Re: VW/Audi observations

[Peter_Szalay@amat.com]

Tom

Same thing here, but it seems to be confined to the VW and Porsche dealer.
I have had no problems with the local Audi shop (same as the Porsche but
seperate staff). I first noticed it before I bought my A4, I also looked at
the Passats. Then one day, my manager comes down from Colorado and loves my
A4, he says that he is looking for a car and wants to go look at Audis and
VWs (great day as I got paid for working while showing my boss Audis).

We get to the Audi/Porsche/Astin Martin/Jaguar/Rolls Royce dealership
collectively known as Scottsdale Jaguar. He loves the A6 but does not want
to pay as much as I paid for my A4. So we head over to the VW/dodge/wmb
(what a mix) dealer next door to look at Passats.

This sales guy walks over and starts talking. We tell him we were just
looking at Audis and wanted to see the Passat as well. He starts going on
and on how they are the exact same thing and that if someone wants to buy
an Audi, he will gladly mount four rings on the grille and charge us an
extra $10000 and call it an A6. So I say, the Passat is based on the A4,
not the A6 (just to argue). He says, no it isn't, its the same as an A6. I
say, the A6, just like the Passat, is based on a stretched A4 chassis, the
Passat is just not as stretched as the A6.

The sales guy gets a little pissed but my boss interupts asking about the
GLX with Syncro because he wants awd because he lives in Colorado (plenty
of snow). This sets the salesman off again. You don't need awd, traction
control is better, awd is just a fad. My boss again says that he _wants_
awd because he was snowed in several times last year and his fwd with
traction control just would not cut it. The salesman refuses to believe him
and keeps going on and on so we thank him for his time and leave.

Another guy I worked with wanted to get a little sporty car and went to
look at the wmb Z3 and the Porsche Boxster. The wmb dealer, he said, was
very pleasant and showed him all about the car and discussed any problems
that came up. The Porsche dealer was useless. During the test drive, my
friend commented on how noisy the engine was, he said that he knew it would
not be quiet driving in a mid-engined sports car but it was worst than he
thought (just a comment). The only thing the dealer said was, what did you
expect, its a Porsche. This was his response to everything that my friend
pointed out. My friend told me that he did not really mind the noise but
the dealer's attitude that this car is so great that there is nothing wrong
with it and he should not say anything besides, it's a Porsche, put him
off. He did not end up buying either car; he didn't like the wmb but he
also did not want to deal with the Porsche guy either.

This pissed me off; I know as well as the dealers do, that they are not
having any problems getting rid of Passats or Boxsters but they could try
to accomodate their customers and even if they don't believe in awd, just
let someone buy one if they want to. And if someone comments on the engine
noise, don't say "but its a Porsche", tell them that the engine is supposed
sound great and supposed to be heard in a sports car.

Peter