This opinion is based on my experience with two main VW dealers over a period of 9 years and 3 VW Golf's
My first VW was a mark 3, 1.4e Golf. I traded in my Ford XR2 for this car. The dealer was DC Cooks (a South Yorkshire company with lots of differenet dealerships). I drove it out of the dealership with pride and the car lived up to the adverts about German build quality.
After about 2 months of problem free motoring, I received a letter from the dealer asking me to come into the garage, as they had something important to tell me. I got straight onto the telephone and spoke the the reception. They said that it would be in my interest to come into the garage. The first thing I thought was, have the Golf's been recalled for a problem. So I went into the garage to spreak to the car salesman that sold me the car. I could not believe what I was told. The salesman went straight into a sales pitch, yes that's right, my car was only 2 months old and he wanted to sell me another car. I
entered the dealership at 4.30pm and finally left at 7.00pm. On reflection, I should have walked straight out, but I wanted to see the manager to report the incident and every time was told he was either on the telephone or with a customer. The next day I telephoned the head office to be told that all their sales staff were trained to sell cars at the earliest opportunity.
Months past and I wanted to book my car in for the first service and use the dealer car whilst my car was being serviced. On the service board it quoted half a day for the serivce and a cost for old at £45. When I returned, my car had not been serviced and I could see through the glass window into the service bay and I could not believe what I saw. My car with the rear lights out and most of the boot lining missing. When I asked what was happening,the service manager told me that whilst it was in the service bay, another car had run into the back of it. They told me that it would be a couple of days to repair and that they would drive me home because the dealer car was booked out the following day. Well you can imagine what I told them. From that day on every time I went to the dealer for spares or warranty work, I had simlar problems like, quoted one price and charged another higher price. Paid for spares and it took upto 7 weeks to get. In the end I gave up the warranty to take my car to a VW service point that was not VW Approved, this was because both the dealer head office and VW UK could not be bothered to help me.
2 years later, DC Cook sold the VW dealership to the Dixon Group, well I was so pleased with the news, I thought I would trade my car in for a new Golf SE. I went to the dealer and after about 1 hour, we agreed on a trade in price and a price for the new car. In the showroom, they had a Golf SE in blue, I ordered one in red, but told the sales person that when they PDI and clean the new car, I didn't want them to use a polishing mop on the body work, as the one in the showroom had lots of circular scratches from just that. They told me that it would be cleaned by hand, so 5 days later, I went to pick up my new Golf and guess what, yes they had used a polishing mop on it and it had lots of small scratches all over the bodywork. After I calmed down, they told me they would polish them out for me and gave me a free touch up paint. On the way home, all I could think about was the days of CD Cook and prayed that the new dealer was better.
Only time would tell and sure enough, they were no better. I took my car in for service and after they service the car, they wash and polish it before you pick it up. I was just driving into the dealership, when I saw my car being put through the car wash with no one driving / sitting in the car. It was attached to a cable and being pulled through the car wash. I watched as it went through the car wash and then released from the cable, to see my car roll back and into a lamp post on the dealers car part. I could not believe it had happened again to me. I spoke to the manager and he told me that he was under staffed and could not afford a mechanic to wash the cars, instead, they hook them up to a cable and carry on with other duties whilst the car goes through the auto car washer. Whilst I was voicing my concerns to the manager outside in the car park 2 other VW owners came up to me and told me that it had happen to them and that the manager had told them that they would not be washing the cars without a person sat in the car. After that, I went to another dealer and part exchanged my Golf for a new mark 4 in Blue. I thought that it would be very unluck to get a third dealer that was like the other 2, so I drove 75 miles to the dealer from where I live and guess what, they were different, the only difference was the problems.
At least the opinion has a happy ending, I now take my car to a small family run main dealer in the next county and they are very helpful and do a good job.
I hope this opinion does not put you off buying a VW, because the cars are very good and well built. Maybe it is worth looking for a small family run dealership, even if you have to drive a few miles, I would suggest it is worth it for the better service.
It seems to me that the large multi dealerships do not give the same quality of service as the smaller ones and their discounts are no better.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Nov 2nd, 2002
very helpful by (57%):
helpful by (29%):
somewhat helpful by (14%):
