GTI Delivery Woes

[JustCruisn]

A friend of mine has been eagerly waiting for her new GTI. She got the call this week saying it was finally in.
Yesterday she went to pick it up at Austral Newstead.
There were a few problems...
No Bi Xenon lights
No 18inch rims
Had a sunroof, they wanted more cash for it
Had bubbles and contamination in the paint.
Scuffs and scratches on a rim.

She did not take delivery and left in her old Mazda. Next shipment due march 2010.
Apparently they will have found a replacement car, due sometime next week.

What a a complete stuff up.
Has anyone else heard of problems like this ??

[ricksterrr]

A friend of mine has been eagerly waiting for her new GTI. She got the call this week saying it was finally in.
Yesterday she went to pick it up at Austral Newstead.
There were a few problems...
No Bi Xenon lights
No 18inch rims
Had a sunroof, they wanted more cash for it
Had bubbles and contamination in the paint.
Scuffs and scratches on a rim.

She did not take delivery and left in her old Mazda. Next shipment due march 2010.
Apparently they will have found a replacement car, due sometime next week.

What a a complete stuff up.
Has anyone else heard of problems like this ??

That is just appalling.

Was this for a pre-order and did she place a deposit on her car?

Not too many ppl here have had their car delivered yet, except for Murph and from the sounds of things he was extremely happy...

[team_v]

They may have sold her spec car to another person and figured since she was a female they could palm her off a under-spec'd one, giving them a double sale and using up the extra dealer stock that was delivered.

Just one potential reason.

[anarchycamp]

This exact same stuff happened with the MkV's.

Basically it got to the point where the demand was so high and supply so small (each dealer was getting a handful of cars a month) that dealers were selling to the highest bidder essentially. There was a thread on here a couple of years back about it all I think.

Were reports (don't know if its all true) of dealers doing all kinds of dirty tricks to make the biggest margin.

However....I thought that the first shipment of GTI's weren't to spec anyway? They were just a batch that they then sell as they are, could be wrong.

[Lima]

However....I thought that the first shipment of GTI's weren't to spec anyway? They were just a batch that they then sell as they are, could be wrong.

This is my understanding too, and is how we bought our 3dr Mk5 GTI ... the dealer showed a list of cars on a boat and their colours/options. We picked the one we wanted and secured it as "ours".

Presumably this is what the friend of the OP did, but has since been given a different car. I'd be pretty royally pissed off if this happened to me and would be making some enquiries with Volkswagen Australia I think.

Having said that, on one of the UK forums a dude ordered a 3dr S3 and when it came to delivery day was presented with a 5dr, haha. Oops!

[AusScare]

That's absolutely disgraceful. Pathetic work by the dealer.

She should go buy a wrx.

[Maverick]

What a a complete stuff up.
Has anyone else heard of problems like this ??

It's common with Austral. They changed the first contract on me by $1000 in their favour after the agreement was made. No mention of it until I spotted it as I was signing (they devalued my trade by $1000 because they were holding it until my new car arrived).

They tried to screw me out of an additional $5000 on my trade after guaranteeing to hold that price. This is after I had traded it and was waiting for my new car.

Numerous other problems let me to organise another car that was a canceled order from another dealer. Signed the contract on the other car and made contact with the other dealer over a week later and Austral hadn't made contact with them and wouldn't return calls. Salesmanager decided that as I had a car on order he didn't want to get another one in despite my original car not being in production yet.

Other problems including some porkies told about the finance, they went through 3 finance managers in a short period, their stock controller was always too busy washing cars to look up stock and their customer service disappearing after the contract was signed.

I ended up re-registered my care, re-insuring it (both had expired whilst sitting at Austral hence my trade) and canceling the contract after they wanted more $$$$. Picked up my car (which was full of cigarette smoke :brutal:) and went to Highway Auto who actually treated me well.

There are many many similar stories about Austral and after my experience I can see why.

[windmagnet]

The way it worked with my dealer was that you could specify the car you wanted but there was no guarantee you would get it. They came on the ship specced based on what VW thought would sell and you took your chances. I could not get details on what cars were available (i.e. on the ship) until my dealer received its allocation of cars only a few weeks ago.

I paid a deposit and signed a contract with a full page of special conditions I wrote to protect myself well before the dealer allocation or pricing was known.

Dealer could not supply car matching my spec but offered an alternative that was acceptable to me. I hoped for an exact match but knew this could happen from day one.

My car was initially to have been delivered Monday this week (modified to no later than Friday this week) and then Wednesday this week I was told I would not get it until next Wednesday.

It may just be processing delays but I have become concerned that there is something not right with all of this and that maybe my car is being patched up while I wait. I am taking an expert with me to inspect the car before I pay and accept the car.

Can you provide any more info about the car in question and its defects so that no-one else here gets stuck with it. If you could PM me the VIN that would at least allow me to rule out that this car is being palmed off on me. What colour? Whereabouts were the paint defects. Can you provide any more detail on the contamination?

[JustCruisn]

Will post VIN next week, friend will let me know after weekend.

The specs on the car.
Tornado red.
Sunroof - apparently all red ones have sunroof
Normal lights - all Oz cars in 1st round have normal lights.
Sat Nav
Standard 17 rims - still no 18s in Oz
5 door.
Leather

The paint defects are on both sides of car (doors) and C pillar. Appear as small bubbles in the clearcoat. Oily substance appears to be under the clearcoat. The oily stuff makes the oil on water rainbow effect at certain angles.

