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The new Audi A1 is about to hit the showrooms. Looks better than the old one. Worth waiting perhaps?
M
It looks like VW don't want to sell new cars any more.... I'll explain:
So last year I considered moving on our boring 1.2 Polo and going for the new Polo GTi. Local dealer said the factory wasn't making any yet and it'll be Jan 2018 before they came on line. Then this slipped to March. Then to June and then a couple of weeks ago they said they don't have a date at all!
So I went to the dealer yesterday... fed up with the wait for a Polo GTi (after now being told next year!!) and tried for a Golf R. I'm thinking more common, been out for a while etc... No chance! Unless I wanted Gold colour or rubbish spec then nothing to choose from. Then the news next March for an ordered vehicle!! The dealer said that VW are closing the factory for two months and then there are further delays whilst they sort out the new mpg tests. Bottom line is if you want a factory order then 9 months lead time. Apparently this is the same on all models, if there's nothing in the UK at the moment then forget it!
To add salt into the wound I asked them to price up anyway... a stupid price! The price came out a lot higher than the Audi S3 and I've driven the S3 - it's a lot nicer than the 'R', drives much the same but the quality and trim beat VW hands down.
The new Audi A1 is about to hit the showrooms. Looks better than the old one. Worth waiting perhaps?
M
Slightly off topic but part of the VW group.
Porsche has also stopped production of some models, dealers have been buying in stock to get them over the shortfall new cars, you can not a spec a new 911 at present. Something to do with retooling, probably emission scandal fall out still.
Doe not affect me as not in the market for a Porsche, but still I thought it was interesting when it was explained to me.
I drive a VW, when I have gone to look one in the dealership as a replacement for my existing car , it is like I do not exist, no one asks if I need help or even says hello. To be fair I do not mind, I do my research before I go in.
However drop into Audi across the road for a look, they could not be more welcoming and helpful in the customer service.
I like VW cars, they are good but customer service locally to me, someone should have a word, not me though, to busy focusing on my world and being positive.
Have a good day.
:)
Sounds like the same story I got.
As it happens I've already ordered an Audi S3 Sportback which is the spec I want and delivery in 2 weeks (I think two weeks must be due to the obligatory cooling off period) but I thought I'd see how the Golf R stacked up. tbh VW were useless: The vehicle was more money than the Audi, no delivery until March 2019 AND less money for my Polo trade-in. Oh and I was waiting for an hour to speak to a salesman.
I’m changing my car at the moment and had much the same experience with VW....the model I was after had a 10 month wait.
The odd thing is they had a showroom full of unsold cars and the salesman was able to offer me all sorts of alternative models already built and waiting in storage....sadly not the model I was after.
Seems they churn out cars with little regard to demand....
We went to look at a new Tiguan a few months back. We asked the lady in the showroom if she had a brochure we could take with us, she told us that the salesman (who was upstairs) did and she would get him to bring one down to us.
15 minutes later when he arrived, all he wanted to do was take our name, email, address, phone number etc, after which he then told us to look at the brochure online as they don't have printed versions in the showrooms anymore.
It makes you wonder if they actually want to sell cars any more.
I have an Audi S3 and a Ford Transit Courier for my office.
On both occasions, I was heading out to buy from VW and ended up with the above.
VW commercial salesman acted like a complete dickhead when I was trying to buy a Caddy. He seemed to think the van would sell itself without him doing anything. I have never felt more like I was inconveniencing someone in their job. I left and called in to a Ford garage, who did seem to want my business and treated me how I would expect to be treated.
Similar thing when I wanted to try a Golf R. I am very happy with my S3.
Glad to see there's another S3 driver out there. Out of interest, if this isn't too personal, how much is your insurance (tell me to get lost if you want)?Originally Posted by andyb28
Went to look at a VW Up GTi for a runaround for Mrs MJC1216 and a bit of fun for me but could not have had a worse experience in the last 20 years at a dealer.
I started with a new company last May, and ordered a Golf 2.0 TDi GT for a company car, only option I picked was a metallic paint, and it didn't arrive until late October last year, so seems to have been an issue for a while with them
That is ridiculous.
Honda MDs usually take take about five mins max to pop over. They're happy to chat whether you're after a Civic or an NSX, just browsing or a cash buyer.
I am treated the same whether I'm in jeans or a suit.
Cannot recommend highly enough.
I have no affiliation to the company and I am quite picky about cars.
