Dealer satisfaction

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Since I never buy a car that is newer than five or six years old, when I was
looking around for a good, later V8 Quattro, I spent many hours on the
Internet searching for the "right" car...hard to do, considering that there
are relatively few, late model V8s with low mileage.

When I had bought my '89 200 Avant, I had gone to Minneapolis to Carousel
Motors to buy it.  A first rate experience, so naturally, I called them to
see if they had anything......nope.

So, my search continued, and I had serious flirtations with quite a few cars
over the year that I looked.  I decided to limit my search to east of the
Mississippi River, more or less.  I preferred to deal with an authorized
dealer, figuring that they have quite a lot invested in their franchise, so
"burning" some guy who finds them on the Internet might be worth less than
not selling the car to begin with.  So the "qualification" continued,
although there were few cars to chose from, as I said.

Finally, I found a promising specimen in Pennsylvania....the right color
exterior, and almost the right color interior.  60,000 miles and two owners,
with a strong recent maintenance history.

We made a deal, and I flew to Philly.  The sales manager met me in his A8,
and took me the twenty-five minutes or so to the dealership.

Now, I am from Maine, and to see the inventory of Audis and Porsches in this
place was a near religious experience. I think there were more used Porsches
there than there are farm tractors in this county....but I digress.

The car was pretty close to as represented by pictures and narrative
description.  A surprise:  completely new tires by the previous owner.
Seems that he just had the major service done....timing belt and water pump
etc, and then stopped in at the dealer and saw this natty slightly used A8,
and well, just HAD to trade.  I bought it and headed for Maine.

When I got here, the car went to my wrench for an inspection and a state
inspection sticker.  Now, the dealers' warranty was 1000 miles and 30 days,
and the thousand miles was up before I got home.  But I had been assured
that the dealer did not fail to stand behind their cars.....

My mechanic found that there were a few issues with front end pieces....and
rear brakes before it would pass the mandatory inspection here.  He called
the dealership and spoke with the sales department.  They offered to split
the cost with me, which was fine...I had driven a pretty good price on the
car, so something was better than nothing.

That was in June.  The summer being my busy time, I had the work done, paid
for it, and promptly forgot to send a copy of the paid bill down to
Pennsylvania.  Last week, sorting through stuff for taxes, I found the
receipt.

I really thought I was "SOL" through my own fault.  But I wrote a note to
the sales manager and sent along the bill.  That was Thursday of last week.

Yesterday, I received a check for the agreed amount....$238 and change.

The point of all of this, is that long after the fact, the dealership stood
by its word and did as it said it would do.

I rate my experience buying a car through the internet from Don Rosen
Imports in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, to have been a first class
experience.  And I want everyone to know, that if you are looking for an
Audi you might find it there.  From my experience, it will be a first class
ride and the experience of dealing with them, will be first class as well.

Roger