Hi All,
Unfortunately someone rear-ended my 7 month old A3 S-line in June of this year. They hit me at about 20mph I would say. I was able to drive the car to the Audi dealer, and the next thing I knew, it was at the "approved" Audi repairer for the region.
Now this Audi repairer is allegedly one of only 20 garages that is approved to repair an R8, so they should be able to get it right. Unfortunately not.
I picked the car up 4 weeks ago (my 4th attempt to collect the car in 4 days as there were various bits wrong it it), and found various things wrong with it, from the bootlid not fitting correctly, through to trim not put back properly, through to dents in my leather seats, and worst of all, swirl marks all over the black paint from being washed with something that had grit in it. Even the satnav screen and the clocks were covered in scratches. Where the car had been machine polished, the polish has not been broken down fully and the car is now covered in holograms.
I didn't sign anything to say I was happy with the repair, but I wasn't asked to either. I was told to drive the car around for a week or two and come back to them with any outstanding issues.
They had the car back two weeks later along with a 13 point list, and it was collected again yesterday. Pretty much most of the things on the list have been ignored.
Where the bootlid meets the light clusters, the bootlid is proud on one side, but worse than that, where the back end of the car was "spread" outwards, the gaps between the bootlid and the sides is much wider than it should be! So basically it hasn't been closed up properly. So where they have replaced the rear cross-member, it has now been re-welded in the incorrect position.
I was told by the repairer that I shouldn't expect the bootlid to line up properly - not even on a new car! And as for the scratches on the clocks, well it wasn't them of course! Even though they did valet the car afterwards.
With that in mind, I went to the Audi dealer that the car came from, and they were very helpful. The service manager agreed with me that the car is not up to the correct standard and that I should write to them and CC Audi H/O exaplining this. I called Audi Customer Services last night and am awaiting a callback from a case manager there.
Now me being the pessimist, and also extremely fastidious about the vehicle in every way (I won't even park it in a car park if there are too many other cars around), I am quite sure this isn't going to be resolved to my satisfaction. As far as I am concerned, the car should come back as it was before the accident. Which clearly it is not.
My possible only trump card is that the car is on PCP. I am so sick and tired of this (this has been going on for 3 months now), and quite frankly, as a self employed consultant, I am losing more money every time I waste time on this.
Fortunately I did not sell my old faithful VW Passat. I am inclined to go back to driving the passat and telling them that I am stopping the direct debit and telling Audi UK to come and take back the car?
I would argue that through no fault of my own, the car is no longer of the originally described quality when I purchased it, and this goes far beyond any wear and tear that it would have amassed in the 7 months I have been driving it?
Can anyone offer any advice as to how this would hold up? I don't want to knacker my credit rating by "defaulting" on payments, but I don't see why i should have been paying the last three months payments for hire cars that aren't of equivalent spec, nor paying for a substandard car going forwards?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
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Have you also forwarded your list of problems to your insurers? I had one heck of a disaster job carried out on a car many years ago by a dealer 'approved' repairer. They only seemed to sit up and pay attention when my insurers sent an engineer to inspect the car. He added about another 6 additional faults he found to my then 11 or 12 point list of faults.
I'd also hold fire on the repayments, don't cancel yet. But if you're in the RAC or AA, might be worth seeing if they can offer advice on this area (RAC legal advisors on phone were great re. repayments when I rejected a car).
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as schneip says you really need to get onto your insurer
they should be sorting this to your satisfaction, (assuming they are any good)
there is no way i would accept my car back if it wasnt to the standard of an unreopaired car
what about an independant inspection by yourself too if you are getting stonewalled?
somebody like dekra have an after crash inspection service (or they did)
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Re the PCP:
I doubt that Section 75 is of much help here. It makes the lender jointly and severally liable with the dealer if the goods are not fit for purpose, but it seems to me that is not the issue - the goods were fie, and the dealer has no liability, your claim is against the repairer and/or insurer if they stipulated the repairer.
