My first experience with an Audi dealer. Time for my first maint. and some warranty issues.
 

Long but may provide some comic relief grab a beverage and pull up a chair.


I took the car in for two main reasons: 1 get the maint. done with oil change 2 investigate a whirring noise from the front right wheel.

I also asked them to check these:
- driver seat rocks
- driver door squeaks/handle squeaks
- 100-120Km/h wobble (same as the 65-85mph wobble I guess)
- low oil warning came on while on a long trip with oil above min level. It has not come on since with no oil added.
- tarnished roof rails
- A/C makes this droning noise that's annoying to me.
-look up vin and check what if anything had been done to correct the uneven rear tire wear that caused the tires to feather on one side which they made the seller replace in order to CPO the car.
- wiper skids on windshield and doesn't clear snow. (no, it's not snowing now)
- one fog light burnt out.

Background: 2001 Ar with 32,000Kms last maint done at 19,000Kms and book was stamped with the 64000Kms due to age. When I press the service button it says maint. in 2,700Kms.

When I dropped the car off the service rep tells me he can't do the maint until the car reaches 80000Kms or Feb/06. Then he proceeds to advise me to let him do the oil change as it should really be replaced as the last one was over 10,000Kms ago, at $120 (all amounts in Canadian $$). With the most dumbfounded look on my face I can muster I asked him if after telling me I should really change it after 10k he expects me to drive another 50,000Kms before my next oil change? The oil change is part of the free maint program right? He had a hard time grasping why THEY stamped the 64k service due to the age instead of the real 19k. He tells me he has no record of any other maint preformed on the car other than the 64k one and he has access to all North American dealers based on VIN. My response was that this dealer sold the car originally and I have the 8k service stamp in the book with my 64k aka 19k service stamp and it's now time for the 32,000Kms service. I have the book would you like to see it?

So now he gives me the most dumbfounded look he can come up with albeit this time it was natural from the looks of it, thinks for 3 seconds and says you know what, we'll do your service maint for you now.

Thank you.

We confirm the rest of the list and I get a ride home in a nice Dodge Caravan. Not! Oh yeah, they donâ€^TMt provide a loaner and charge $35 for a rental.

I get my first call and Iâ€^TMm told the front left tire has a buble and both fron tires have a nail in them and then he says â€oeyeah, we are going to go ahead and recommend you replace both tiresâ€� Uhm, ok and what about the wobble and the whirring noise from the front right? Well there is a bubble that is throwing the wheel out of balance and both tires have a nail. The tires are $234 each and a $104 for mounting/balancing. Since both front tires are original and pretty worn I say Ok but can you put the tires in the trunk for me? (not wanting to pay $104 for two tire mount/balances which my mechanic will do for about $40. Sure.

Also we canâ€^TMt do the free service maint. After all until another 2,000kms. We are working on the rest and will call you when itâ€^TMs ready.

Second call he says wipers are replaced fog light replaced, all hinges and handles lubed but they canâ€^TMt reproduce the rocking with the seat and nothing they can do with the tarnished roof rails. Your total is $770. How do two tires at $234 plus 15% tax come to $760? Well, Uhm, the tires are $334 each. Oh, in that case Iâ€^TMll leave the tires and find my own. See my other post re tire selection.

When I pick up the car I get him to listen to the AC and he tells me all he hears is engine noise and in a temporary moment of insanity I agree saying I must be hearing things. I was painting a bathroom that's not ventilated very well while waiting :-)

I get a lift back in the nice Dodge Caravan. No offense to Caravan owners but I absolutely hate Chrysler products.

On my way home I pull on the steering wheel and sure enough the seat rocks. I'll have to tell them how to test it next time.

I tell the story to my wife when she gets home and she asks so, what HAVE they done? Thinking for a second and realizing none of my important issues were addressed, we got a new fog light, new blades, and we got lubed although not in the right places :-). I knew I'd have to put on new tires before they will look at the noise and the wobble.

But hey, I got a free fog light out of the deal which I thought was going to be out of pocket.

I have not decided what to do about the oil change yet. Do it now and bring it back to them before the warranty expires for the last free maint or just wait 2k and have them do it. See yet another post above re oil coming soon.

Sorry about the length, hope it was worth it.

Ha!, sounds like typical audi dealership competence to me

2 new tires ?? quattros need to be changed 4 at a time!

Wo.. typical... but they are right about the tires..
 

They need to be replace befor they can look into the wobble. How long is your 'new car' warranty befor the CPO takes over?

Original warranty expires Nov 25th

The rears only have 11,000kms on them. But I'm thinking four new non EOMs. See post above.

This does sound very familiar ;-)......if you are good with tools then you might want to check
 

the nuts and bolts on your front seat, and to make your life a bit easier here is the explosion diagram.
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/24442/front_seat__explo.jpg">

Someone once compared talking to a Service adviser with a Kindergarten child. He is no technician and relies totally on your, and moreover his imagination...now there is a tough one ;-)
Take your time and explain colorful while including all noises; grumble, ratatabang, kaboom, itchy-itch, squeky and so on. And if all of this doesn't break the ice then you are really better off in finding an independant Shop or Tech because you are getting nowhere.

Most of us here tried for years to follow the yellow Brick road into Audi Service Wonderland, but the evil Witch of common Language had already removed words like common sense, courtesy or appropriate Loaner Car from the books of good Customer Service......so the fairy tail continues ;-)

Re: My first experience with an Audi dealer. .... Canada view
 

From reading these forums since buying one of the first allroads to enter Canada in early 2001, I'd say that your service experience is similar to the US service experience, but it's very different than I've had with my dealer in Toronto.

I always get a loaner and if we can arrange times, they will usually pick up and drop off my car from my house. Loaners are typically an A6 or A4 Avant. In an emergency, they'll pay for a rental - it's not something you really want to drive, but it's better than what you're getting

On the tire front - don't replace with OEM tires. Search the forums for various recommendations. I use Nokians during winter and Michelin Energy MXV4 Plus in summer. The more serious on this forum will want something better than the MXV4+, but even those completely transform the feel of the allroad. No more vibration, smoother quieter ride. It's a big improvement over the OEM options (almost anything would be).

You might want to shop around a bit for a better dealer - based on my experience, you can get much better service than what is typical in the US.

Shoot...
 

If you didn't have them mount those tires take them back and buy some good tires off tirerack and have them sent and mount 4 new good tires, not the OEM allroads. What a rip for 2 two tires of marginal quality.

wobble in the front seat? kind of long.
 

is it a side to side movement? but the seat rails are firmly tightened down? my car is in for the same symptom. Drove with a tech who confirmed it. They ordered new seat guides and I had them installed at a later date. Went to pick the car up and sure enough the seat still rocked side to side. Took directly back to the dealer to let them know the guides didn't fix the problem (they should have known if they had test driven it afterwards....oh well) so they asked if I could leave it...no, but I can bring it back. Took it in last week, finally recieved a call over the weekend that they can't fix the seat and that it's working in spec. (a little perturbed now) I call and leave a message that it can't be in spec because it just started to do this a few months ago, and since you have already tried fixing it, you have confirmed there is a problem so please kindly take care of the problem.

.....waiting to hear from them.

I will post what they find and if the issue is resolved and hopefully it can help your cause