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Old 18th August 2015, 03:12 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Harrogate, North Yorkshire
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Unhappy 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

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, 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) 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.....
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The First 20 Audis:

2001 D2 4.2 QS Silver, 1997 D2 S8 Silver, 1999 D2 4.2 Silver, 2002 D2 S8 Dolphin Grey,
2003 C5 RS6 Blue, 1998 D2 S8 Black, 2000 D2 4.2 QS/S8 Ming Blue, 2003 D3 4.2 Ming Blue,
2005 B7 S4 Blue, 2006 D3 3.0 Tdi Black, 1999 D2 4.2 Silver, 2003 D3 4.2 LPG Crystal Blue,
2000 D2 S8 Silver, 2007 3.0 Tdi Q7 Black, 2009 B8 S4 Black, 1998 D2 S8 Agate Grey,
2006 D3 4.2 Tdi Blue, 2006 D3 S8, 2007 Q7 3.0 Tdi, 2006 C6 S6,

The Second 20 Audis:

2011 A7 Sline, 2001 A2 1.4 Tdi Black, 2002 A2 1.4 Tdi Silver, 2006 A8 4.2 Tdi Blue,
2007 4.2 Tdi Q7, 2006 S4 Cab Silver, 2010 RS6 Saloon Black , 2007 TT Roadster,
2010 A8 D4 4.2 Silver, 2006 C6 A6 2.7 Tdi Quattro, 2000 D2 4.2 QS/S8 Ming Blue (again), 2008 Q7 4.2 Black,
2009 C6 RS6 Saloon Daytona Grey, 2001 Fully Loaded A2 Tdi, 2006 Avant S6 Black, 2007 VW Caravelle Exec Black (almost an Audi)
2009 TT Roadster Daytona, 2015 Q7 4.2 tdi lava grey, 2002 GmbH D2 demonstrator, 2006 D3 A8 LWB 4.2 Tdi Black

Most Recent Audis:

2001 A2 1.4 Tdi Black, 2007 4.2 FSi Q7 ABT Blue, 2016 S5 Coupe Launch model, 2004 S4 B6 Cabriolet, 2016 Q7 Sline White, 2006 Q7 4.2 FSi Black, 2012 Q7 Sline+ 4.2Tdi White, 2008 Blue Audi S8

Everything Else

1989 Subaru Justy, 1986 Vauxhall Cartlton 2.0 GL, 1985 Vauxhall Carlton 2.2 CDi, 1987 Ford Sierra XR4x4, 1983 Vauxhall Senator, 1985 Vauxhall Senator 3.0i, 1997 Polo Saloon, 1997 Peugeot 306 1.9 TDi, Ford Sierra Sapphire 2000E, 1990 Subaru Justy, 2000 Subaru Impreza, 2000 Subaru Impreza RB5, 1993 Range Rover LSE, 2005 VW Bora, 2003 Skoda Superb, 2003 VW Passat V6 4 Motion, 1996 Peugeot 106, 2000 Range Rover 4.0, 2019 Tesla Model 3 Performance
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