump/churns around the engine. Not brilliant.
Sorry its a long post.
FastRich said:
I feel so sorry for him, after his terrible experience he just wants a car manufacturer to look after him so he's turned to Lexus and now drives an utterly boring LS460.
He'll be fine with his boring Lexus, their dealers know about customer service and the product is pretty good too.Has he had any trouble with his LS?
Deerfoot said:
He'll be fine with his boring Lexus, their dealers know about customer service and the product is pretty good too.
Has he had any trouble with his LS?
Yep, better boring but reliable than not much more interesting and a constant liability. Lexus service is the best I've experienced locally.Has he had any trouble with his LS?
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