Take advice if you are considering withholding payments - you might well end up with damaged credit history even if you are correct (as I am sure you are) as to the lack of performance of the repairer.
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I'm sorry that you having to put up with this; I have honestly never had one accident damaged car repaired to a standard that I would describe as excellent.
My Golf went back ten times to a VW dealer before I gave up and part exed it.
If the insurance company has not yet paid then you can stop them from doing so. If they have I would attempt to address the matter through the courts with an independent RAC report having taken proper legal advice re the cowboys.
I wouldn't stop the lease payments as advised above.
Try not to let it drag you down but be persistent.
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What a mess! Get the car independently inspected (aa or rac perhaps) Do as some one else said and inform your insurance company. Are the repairers members of a professional body? if so get on to them. Get the Audi guy who told you the car wasn't right to put it in writing. Take legal advice...citizens advice can get you some quite cheaply. Make it clear you are going to in this for the long haul.
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Dear All,
Thanks ever so much for your advice!
The car was sent to the "approved" audi repairer by the garage that the car came from. The claim itself is handled by Accident Exchange, who I think are just a little bit useless but I suppose I just need to chase them. They are calling me back on Monday too.
I am going this morning to properly measure the difference in the width of my boot compared to an undamaged A3 - I get the feeling that my boot is over 10mm wider now from looking at one.
Are the RAC/AA inspections any good or should I find a different independant inspector? That Dekra site looks good, so thanks for the link.
I suppose that my beef really is with the repairer rather than Audi themselves, so it is unfair to withhold my payments really. I suppose I should be trying to keep them on my side really.
I'll wait until Audi calls me (should be Monday or so), but as you can probably tell, this whole thing is really getting me down :-( Having worked really hard to be able to afford something nice like this it's terrible when someone takes it out of your hands.
Thanks again - will post back to the forums and let you all know how I am getting on.
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Google for vehicle repair inspection. Spend circa £100 on a report and send it - and the bill - to your insurer. Thatcham used to offer this service, but it looks like they no longer do so.
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When I was in a similar situation, an independent report by an insurance assessor proved invaluable, and was not that expensive £25-50 IIRC about 5 years ago. They are in the yellow pages.
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OK - so I have had an engineer look at the car today with the original repairer and myself. I pointed out the multitude of things that are wrong with the car and all the repairer could do is hang his head in shame. The assessor was not impressed.
I didn't even tell you guys the worst part of it. On Saturday we got into the car to go to a wedding, and shortly after pulling away I had to brake sharply. My girlfriend's seatbelt DID NOT LOCK and she came out of the seat.
I took the car into the Audi dealer straight away and they lent me a car for the day. I was told when I picked the car up that several clips holding the trim on where broken, and that the seatbelt assembly had not been put together properly. It was lucky that I was braking at low speed and not in a high speed emergency, or she would have gone through the windscreen.
Regarding the scratches inside the car and the dents in the leather, the original repairer just said "that wasn't us and you can't prove it was", which is a terrible attitude. They said that they wanted the car back to rectify the faults. I said that there was no way they were having it back because I could not be sure that they would not introduce further problems, and then say that they were not at fault. Besides, if they cannot assemble something as fundamental as a seatbelt correctly, there is no hope of me driving the car afterwards and feeling safe in the car.
I said that they had the opportunity to sort the car out when I brought the car in two weeks ago and they just stonewalled me, so the assessor and I were in agreement that I should take the car to the other VAG approved bodyshop in the area for a quote, and that the original garage should pay for the repair. I took the car over to the other bodyshop and they told me that to close up the gap in the boot would have been easy if it was done when the bent rear crossmember had been cut out. Now that it is all reassembled, it would be nigh-on impossible to do so without cutting it out and rewelding it again. They are only prepared to do a quote to repair it with an assessor present as they feel it would be a waste of time otherwise.
No surprise here, but the original garage refuses to pay to let another garage do the work.
The local Audi garage (where the car came from) are on my side. If nothing else they want to sell me a new car, but they can't believe that they sent a customer's car there and it came back in such a poor state of repair.
The plot thickens....
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