Dealer satisfaction

[Roger M. Woodbury]

Yes, I quite agree that "quality" dealers are few and far between, and many
will cut their mother's throat for a buck.

But I have worked hard at finding good ones.

The 89 Avant in Minneapolis was billed to me as "the real deal".  It was
eight years old and had 61,000 miles on it, sold by the dealer to the
original purchaser and maintained at that dealership.  A copy of every work
order ever written on the car was included.  I was told on the phone that
the car had been driven to work by the owner for the first three
years....15,000 miles per year, and then they had inherited a lot of money,
and the car was used only as a "summer" car.

That was backed up by the service records, which showed 15k each year more
or less for the first three years, and then the mileage dropped nearly in
half.  It proved to be a superb car....and arguably the best automobile I
have ever owned, surpassing the Mercedes 190DT that I had bought new in
1987.

The neat part though, is after giving the salesman my credit card number for
the deposit over the phone (at 6 PM Minneapolis time), the sales manager
called me back two hours later.  The purpose of his call was to find out how
the blazes someone from the Maine coast found them in Minneapolis, and to
tell me that since I was not trading a vehicle they were reducing the price
of the car by $900.

When I picked up the car....it was July 5th...the car was spotless and
driving away I noticed that the fuel tank was full.

That was what I called FIRST CLASS SERVICE from a retailer of any sort.

I bought my 100CS Avant from a BMW dealer in Kansas City this past August.
We exchanged numerous emails and a few telephone conversations.  They took a
whole series of digital pictures and sent them to me.  I found that car on
Auto Trader on line.  The car was a '94, had 39,000 miles and was a one
owner.  Serviced by them originally as they had been an Audi dealer under
previous ownership, then the car was maintained by the current Audi dealer,
by the book.  I was told who owned the car previously, and from that
information, I KNEW that the liklihood was that the Audi wasn't the only car
under the car port.

The V8 required two 'o' rings in the back of the heads where the cooling
lines run in after about six thousand miles; the 100CS required a new high
pressure hydraulic line shortly after it got back here.  The 200 Quattro
required nothing for the first year.
The point is that I was looking for these specific models.  In the case of
the 100CS Quattro, I was looking for that specific color combination and
equipment.  But I had to travel to get them, and had to go into unfamiliar
territory and then make a leap of trust in dealing with the dealer.

In buying a used car, my advice is to look hard for the right car, and be
prepared to travel some distance to buy it.  Qualify the dealer hard....talk
and email a lot or as required....get it in writing, and then be prepared to
walk away even leaving a deposit if necessary, in case the car was totally
misrepresented.  I got a decent deal on all three of these vehicles....not
the cheapest, but not the most expensive, and the results have been
gratifying.

For me, it was also fun.

Roger




----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Rowe" <rowe at yankeeprinter.com>
To: "'Roger M. Woodbury'" <rmwoodbury at downeast.net>; <quattro at audifans.com>
Cc: "'V8 at audifans.com'" <v8 at audifans.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 9:17 AM
Subject: RE: Dealer satisfaction


> Consider yourself lucky.  I'm sure there are some good dealers out there
> but finding them is like finding a needle in hay stack.  In your case I
> can guarantee you that the dealer paid close to nothing for that V8 when
> the previous owner traded it in.  He probably made a nice profit when he
> sold it to you so $238 was a drop in the bucket.  Personally, I will
> probably never step foot into a dealership again except only to test
> drive a vehicle I'm unfamiliar w/ and then look for it thru a private
> seller who's got records and doesn't want me coming to his front door
> after I find out he lied about something major.  By nature, dealers are
> greedy and will lie about anything/everything to make the sale.  Just my
> .02 cents.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: quattro-admin at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-admin at audifans.com] On
> Behalf Of Roger M. Woodbury
> Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 4:55 PM
> To: quattro at audifans.com
> Cc: V8 at audifans.com
> Subject: Dealer satisfaction
>
>
> 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
>
>
>
>
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