GTI Delivery Woes

**Maverick** · 09-11-2009, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted by triode12

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** · 09-11-2009, 01:02 PM

Originally Posted by Maverick

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...

**G-rig** · 09-11-2009, 01:08 PM

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** · 09-11-2009, 01:15 PM

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

**G-rig** · 09-11-2009, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by weiero

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

Better off going to an independent: Very happy going to Mike Weber Prestige & Performance.

**Swallowtail** · 09-11-2009, 01:03 PM

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...

**lawsy82** · 09-11-2009, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by 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...

Mate I was given a choice, ur right - U can test drive only if you are buying a vehicle TODAY... And yep I was buying one on Saturday, however the good old " We are not discounting" was a little bit of putoff, because as I have mentioned in another thread - 10mins up the road i negotiated a $4,200 discount....

**JasonP** · 09-11-2009, 03:03 PM

I had a great experience with Austral when I bought my 118TSI in June 09. I'd ordered it in early March 09, & they didn't try to stuff me around at all.

However, when I went back in Sept 09 to buy my 103TDI, it was a totally different situation.

I ended up buying the diesel through Ian Boechetter Motors at Ipswich.

There were a couple of minor issues at delivery (centre console bin lid adjuster broken, & the RNS510 not displaying properly in the MFD2), however everything was sorted to my satisfaction, & I'd have no hesitation in recommending them.

I rang the Sales Manager before the GTI was released, & he invited me down to test drive the GTI on the saturday they were released. This with the full knowledge that he couldn't sell me another car at the moment, as I'd bought 2 so far this year.

I took a Steel Grey DSG GTI with 18s & Sunroof, & RNS510 for a 45 min blast.

No dramas.

Could be worth the drive out there for good service.

**pinzvidz** · 09-11-2009, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by Maverick

The problem seems to come from the top down and the blame must lie with the dealer principal

To a degree...

and the owners attitudes filtering down.

Ah, you mean AP Eagers. I've heard horror stories from unhappy customers of not just Austral, but some other dealerships/franchises they have as well.