[BiturboS4] Important for those of you pissed at AUDI of America

[Bruce Mendel]

I'm tempted to stay out of this, but it's too irresistible. :)

Unless you can certify a "class", like a bunch of people whose cars were
delivered with scratched paint at night, you don't have the basis for a
class action lawsuit. Legal system lunacy aside, Scott's right..you can't
create a class of people that are angry at Audi and sue...you need a
specific cause of action.

Most importantly, Audi did not deliver a scratched car to you at night, your
dealer did. I guarantee that car was not scratched at the factory after
being painted. It is 99.9% likely that was done in transport or at the
dealer lot.

You were not forced to accept delivery of the car, or even to accept
delivery at night, or on a car with 320 miles, by AofA. If you legitimately
feel you were pressured by the dealer, or the defects and/or mileage were
hidden from you by the dealer, then by all means you should sue for your
money back. It might be late for that now though. The fender being painted
is also required to be disclosed. Your beef on all those issues is with the
dealer...Audi did not do any of those things. Of course, if this dealer has
had complaints like this lodged before, and AofA retains them as a
franchised shop, then your beef is with AofA as well. I learned the hard way
a while back, only during day on sunny day and after test drive do I take
delivery.

Regarding all the other defects, it sounds like you got a lousy car. For
that, there are lemon laws. The way to address that is to go through the
AofA customer care department, of which I have heard (but no yet
experienced) many horror stories. But there is a process to address your
complaints. On top of that, writing to the senior execs at AofA, calling
BBB, documenting all your problems and then getting your local newspaper,
ActionLine, TV station consumer affairs department, are all usually good
avenues to pursue. It sucks to have to go through that, but if lemon laws
(in shop more than three times for same issue or over 30 days in first year)
does not cover you, there's no way Audi or the dealer is going to give you a
refund without a struggle. Otherwise, every owner that got a car that is not
what they hoped for would want their money back. I'm not saying that's your
situation, but they do have to draw the line somewhere.

Let's face it, AofA has less than a sterling reputation among enthusiast
owners, and they have real issues with things like turbos letting go even
with routine and recommended maintenance being followed. So there is a real
problem, but I'm not sure how your issues will get a class certified and
sound like they have at least as much to do with a shady dealer as AofA.

Also, I'm amazed that with the low volume of mail I get from this list, much
of it is personal attacks. C'mon guys!

Bruce
2001 S4, keeping my fingers crossed
93 S4, sold


----- Original Message -----
From: <MAJIKKAM at aol.com>
To: <stiles_s at hotmail.com>; <jimnetpa at yahoo.com>; <vr6pilot at hotmail.com>;
<engstrom at rawbw.com>; <biturbos4 at audifans.com>
Cc: <advocate1001 at yahoo.com>; <Tyger9 at aol.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 8:29 PM
Subject: Re: [BiturboS4] Important for those of you pissed at AUDI of
America


> --
> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> Scott:
>
> Do you work for Audi or something?  You know they have a terrible track
> record from the 80s.  And no wonder they offer that 5 year warranty.
Because
> you need it.
>
> You must have a perfect car.  I envy you.  The broad injustice is that I
paid
> $42,000 for a car that I should have bought from BMW.  Injustice is that I
> was delivered a car at night with scratches, pitted wheels and not
disclosed
> to me that it had 320 miles on it before I signed the papers.
>
> Also that the car was repainted on the left driver side implying that it
> could have been in an accident. Is that enough or shall I show you my
service
> record?
>
> Please reply Mr. Audi Advocate
>
> Desperately waiting your reply,
> KSM
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