ToddEichel

Hi all, new to the forums, contemplating taking advantage of Audi's lease deal on the '06 A4 2.0T quattro here in the Boston area. I've been searching the forums for info regarding Bernardi Audi in Natick and have seen a fair amount of negatives, but very little specific. Seems to be similar for most other dealers as well, with the exception of Clair that seems to be getting some good reviews. I'm new to Audi (currently leasing a '03 9-3 and own an '04 Murano) and know they've had issues in the past with reliability. From what I've read, the '06s seem to be doing pretty well in initial quality compared to the previous generations. I'm not all that concerned, seeing as I'm going to be leasing, but if I end up forging a close, personal relationship with a service department, I'd just as soon not get screwed around. Comments would be appreciated.

Mirror|rorriM

They screwed up everything from little pre-sale agreements (replacing the fuse panel cover) to breaking the trim around the radio when they pulled it (also broke the tabs on the headunit when they did that) to covering up overspray with a magic marker to simply lying about having done a CPO inspection. That's just the tip of the iceberg, too. To top things off, they were horrid pain in the *** to deal with every step of the way.

I will never set foot in another Bernardi dealer ever again. A free car from them isn't worth the price.

FinallyS5

They had some cars I was interested in so I checked them out but they have god awful service. When I stepped in the door they wouldnt show me any cars without me giving them my soul. (Social security numbers etc.) and when they did, They laughed at me when I asked for a better price on a car that was listed through them $2000 above KBB. I've hear stories of people getting their cars back with missing screws and one guy had a screw driver left on his engine and the handle melted onto the cylinders. Crazy stuff.

GDawgA4

our '97 A6 had a check engine light and had Bernardi diagnose it. Came back and said carbon build up in the valves, needed to get in there and clean it out...$2800 job!!!

Went to Clair (our usual dealer) and it turned out to be an acorn stuck in the air intake and some vacuum hoses had worn out. $300 later, we were set and car fixed.

Never will go back there again.

Never had sales experience, although, when looking at buying my A4 back in August last year, they were pretty high on pricing as far as comparing to other dealers too. But I did this through the phone and e-mail, didn't come in contact with a salesman face to face.

I'd give Clair a shot, service and have bought cars there (family has done business with them for the past 20 years). I'd recommend my salesman, Rob Kelleher, guy knows his stuff and is great. Another good salesman is John Suh.

Good luck!

BroncoOne

SKip Bernardi (no personal experience, but lots of stories) and check out Wagner or CLair.

SOme don't like Wagner, but I have had good experience (One minor screw up where they gave my winter tires to someone else, but I got brand new Nokkians to make up for it and no charge to swap the rims and my mount my new tires)

ToddEichel

Thanks for all the feedback, folks. Still have another 2 months to pull the trigger. Saab lease isn't up until March, we'll pay it off early to get this A4 lease deal, though. Speaking of which, anyone know anybody who needs a good set of snow tires for current model Saab 9-3? 16" steel wheels with Dunlop Graspic DS-2's....

Mirror|rorriM

Not as bad as Bernardi though.

The only "good" thing about Wagner is that they are easy to manipulate - just complain about them on the model-specific forums and the next time you're there they will treat you like potting soil instead of ordinary dirt.

JustAnotherAudi

I complained about Wagner's service to AoA once (I've found their service really awful) and the next time I was in there they fell over themselves to be my friend, while completely ignoring all the other customers. It was really retarded. On the sales side, I used to have a good relationship with them, but they lost their good salesman and I've had some real stinker salesmen since. That's when I started dealing with Bernardi.

As to Bernardi, I don't have enough service experience with them to really comment. They've done one scheduled service for me, no complaints. But I've found their sales just fine. They've always quoted me invoice right off the bat on anything I've inquired on. The one car I did buy from them was at invoice, and completely no hassle. I always contact them through Edmunds power shopper. Dunno if that makes a difference.