Blade, whats the latest with your 04?


greenie 6625


04 A8L silver/sabre

 

Greenie,
Just got off the phone with Uno Kull, the Audi district sales fellow. The service department has been unable to reproduce my auto's problems. Uno therefore "can't fix a problem that doesn't exist".
Mind you, the service department has had this car in twice before with the sunroof and MMI problem quite active, and couldn't fix the issues then.
Good news though Uno conveys, " tomorrow, engineer is coming to town from Auburn Hills, and he'll be able to "look things over"".
This prompted a call to my salesman, Jean Paul. Actually two calls as Uno told him not to return the first until after tomorrows "inspection."
Jean Paul pleads that he is but a peon in the dealership's pecking order. I pretty much had to corner him into "going to bat for me", but alas , I believe he doesn't swing much of a bat.
Jean Paul does state that he will speak to the dealership's sales manager on my behalf. She happens to be the owner's daughter and the #1 producing female sales woman in North America according to Jean Paul.
For the purpose of full disclosure: I have been driving Quattro's since 1985 exclusively. I have previously purchased at this dealership 1996 911 CAB, leased a 1995/6 A-4, All NEW vehicles. 97 A-8 was from another local dealer. I was an early convert to the 2004 A-8. Many of my friends and neighbors who have Audi leases know of the replaced battery and new transmission placed in my auto and now wonder how Audi and this dealership in particular are going to respond to my auto's perpetual problem. Clearly, if they are unwilling to make a loyal customer such as me, happy, Then what chance does the relative new comer have?
Meanwhile, I await the verdict from Auburn Hills. Uno was very cagey, he wouldn't commit to calling this a "lemon" if we can't identify problem. Thank god problem with the sunroof was seen first hand by at least 3 in service department. Yet its not a problem if Uno can't get it to happen. I've decided that the A-8 is the best auto out there for the money, quite a lot of it. If Audi buys back my present one, I wouldn't hesitate to go for another A-8. If Audi makes me go through litigation, arbitrationm or any hoops, then they've lost me and about a dozen of my collegues for good. I'll keep you all posted. Greenie, thanks for the page.

 

Uno Kull? Alrighty now! How many times has your car been in for servicing a particular problem? The very first thing you want to do, youve probably gone through this step, is to be in the service area when the techs try to replicate the conditions. Be as kind as you possibly can at the outset and DO NOT let the dealer tell you that the guy from Audi will "take a look and we`ll call you"! Be at the dealership, if you can, when he arrives. Audi has too much at stake for this guy not to give you the time of day. If he seems reasonable, return it in spades. But you should be there. ITS YOUR CAR! Do not talk about litigation or collateral exchanges yet. If you wish, we can do that through our private e-mail. get me all the details that you can. BTW, I do not care who reads this post, be it Audi, your dealership or my dog(which I do not have). I suspect, unless there is something here that no one knows about, that they will be able to fix your car with the problems that you have described. If not, lets see what the offer is. Again, let me know how many DOCUMENTED times your car was serviced for any particular problem. Blade you have my best wishes.


greenie 6625

04 A8L silver/sabre

 

Good luck Blade. There are a few 04 A8l owners out here who are a bit nervous.. I think we all love our cars but would like reliability and if something is broke a true fix. Again, good luck.

 

I've kept my own log of service visits. Only the tranny, battery replacement generated paperwork. All others did not because "nothing was done" according to service manager's asst. My chronicles detail four trips in for the sunroof and MMI. Car has been out of service for 19 days, that is at Audi service. I took delivery 7/30 and was out of town 8/2-8/19. About another 5 days I was told to keep car and drive as is becuase no danger was present and they had no one available to service the car for me. Will post tomorrow.

 

By the way. My salesman said Audi doesn't want to take anything back as a lemon because "they'll take a 50% hit and have to attach LEMON to the title." Interesting huh?

 

Audi doesnt want to take these cars back because there is no more room to park them!!


greenie


04 A8L silver/sabre

 

I've been told to keep my big mouth shut on this forum and stop posting since I no longer own one of these cars and therefore need to "get a life."

But what the heck, I know what you are going through all right. Weeks on end without your fancy new toy, endless time off your real life to hang around the service department, people talking to you in that patronizing manner because your haunted car refuses to screw up "on demand."

Document everything! Check in/out mileage too! I found dealer personnel running up HUNDREDS of miles "testing" car. I would respectfully disagree with the strategy of "being there" all the time while they are working your car. This simply wears you down although it does give you an occasion to meet other potential A8L buyers and give them some friendly insight into the lifestyle they are buying into.

A much better strategy is to drop off car whenever it acts up, get the dealer's loaner and tell them to keep it until it is working. Hence you will generate that VITAL paper trail that can, in many states, lead to a Lemon Law buyback. They won't just hand you a loaner and stick your car in the shop without generating a "work order" of some kind. They need to do that to get reimbursement from AOA for the use of the loaner. Insist on a copy WHEN DROPPING THE CAR OFF as well as when picking it up. I found interesting discrepancies with my own situation. In one case my car was returned to me with 200+ miles put on it but the return paperwork showed the same miles as going in. I refused to accept this document and got a corrected version. Later this proved to be a helpful tool in making my case for a refund. So be super-careful about the paperwork. Lemon Law cases hinge on paperwork.

By the way what state are you in?

 

Buy, who told you not to post? Ill go beat `em up!! You have every right to post IMO. How are you BTW?


greenie 6625

04 A8L silver/sabre

 

Hi everyone:
The Audi engineer from Auburn Hills is out with my auto as I type. Service said they'd call me later this afternoon and I'll post then.
Just in case, buybeach, where can I get a lemon plate similar to yours?