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-   -   Audi Approved Used & Warranty - Not worth the paper its written on ? (https://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10436)

IT 18th August 2015 03:12 PM

Audi Approved Used & Warranty - Not worth the paper its written on ?
 
Yes, Me, Mr 'change my Audi every month' has been on a bit of an Audi brand downer for a few weeks now, and it's probably time I shared, as its been an eye opener.

It started with a routine warranty claim, which opened a can of unclosable worms for me.

The 4.2 Tdi Q7, currently in my tag, was bought privately, but had been purchased from Hitchin main Audi dealer only 8/9 months earlier.

Cosmetically it was great, with a massive spec, and as it was still under fully transferable, Audi warranty, peace of mind for everything else was guaranteed, right ?

A common issue I noted at the time the keyless door handles didn't work, but Dave (seller) didn't even realise it was supposed to have keyless locking. Given that he'd paid such a premium for this car, saddened me to be honest.

Anyway, I paid him some of my fine Yorkshire pounds safe in the knowledge that I could get it booked in under warranty at my local dealer at my leisure, and drove home.

It took a little juggling to get the Q7 booked in for the work doing, mainly because I needed a big courtesy car that would take all 4 kids + the missus whilst we were without the Q7, but my local Audi dealer was very accomodating about this.

It's a minimum 2 day job as the handles need painting before they can be fitted, but handles can't be painted until the work is approved by the warranty company, and the warranty company won't approve until the car is hooked up to Audis systems to prove the fault exists. This is all fine, and logical. All four handles were suspected faulty. That's 4 door controller modules bleating errors, and around £300 a piece retail cost.

Dropped the car off Monday 20th July. Got a call Tuesday, the warranty company have rejected the claim and there is nothing more my Audi dealer can do without charge. Huh ?

It seems the warranty company, being a third party, understandably, won't pay out for pre-existing faults. Hold on. Pre-existing faults. Huh ? huh ?

It turns out the car was retailed from the main dealer with the defective door handles in place, and as the warranty can only be assigned to the car when a full scan is performed, the warranty company seem to know dam well what was, and wasn't broken when the warranty was applied.

-- But they sell the warranty to the dealer anyway and allow the customer to **think** the car is 100% ok --

Huh ? huh ? huh ? So the bulletproof, world renowned Audi Warranty may, just not pay out randomly?

But wait, surely, when you explain that the car is less than 12 months into ownership from an Audi dealership they'll rush to action :Confused:

No, that's not exactly what happened. And really, that's where the little issue, got much bigger.

On the third day after getting Audi UK involved, :argue: did Hitchin agree to pay for the work that should have been done in the first place.

But it was a fight. And many would have given up. Disappointingly, I was left with the feeling Hitchin hoped I would. I learned today, they still have not paid the bill, leaving my local dealer currently out of pocket, and to their credit they haven't asked me to cough up. Yet.

Now, I dare say that had the original customer taken the car back to the supplying dealer, then hopefully it would have been quietly, and efficiently mopped up and fixed. All goes a bit wrong if it ends up at a different dealer because you moved home or sold it privately.

Why, oh why, was the car retailed broken in the first place, yet with a glowing multicheck report showing everything (including the keyless:eek2:) as fully working? Signed off by three members of dealer staff no less. Incompetence, or cost saving were my obvious thoughts but today I'm told it seems that they tried to investigate the fault but didnt get to the bottom of it (Really?), combined with a change in a number of key managers at the dealership, means they dont seem to know how it's happened. Not exactly the rock solid confidence boost I was hoping to hear. Far, far from it.

This isn't just about me, or my car. In theory my car is fixed. Or at least the keyless is. Its about all used approved Audis - Not the new ones with long warranties with no break in cover. They should be fine (??). Its the slightly older ones, where fresh warranties are applied at point of sale... You know, the ones that a lot of us buy.....

So. How many used approved cars out there are being retailed with niggly little faults ? The ones that don't put a light on the dash, and/or the customer wont notice ? Is my Q7 now fault free, or even covered in the event of other issues. I honestly don't know. Same goes for my RS6....

Did I really, honestly, get the one in a million ? I just wish someone could convince me I did..... :-(

Delboy 18th August 2015 04:40 PM

That's pretty poor performance from the supplying dealer and as for the warranty company totally expected.

They will try and wriggle out of any claim, still it's not what we the customer expect or need.

How would we the customer prevent warranty companies from doing the same in the future?

Do we take VCDS with us, and or demand to see a clean bill of health from their diagnostics machine which they then sign on the day of purchase so we may challenge the company at a later date should we need too.

Glad you got it sorted out with your local dealership who sound to be a bit fairer then the original one.

tintin 18th August 2015 05:00 PM

Not good Ian, though it doesn't surprise me. I could add my views here, but as I'm now an ex-Audi customer, it'll probably not be seen as constructive on an Audi forum. Good luck getting it sorted - maybe they'll see the light and remember the value of happy customers, but I doubt it.