I’ve had VW’s for years, popped into a showroom last year to look at a VW up as I have a young son so needed a very cheap to insure runaround. He spent 15 minutes ignoring what I said and tied to convince me to buy a bottom spec diesel polo he had I stock. I politely left and bought a 1 litre eco boost fiesta from ford opposite who were helpful and polite (and the car has been brilliant, faultless for 2 years). If they can’t get in the cars customers want we’ll just buy something else (and my opinion of Ford has risen significantly whilst I can’t really be bothered with VW tbh)
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It was around £500 for the year.
I have a Defender too and had my no claims on that vehicle at the time. Had to swap it all around as the S3 was going to be really expensive without using no claims. I am 45 and have a clean driving licence.
The situation is not that dissimilar to trying to buy a new Rolex!
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I gave up on VW in the 1990s/early 2000s when I became fed up with the dealer service. It took three visits to two different dealers to collect wipers for my Lupo GTi they'd ordered in after I made it clear they weren't normal fitment, only to find they were standard wipers. I had non-functioning wipers on my car for months (six months IIRC), in the end a colleague borrowed the press fleet Lupo GTi and we swapped over the blades. They were rubbish with my Mk3 Golf too. Went to a dealer a few years ago with my mother to try out a Golf (we were spending a couple of days testing A3, Toyota thingie, Leon, Civic etc), the salesman was late and then spent the drive on the phone arranging his night out. My mother said afterwards she might have considered it but VW clearly weren't interested in selling us the car (she bought a Civic). There'll be some stories of perfectly happy customers but when it comes to car buying time I'll have a Skoda if I'm going VAG, over the years VW made it very clear they weren't interested in me as a customer.
"A man of little significance"
I'm getting £307 from the AA though, for me, there several to choose from in the sub £350 bracket; being an old git has one advantage at least! This is a bit of shock to me, high insurance I mean, even the Elise 220 was only £200pa! Went to my normal place, Aviva, and they said £842!! Then Churchills £500, again they've normally been one of the best quotes - not this time :-( Had a small panic attack when I thought it was going to trip into the extra £310pa road tax but it scrapes in below the threshold.
Last edited by solwisesteve; 20th June 2018 at 08:51.
As some have suggested, it is to do with the new emission testing. It’s a huge, disruptive process and they can’t build cars until they have it all figured out. This means that for many people, the choice is as follows:
1. Buy a car from existing stock
2. Order at the factory and receive it... somewhen.
People and businesses are still placing orders, so when the building does start again, they’ll have a hell of a list to get through.
The good news is, many dealers have cars in stock which the have to register before September this year, so you may get a good deal over the next few months as they try to shift the stock.
Yes the VW sales guy said it was emissions testing. This has got to have a big knock-on for the September new vehicle sales i.e. no stock! The new mpg test is supposed to only be 20 mins but I suppose it'll be a day with rerunning it again and again to get the 'best' results but even at a day per 'test' I can't believe it would take more than a month for a manufacturer to do all their models. Maybe it's more a case of do the tests, find it's rubbish, go back to the factory to see what can be changed to make the results better.
It’s this, plus the lab tests have to be backed up with real-world driving tests to show the actually efficiency is close to the lab results ( we all know they aren’t at the moment!)
Then, if the results aren’t as expected/hoped, it’s back to the engineers for a remap or whatever. This has to be done with every engine in every car with every gearbox with every wheel option, with and without sunroof, towbar etc. It’s massive and it won’t just affect September, it’ll probably be an issue to 2019.
Is anyone having similar challenges with any other brands outside of VW?
Same thing is happening with VW Transporters. It looks like all petrol versions are being pulled, and earlier this year they put a hold on factory built campers i.e. Californias, due apparently to emissions issues.
Pete
I understand from that that have ordered the Octavia VRS that there are massive delays on engines and thats the main thing holding up production, the Golf R has essentially the same 2.0 petrol so I would assume that's held up as well , no engines = no cars and as you say they have block holidays in the factories as well, plus the new testing
VW Up -owner here. The town runabout. I bought mine when on holiday on the other side of the country (granted, that's never far away compared with UK's distances). The sales person in the showroom was a very young guy who had been promoted from mechanic to junior sales person. I was his first customer! He did a wonderful job. Luckily, those people still exist!
