At the summit of the picturesque fens
I am going to re-count the experience I have had with York Audi (JCT600 franchise) over the past 6 days (yes six)!
It is going to be a long rant and could just be me expecting too much, but here goes:
Saw an Audi A4 estate on AT which looked like one I could want. Being sold by a franchised Audi dealer and advertised as "Audi Approved". The price was average retail, not super expensive but definitely not cheap. Price for the 2019 car with 29k miles was £19,708 (odd number I know).
So I rang the dealership and spoke to a trainee sales rep who is 19 years old. I asked for a walk-around video of the car and details of any marks the car had. I asked him not to do the video in the rain or on a wet car as it can hide many things.
10 minutes later I get an email with a video attached. It was taken outside in the rain and the car was wet. It was also dirty, so the rain had made the dirt run and look like multiple chips and scratches. I spoke to him once I had seen the video and said about the rain and dirt. He responded by saying yes it was dirty, that was because it has been sat on their outdoor 'pitch' for weeks! As for the water, he said it was raining, so it would be! He did confirm that everything I could see was dirt and not marks and the car was spotless.
OK, I thought. So I then asked for a copy of the service history. He said "it will have a full service history as it is Audi Approved, that is part of the conditions of them approving it". OK, so I asked him to send the history to me, so I can check it.
About 10 minutes later I get an email with an attachment of the Audi digital service printout. It had four entries: first was PDI entry, second was a service interval reset to 'fixed servicing' (every 10k or annually), third was a recall in 2020 and the last was a service done by the dealership selling it (done Nov 2023 at the same mileage it is currently on). That was it, no other services between 2019 and 2023.
So I rang him back and asked where the service history is? I had to explain to him that there was just one very recent service on the print out which doesn't constitute a full history. All he kept saying was that the car had passed all the inspections to make it 'Audi Approved'.
So half an hour later he emails me an invoice for a service done in 2020 by an independent (first service) which was in with the paperwork of the car. OK, so we have one service; what about the other two? He didn't know!
So I asked him to contact the garage on the invoice on the off-chance it had been serviced by them until recently. Two days later he responds and says they did service the car until earlier this year but were reluctant to send the invoices to him (quoting GDPR bollox apparently). So I said I would not buy the car without seeing proof that these services had been carried out. This went on from Friday morning until this morning (Wednesday).
I ended up ringing the servicing garage myself and asked the girl for the invoices. Within 5 minutes I had them!
Happy days! So I said I was happy so let's talk money and logistics. He then said "oh just to let you know, the price of that car was increased yesterday to £20,990 (from £19,708). You can imagine my response (or maybe not); suffice to say I wasn't very happy and there were more than a few expletives uttered.
At the previous price I was planning on paying around £19k for the car which I thought more than reasonable seeing as:
1. It's two weeks before xmas. How many people buy cars two weeks before xmas?
2. I know they have had that car a while (at least three months).
3. It's not a desirable spec as it's manual
4. Cars are (or so I thought) going down in value.
The last thing he said to me was "I can see if I can get it down to £20,700 but that will be the best I can do". I responded with "DOWN? That's £1,000 MORE than the retail price yesterday"!
I told him and his dealership to go and procreate with their respective mothers.
So bullet points from my experience:
Audi Approved means nothing, just two random words
Car salesmen are lazy, arrogant w*nkers (although I knew that already TBH)
Increasing the price of a car because you can't sell it seems to be perfectly logical to Audi York!
Sorry for the long rant! Again!
It is going to be a long rant and could just be me expecting too much, but here goes:
Saw an Audi A4 estate on AT which looked like one I could want. Being sold by a franchised Audi dealer and advertised as "Audi Approved". The price was average retail, not super expensive but definitely not cheap. Price for the 2019 car with 29k miles was £19,708 (odd number I know).
So I rang the dealership and spoke to a trainee sales rep who is 19 years old. I asked for a walk-around video of the car and details of any marks the car had. I asked him not to do the video in the rain or on a wet car as it can hide many things.
10 minutes later I get an email with a video attached. It was taken outside in the rain and the car was wet. It was also dirty, so the rain had made the dirt run and look like multiple chips and scratches. I spoke to him once I had seen the video and said about the rain and dirt. He responded by saying yes it was dirty, that was because it has been sat on their outdoor 'pitch' for weeks! As for the water, he said it was raining, so it would be! He did confirm that everything I could see was dirt and not marks and the car was spotless.
OK, I thought. So I then asked for a copy of the service history. He said "it will have a full service history as it is Audi Approved, that is part of the conditions of them approving it". OK, so I asked him to send the history to me, so I can check it.
About 10 minutes later I get an email with an attachment of the Audi digital service printout. It had four entries: first was PDI entry, second was a service interval reset to 'fixed servicing' (every 10k or annually), third was a recall in 2020 and the last was a service done by the dealership selling it (done Nov 2023 at the same mileage it is currently on). That was it, no other services between 2019 and 2023.
So I rang him back and asked where the service history is? I had to explain to him that there was just one very recent service on the print out which doesn't constitute a full history. All he kept saying was that the car had passed all the inspections to make it 'Audi Approved'.
So half an hour later he emails me an invoice for a service done in 2020 by an independent (first service) which was in with the paperwork of the car. OK, so we have one service; what about the other two? He didn't know!
So I asked him to contact the garage on the invoice on the off-chance it had been serviced by them until recently. Two days later he responds and says they did service the car until earlier this year but were reluctant to send the invoices to him (quoting GDPR bollox apparently). So I said I would not buy the car without seeing proof that these services had been carried out. This went on from Friday morning until this morning (Wednesday).
I ended up ringing the servicing garage myself and asked the girl for the invoices. Within 5 minutes I had them!
Happy days! So I said I was happy so let's talk money and logistics. He then said "oh just to let you know, the price of that car was increased yesterday to £20,990 (from £19,708). You can imagine my response (or maybe not); suffice to say I wasn't very happy and there were more than a few expletives uttered.
At the previous price I was planning on paying around £19k for the car which I thought more than reasonable seeing as:
1. It's two weeks before xmas. How many people buy cars two weeks before xmas?
2. I know they have had that car a while (at least three months).
3. It's not a desirable spec as it's manual
4. Cars are (or so I thought) going down in value.
The last thing he said to me was "I can see if I can get it down to £20,700 but that will be the best I can do". I responded with "DOWN? That's £1,000 MORE than the retail price yesterday"!
I told him and his dealership to go and procreate with their respective mothers.
So bullet points from my experience:
Audi Approved means nothing, just two random words
Car salesmen are lazy, arrogant w*nkers (although I knew that already TBH)
Increasing the price of a car because you can't sell it seems to be perfectly logical to Audi York!
Sorry for the long rant! Again!
North West Surrey