IT 18th August 2015 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delboy (Post 98314)
Do we take VCDS with us, and or demand to see a clean bill of health from their diagnostics machine which they then sign on the day of purchase so we may challenge the company at a later date should we need too.

Yes, that does seem to be the crux of it. Treat the purchase of a used approved Audi just like any other private purchase. Hardly worth the price premium is it ?

mattylondon 18th August 2015 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delboy (Post 98314)
Do we take VCDS with us,

Quote:

Originally Posted by IT (Post 98318)
Yes, that does seem to be the crux of it.

On one occasion I was refused to scan a 5 year old Passat that a friend was buying. I wish I hadn't asked and just scanned it while on the test drive. Friend still bought the car and it showed no faults when we finally did scan it. The dealers will have to accept this that we do our own due diligence.

paulrstaylor 18th August 2015 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IT (Post 98318)
Yes, that does seem to be the crux of it. Treat the purchase of a used approved Audi just like any other private purchase. Hardly worth the price premium is it ?

I'm having a few "teething issues" with my current car that has resulted in it going back to the supplying dealer for a number of weeks while they have loaned me another A8. If you were the original purchaser then the premium is probably worth it, although there is certainly a case of buyer beware in the pre-sales checks as some of the issues I have should have been picked up, indeed at least one was caused as part of the PDI!?

The advantage of having bought this directly from an Audi dealer is that they have no way of getting out of the repairs as they seem to have tried with you, ultimately pre-existing issues should have been resolved as part of their prep. I will wait and see if that is how it pans out, but thus far I have no suggestion that it wont.

I guess the issue here is the ability to buy an 'approved used' Audi outside of the dealer network, whilst maintaining the benefits of the warranty?

IT 18th August 2015 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulrstaylor (Post 98323)
I guess the issue here is the ability to buy an 'approved used' Audi outside of the dealer network, whilst maintaining the benefits of the warranty?

That was my initial concern, but as the hassle increased, it deepened into this realisation that, in theory, if a dealer retails a 2nd hand car, they can choose it seems, whether or not to invest time and money resolving issues up front.

They seem to have the option to gamble on whether you'll notice and bring it back.......

You have indicated you have issues, which is now causing you effort no doubt to book in and get resolved. Have a look at the multipoint check sheet supplied with the car. I'd be **very** interested to know if the issues you have are ticked off as ok on that sheet - Mine were.

Sometimes, customers might come back to get them resolved. Sometimes they might not, and the customer knowingly, or unknowingly just has a car that is wrong. It could be ruining the Audi experience for the sake of the dealer pocketing some extra cash, or failing to train their service staff.

My core grievance now is that Audi UK seem to have no quality control check on the dealers - They seem to be able to sell whatever, however they want under a nationwide marketing banner of the Approved Used program which makes lots of promises, some seemingly empty.

I have an open case with Audi UK to answer this exact question.

Preventing the warranty from being sold onto a car showing faults (like some other manufacturers I believe) would be a great checkpoint, but this obviously isn't the case, making me wonder if Audi UK actively turn a blind eye to the practise.... I'm still clinging onto the hope this isn't the case. :(

kele 18th August 2015 06:39 PM

I had a similar experience with mine ( bought from main dealer with audi used approved warranty )...

As I picked the car up, I noticed the door handle switch had failed before I even drive it away. Turned out that since they had not registered the warranty with audi at that time, that I was not covered by audi used approved warranty at that moment. Even though I had bought and paid for a car with a audi used approved warranty! However, the dealer took the hit and did the repair at their expense. I went on to have a significant amount of work done over the next 12 months. On the bright side, I think I got an extra few days warranty out of it in the end as a result of the dealer completing the warrantee paperwork late...

IT 18th August 2015 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kele (Post 98327)
I had a similar experience with mine ( bought from main dealer with audi used approved warranty )...

As I picked the car up, I noticed the door handle switch had failed before I even drive it away. Turned out that since they had not registered the warranty with audi at that time, that I was not covered by audi used approved warranty at that moment. Even though I had bought and paid for a car with a audi used approved warranty! However, the dealer took the hit and did the repair at their expense. I went on to have a significant amount of work done over the next 12 months. On the bright side, I think I got an extra few days warranty out of it in the end as a result of the dealer completing the warrantee paperwork late...

So, positive result in your eyes, but fundamentally, the car wasn't prepared properly before it was handed over ?... Shocking pattern emerging here.... :mad:

paulrstaylor 18th August 2015 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IT (Post 98329)
So, positive result in your eyes, but fundamentally, the car wasn't prepared properly before it was handed over ?... Shocking pattern emerging here.... :mad:

I suspect that it is rife, be interesting to see what Audi UK come back with. As I said earlier, I know as a fact that some of the issues with my car were actually caused as part of the preparation by the supplying dealer, I'm waiting to get my car back as it should have been before I decide if it is worth pursuing. :mad:


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