Golf R Observations and Questions

[Danny]

I originally travelled high and low from VW Essendon,Hoppers,Geelong,Camberwell,Sth Yarra,Moorabbin and ended up buying from Glen Waverly......All dealers were very good to deal with, but G/W had the best and better price..

The first dealer I went to was Barloworld GW, they actually didn't seem at all in a hurry to help me out to be totally honest, Barloworld Moorabbin were quite unprofessional. Then took it to Sth Yarra VW where I got the quote I ended up going with, but not before shopping round to Burwin, and Bayford (who were absolutely fantastic in allowing me to drive a DSG and a Manual R back to back, but ultimately couldn't match my best quote), and back to B/World.

Burwin came the closest to the Sth Yarra VW quote but ultimately was STILL way out of the Sth Yarra Range (they were very good to deal with though). The rest refused to even come close with one dealer (BW Moorabbin) trying to spook me by hinting that there could be something wrong with the quote and to buy the car off him for $4k more for "peace of mind".... EDIT: Just noticed there is a BW Moorabbin employee here on VWWc might I just say I was pretty dissappointed and really turned off by that tactic. The guy tried to imply to me that when I went to put the deposit on, that the dealer would change their mind, or make an excuse to not honor the quote I had obtained. Needless to say, I then went on to Sth Yarra and put the deposit on, and the quote was honored (as it had been filed in the system and the quote was valid for 14 days), and signed off by the manager without a hitch. All the BW Bloke did was make me ***** bricks. I didn't appreciate it and would avoid VW Moorabbin in future..

Now its all locked in. Please hurry up March!!!!

[acheater]

Hey all. Got a Golf R on order and am keen for some feedback on the R in the wet. I have been a long time Subaru owner and one of the key features I loved on it was the little change required in my enthusiastic driving during wet conditions. From what I understand the R has the ability to distribute power as needed between the fronts and rears, rather than being all distributed evenly. Due to my long wait for my R I have been hitting up you tube for videos and reviews. The reason I am a bit worried is that allot of videos seem to point at the fact that under load, the R feels more like a FWD rather than an AWD. Personal opinions are what I am after, even more so from any former WRX drivers.

[Corey_R]

Hi Mate,
I merged your question into this thread (Observations and Questions!). I don't have my R yet, but I did see the Motor Magazine Hot Tuner Challenge where a (obviously "tuned") R trounced a pair of (also "tuned") WRX STI's and Lancer EVO's on an extremely wet lap of Eastern Creek. R did it in 1:59 and the Subies and Lancers were all 2:06 and higher (don't have the mag in front of me, so can't give exact times for each). So I'd say that the R does fine in the wet...

[HPSOV]

Just drove past a truck with about 7 new VWs heading from Wollongong to Sydney. At the front was a silver R, anyone?anyone?

[pcho]

Hi Guys and Girls

Just a quick question about when people ordered and when they are being told they are getting a car

I ordered a pretty basic spec blue dsg 5 door at the start of July and now my dealer is telling me April delivery.

Has anyone else had these delays as from what I read the other people who ordered in July are expecting a Christmas present?

Thanks Team

I ordered my R on July 8 and arrived Melbourne on 10th Oct. I expect delivery Nov 2. My dealer told me I was lucky because I ordered Manual transmission. The guys that ordered dsg will get their cars after Christmas as there is a production delay on DSG transmission.

Perry

[SilvrFoxX]

Hey all. Got a Golf R on order and am keen for some feedback on the R in the wet. I have been a long time Subaru owner and one of the key features I loved on it was the little change required in my enthusiastic driving during wet conditions. From what I understand the R has the ability to distribute power as needed between the fronts and rears, rather than being all distributed evenly. Due to my long wait for my R I have been hitting up you tube for videos and reviews. The reason I am a bit worried is that allot of videos seem to point at the fact that under load, the R feels more like a FWD rather than an AWD. Personal opinions are what I am after, even more so from any former WRX drivers.

The Subarus ( and I have one ) are front wheel bias but the R is closer to all wheel drive so I suspect you will not lose anything

[Serge]

The first dealer I went to was Barloworld GW, they actually didn't seem at all in a hurry to help me out to be totally honest, Barloworld Moorabbin were quite unprofessional. Then took it to Sth Yarra VW where I got the quote I ended up going with, but not before shopping round to Burwin, and Bayford (who were absolutely fantastic in allowing me to drive a DSG and a Manual R back to back, but ultimately couldn't match my best quote), and back to B/World.