[windmagnet]

Thanks for this info. Car I have ordred is candy white but will look for issues in this area.


Standard 17 rims - still no 18s in Oz

This is not right - see Murph's photos of his new car with 18s on his thread "Four days in heaven". Did the dealer claim this when pushing the dud at her? My car is supposedly the only one in first Adelaide shipment with 18's. Yet to see it though :(

[G-rig]

That is pretty dodgy, can't believe Austral tried to pull one over her.. oh wait, yes i can.

[MurphyTheElf]

Standard 17 rims - still no 18s in Oz




This is not right - see Murph's photos of his new car with 18s on his thread "Four days in heaven".

Yup - the dealer said it was one of very few with 18s in the first shipment. I originally placed a flexible order and signed a contract based on MkV prices. I then asked the dealer to keep an eye out for a car with 18s. When the allocations came in, he gave me a list of available cars. I chose one, which he said he set aside for me. When the pricing came available, I signed a contract according to its specs.

He told me that VWA pretty pulled the specs of the original shipment of cars out of their arses - not based on pre-orders.

Austral sounds like a dodgy dealer trying to palm off a damaged import.

[mrpayne]

Plenty of red without sunroof, and also a fair few around with 18's.

Interesting to know what we are up against, I guess Austral's have had the monopoly in some form in Brisbane for a fair while, and haven't realised that they are going to have to pick up their act with their service now there are a few more dealers around.

Also, will have to post up a photo or two of our demo next week....Tornado Red with painted bonnet circa Guy H's car, and 18" Motorsport wheels....:banana:

[Breno]

I've tried to buy a VW on two occasions from two different dealers in Brisbane, it's not through lack of trying that I now drive an Audi. Are there any good VW dealers in QLD?

[S.A]

I paid a deposit and signed a contract with a full page of special conditions I wrote to protect myself well before the dealer allocation or pricing was known.

What sort of things did you cover with your special conditions windmagnet?

[triode12]

I've tried to buy a VW on two occasions from two different dealers in Brisbane, it's not through lack of trying that I now drive an Audi. Are there any good VW dealers in QLD?

We have the same problem in NSW...the stealers here know that there are not many of them around and VW cars are in high demand.

Just keep filling out the VW surveys complaining about the dealers, I believe VW knows about this issue and is looking into ways of rectifying it.

[lawsy82]

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

[Brendan_A]

Will post VIN next week, friend will let me know after weekend.

The specs on the car.
Tornado red.
Sunroof - apparently all red ones have sunroof
Normal lights - all Oz cars in 1st round have normal lights.
Sat Nav
Standard 17 rims - still no 18s in Oz
5 door.
Leather
The paint defects are on both sides of car (doors) and C pillar. Appear as small bubbles in the clearcoat. Oily substance appears to be under the clearcoat. The oily stuff makes the oil on water rainbow effect at certain angles.

That sucks man!! I had my new Jetta for 2 weeks and paint started bubbling on the bumper. The panel shop fixed it and its all good. They said it's vary rare for VW to have paint issues. Oil may have fallen on the bumper from the robot in the booth.

[Brendan_A]

I've tried to buy a VW on two occasions from two different dealers in Brisbane, it's not through lack of trying that I now drive an Audi. Are there any good VW dealers in QLD?

Wippells Volkswagen in Toowoomba are good. The misses and I bought a new Jetta earlier this year and the sales guy was very helpful, knew his VW and wasn't pushy, he even let us take the demo for 45min drive without him in the car and we came back and signed up for one. I would definitely go back and buy another car from him. (New MK6 golf for me nxt year:banana:)

[windmagnet]

What sort of things did you cover with your special conditions windmagnet?


Most of the provisions are not relevant now that the price list is out and car is available to test drive.

Conditions allowed cancellation if prices were not as predicted in order, if a car could not be delivered to me matching my spec (or a variation I agreed) before the end of November, if I did not want to proceed after test driving the car, if the government business incentive was withdrawn or modified, subject to finance etc etc.

[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 :D

[weiero]

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

[G-rig]

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.

[lawsy82]

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]

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]

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.

[Patty Mac]

Was happy with the service at Gold Coast Volkswagen ( James Frizelle's group ) when i purchased my MY09 103TDI.

[JustCruisn]

Well it's Wednesday, and as promised Austral have kept their promise and delivered a suitable vehicle Today.
My friend came into work today with a bunch of flowers and a huge grin on her face. She says she has been duly compensated, flowers, tints and a few other bits to keep her happy.

I have to wait until tomorrow for a drive as it is off getting a new sound system installed this afternoon.

Well done to Austral for coming back and making sure the customer is happy.

[Lima]

That seems to be a good result in the end.

[idaho]

...Well done to Austral for coming back and making sure the customer is happy.
That is good but it appears that all the dramas could have been avoided if the dealer had been more forthcoming in the first place. The OP states in the first post that the customer was presented with something that was considerably different specification from what was ordered / anticipated and was not well presented. Surely it would be better for customer relations to call and say that cars are available but not to the requested specification and do you want to come and look at what is available.

[JustCruisn]

Surely it would be better for customer relations to call and say that cars are available but not to the requested specification and do you want to come and look at what is available.
Ding. Spot on. It's all about being open and upfront.

[MurphyTheElf]

Ding. Spot on. It's all about being open and upfront.

Damn straight - they tried to be dishonest and got caught. Just because they came good in the end doesn't make it entirely better.

Just like a guilty plea in the courtroom for attempted fraud....