GTI Delivery Woes

[Tyko]

I had similiar issues on the Sunshine coast.

I pre-ordered at GTI, with a signed contract, before the prices were officially releseased. When the prices came out, the dealer then upped the price by $1500, explaining that the corporate discount was less than expected.

The dealer emailed me a new contract to sign and promised verbally over the phone that I would get my car by December. Fortunately I had time off so I decided to go down to the dealership instead.

At the dealership I found out, that in fact the dealer didn't have the car I was after and it fact, they wouldn't be able to get me a car until late Feb as there is no second shipment as I was originally told. They did have a manual in stock however, which I said I was interested in. However, the next day they told me they no longer wanted to sell it, as they had decided to use it as a demo instead. This is despite, having another manual in stock (which I didn't want as it was fully optioned) that they could have used as a demo. I was quite annoyed by this time as I had been continually stuffed around. Due to personal circumstances, I need the car this year, which I have always made very clear.

A friend of mine recomended Karz (a car broker). So far I have been very happy with their service. They were able to find me a GTi, for almost $1000 cheaper than I was able negiotate through the dealer and I should have it by the end of the week, delivered to my door.

[team_v]

I had similiar issues on the Sunshine coast.

A friend of mine recomended Karz (a car broker). So far I have been very happy with their service. They were able to find me a GTi, for almost $1000 cheaper than I was able negiotate through the dealer and I should have it by the end of the week, delivered to my door.

That is good news that you finally got one that you were after at a cheaper price.

Just a shame that you had to go through all that mess in order to get it.

At least now with VW dealers being on the forum we might be able to get some straight answers and nice discounts.

[triode12]

VW Austral in Brisbane were a joke. I went on Saturday - walked around for 10mins before somone offered assistance which I declined.

Walked around for another 10mins, was again offered assistance by someone else, seemed knowledgable. We talked for a bit i asked for a test drive and he said " We arnt doing test drives today, we are only test driving cars if you promise to buy one today"....

WTF i couldnt believe what i heard. I asked him for his best price, and he basically said they were not discounting the vehicles at all- and the price he gives me will the full RRP....

So I drove 10mins up the road to another VW dealer, got awesome service, test drove a GTI, and 3 hrs later they had 2 sales ( My friend bought one aswell)...

I than called up Austral - Spoke to the sales manager and explained to him they had lost out on 2 sales, and 3 years of servicing and I asked how did they make him feel?? - I told him your sales rep was a wanker, your dealership is a joke ( No test drives on Saturdays WTF????) and I will ensure everyone I associate with knows about my experience at your dealership....

Looks like im not the only one who thinks they are joke - judging by the posts around here

I am dying to know...what was the sales manager's response to your complaint? ...probably didn't care I assume - they never do.

[pologti18t]

Moral of story so far:

Don't order a new model where no one knows the price, options or stock available

[masuri99]

....I had a few problems getting info on the new Mk6 GTI a few weeks ago (26/10/09).

I got in touch with Dave at the www.thenewcarfactory.com.au and he took two hours to source me 3 available gti's.

I chose one (red/5 door/man/rear parking sensors/tint) He got me a good price and I drove it away from the dealer on Monday the 02/11/09!

Too easy!

David

Dave: 02-8850 4457 www.thenewcarfactory.com.au

[Maverick]

I am dying to know...what was the sales manager's response to your complaint? ...probably didn't care I assume - they never do.

If he was anything like the one that I dealt with there (who has since left) he would have been an arrogant <censored>.

I had their sales manager call up and have a go at me over a post I made on golfmkv about all the problems I was having, the funny thing was that I had to this point believed their lies and had laid the blame squarely at Volkswagen and had said all good things about the dealer. That changed soon after as their lies started to unravel.

The problem seems to come from the top down and the blame must lie with the dealer principal and the owners attitudes filtering down. They claimed that they had changed with all new staff, new dp etc in late 2007 but after my experience in early 2008 I can't see how it did or if it were better I'd hate to see how bad it was in prior years.

[lawsy82]

If he was anything like the one that I dealt with there (who has since left) he would have been an arrogant <censored>.

I had their sales manager call up and have a go at me over a post I made on golfmkv about all the problems I was having, the funny thing was that I had to this point believed their lies and had laid the blame squarely at Volkswagen and had said all good things about the dealer. That changed soon after as their lies started to unravel.

The problem seems to come from the top down and the blame must lie with the dealer principal and the owners attitudes filtering down. They claimed that they had changed with all new staff, new dp etc in late 2007 but after my experience in early 2008 I can't see how it did or if it were better I'd hate to see how bad it was in prior years.

My friend told me not to go there, as he had the same problem as me - Got no service, and when I got service it was ****house!!! Like no test drives on a Saturday, and a real arrogant " We dont discount the Golf"....

Pull ur head in Austral - As I mentioned they missed out on 2 sales on Saturday and many more by the looks of it...

[Swallowtail]

I'm going to have to weigh in here... as some of you may know I have not had the best experiences myself at Austral, but in the interests of fairness...

Saturday just gone Austral had a major sales day event, and had 20+ staff on board to assist. They had GTIs going out for test drives all day, and were having to restrict those test drives due to time and car resource limitations. Not to say that in the instance quoted the salesperson treated lawsy82 with appropriate choices, but there are always two sides to every story... it's not quite as cut and dried as it comes over...


To give them some credit, Austral have (in the last couple of months) undergone a(nother) shake-up. The newly appointed (August this year) dealer principal has spent several years at Subaru dealers in the Eagers group I believe, and has made a lot of changes in personnel at all levels within Austral. It will be interesting now to see if those changes filter down into more positive experiences at the coal-face - people walking in off the street asking for good customer service.

The guys at Austral have been in touch with me recently, and are aware of the comments and criticisms that are levelled at them... They also know that I have not been an Austral fan, but having been in contact with both the dealer principal and the group managing director, they are making efforts to address the issues.

The acid test will now be if anything actually changes...

[G-rig]

People should give Highway a go.. much nicer people, and that's where i bought mine (the Manager at the time has moved on which is a shame). Maybe being in the valley everyone is a bit too good and has an attitude

[weiero]

Even the service deparment is a bunch of ^%$#'s. Never going back there!!