Burwin came the closest to the Sth Yarra VW quote but ultimately was STILL way out of the Sth Yarra Range (they were very good to deal with though). The rest refused to even come close with one dealer (BW Moorabbin) trying to spook me by hinting that there could be something wrong with the quote and to buy the car off him for $4k more for "peace of mind".... EDIT: Just noticed there is a BW Moorabbin employee here on VWWc might I just say I was pretty dissappointed and really turned off by that tactic. The guy tried to imply to me that when I went to put the deposit on, that the dealer would change their mind, or make an excuse to not honor the quote I had obtained. Needless to say, I then went on to Sth Yarra and put the deposit on, and the quote was honored (as it had been filed in the system and the quote was valid for 14 days), and signed off by the manager without a hitch. All the BW Bloke did was make me ***** bricks. I didn't appreciate it and would avoid VW Moorabbin in future..

Now its all locked in. Please hurry up March!!!!

Will take in consideration everything you are saying.
Look, at the end of the day, everyone has their own tactics on selling cars. And to what you have mentioned about "dealer changing their minds" it does happen. Please dont get me wrong, if you got a bad experience here it doesnt mean that everyone else will get the same. I'm sorry that you have recieved that bad experience in our particular dealership, and wish sales person that dealt with you could have done it in a more professional way (may be it was me , who knows). At the end of the day, you have purchased a VW and thats great.

[AJAY]

I ordered my R on July 8 and arrived Melbourne on 10th Oct. I expect delivery Nov 2. My dealer told me I was lucky because I ordered Manual transmission. The guys that ordered dsg will get their cars after Christmas as there is a production delay on DSG transmission.

Perry

Hi Perry,

Thanks for advising that, my dealer couldn't tell me what the specific problem was on the production line. But that makes sense now as I ordered dsg.

The dealer said that the order of the car delivery is based on the order of the commission number.

I ordered my car on June 20 with a commission number of 15587X . The dealer said it's on track for January delivery due to production line issue.

Cheers
Ajay

[Danny]

Will take in consideration everything you are saying.
Look, at the end of the day, everyone has their own tactics on selling cars. And to what you have mentioned about "dealer changing their minds" it does happen. Please dont get me wrong, if you got a bad experience here it doesnt mean that everyone else will get the same. I'm sorry that you have recieved that bad experience in our particular dealership, and wish sales person that dealt with you could have done it in a more professional way (may be it was me , who knows). At the end of the day, you have purchased a VW and thats great.

I honestly have no clue who it was serge, but I expected that sort of talk from a Ford Dealer or a Car City Ringwood bomber jacket wearing, cigar smoking slick salesman, rather than a Dub dealer. It got me quite anxious. Appreciate your apology though bud. No hard feelings!

-Dan

[triode12]

Will take in consideration everything you are saying.
Look, at the end of the day, everyone has their own tactics on selling cars. And to what you have mentioned about "dealer changing their minds" it does happen. Please dont get me wrong, if you got a bad experience here it doesnt mean that everyone else will get the same. I'm sorry that you have recieved that bad experience in our particular dealership, and wish sales person that dealt with you could have done it in a more professional way (may be it was me , who knows). At the end of the day, you have purchased a VW and thats great.

Why must you even use tactics?
Can't you just treat customers with honesty and integrity and trust them to make up their minds?
The usual tactic of making customers wait (stew) while the salesman goes to "consult the manager" may work but it puts a bad taste in the mouth for most people when they realise what you have done.

Another consequence of the games you guys play is that a lot of people loathe the car purchasing process . So would probably defer purchasing a new car instead of doing so more often. How is this helping your industry? if you make it an easy, upfront (no BS) process -even more people would be willing to come to you.

I am sure if you use the straight forward No BS approach, you'd make just as many sales and in return build up customer loyalty/goodwill which would lead to more sales via word of mouth recommendations. I have helped the finance manager for the dealership I purchased my cars from, with on going word of mouth sales of 6-7 extended warranty sales a week since Dec. So that is one benefit of treating a customer like me with respect and honesty. But treat me like dirt and you'll bet I'll tell everyone I know and meet, how crap you guys are.

I cannot understand why dealers have to resort to American style sales tactics in order to make a sale. Clients are no longer naive and with the help of the internet and forums like these are on to the tricks and tactics you dealers employ. So it behooves your industry to change for the better and adopt more honest practices even though your experience might tell you otherwise.