On the other hand, I agree with most people above: when I go to my local dealer, it is as if I'm sort of thin air or the invisible man. (Same goes for the local Merc dealer, btw)
Menno
My mate has got an up. He loves it. I was very impressed when he managed to get a bicycle into it
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
I looked at buying a Passat about 5 years ago. I booked a test drive but they forgot I was coming so nothing was ready. After a half hour wait I was grudgingly taken out in a car nothing like the spec I was looking at buying. I went to the BMW dealer nearby and they couldn’t have been more helpful. I reckon if I’d asked one of the lovely ladies for a blow job they’d have obliged.
Needless to say I bought the BMW. Not just because of the service - the car was in a different league to the Passat - but if they’d shown any sort of customer service I may never have got to the BMW. I’m on my second now and will be getting a third.
I really don’t understand companies that treat customers as if they’re an inconvenience. They obviously rely on customers who don’t care, but they lose so many others.
Just for research purposes, which BMW dealer was that?
Goes without saying, asking for a friend.
I enquired about an UP! GTI the other day, was quoted a year for a factory order to arrive...
I got a Golf GTE nearly 3 years ago, one of the first into the country, and you can’t actually order one at the moment as the list is so long.
It’s had a good effect on residuals for my car, but no good if I can’t buy the one I want.
I was in Germany recently, and the situation is a little different with much shorter wait times and order books still open.
It does seem to be impacting RHD production more than anything else, possibly a Brexit thing?
My experience too. Just passing time waiting to pick up old car after service and very friendly bunch of salesmen.
The emissions testing is affecting all car manufacturers at the moment with BMW as an example closing order books for some Minis until Q1/2019 (John Cooper Works) and dropping some models (BMW M3) completely. Emission levels and published fuel economy figures are already taking effect.
Additionally, as manufacturers have a total emissions target to hit, their most polluting vehicles may use up too much of their annual quota and will be quietly "retired" for a few months, and mainstream models may have production held back. The financial penalties for going over their target figures are huge.
The paperwork and validation alone will take months even if the test itself might only take "20 minutes". When its all done, there may be changes to Road Fund Licence fees as "true" emission levels are published. And of course the manufacturers will want to claw back some of the money they have lost in all this retesting, new legislation and big fines for non-compliance. A painful time for the car industry.
Last edited by UKMike; 20th June 2018 at 10:27.
I had a look on the BMW site the other day and if you go through their 'configurator' the only M models are the 4 and 5. So the M2 is gone as well... similar reason perhaps? The guy in the Audi showroom reckoned this might well be good for second hand more performance orientated vehicles - hope so after just purchasing such a car :-)
Bowkers in Preston. By the way, I wasn’t serious about the blow job.
When I was looking for a mini I was told that the JCW was being put on ice due to emissions and that the Golf GTI and R would follow suit.
I ordered my Passat estate R-line in May, was told of the difficulties and was given a date of September 10th - we will see!
Just spotted something interesting.... Audi S3 150 of the co2 things so £200 first year tax. Gold R (essentially the same platform) 160 of the co2 thingies so £500 first year tax. I just thought that was interesting.
Yes, from the vague hand waving I got in the VW dealer it looks like the sporty golfs are on hold with no idea when there will be any more. If there's not one in the country now that meets your requirements then forget it!
How come this information, i.e. you can't buy performance cars at the moment and god knows when you'll be able to, hasn't made it to the motoring mags? I read Car mag every month and no mention of this.
If there is a rolling test involved then any difference in the gearing will be reflected in the emissions.
The ford dealer told me they could not order any new Mustang 5.0 GT either
Have read that this affects Porsche as well, would this situation drag up used prices? Mates got a 2011 low miles cayman s he wants to flog which I’d love as a weekend car if it didn’t drop £ks upon £ks. Maybe I could finally not lose any money on a car...(obviously if bought well which I can, below the we buy any car price and fully loaded with options).
It would depend upon the make and model but the Audi dealer said the same to me. If there is a drought of new cars until possibly mid next year then people might well be tempted to consider a second hand vehicle instead and this might well have a knock on effect for a good few years. Now SWMBO, who is by reputation a bit on the cynical side, did suggest maybe this is a plan by the car manufacturers and the finance companies to try and shift the huge numbers of second hand cars that have appeared due to the PCP mania.... I'm thinking maybe not planned that way but I'm sure this has crossed the minds of the car management out there.
I feel like I've done OK buying a new Skoda Superb a few weeks ago (same petrol engine and pretty much every thing else to the Passat).
Bit of online research, walked into the local dealer, pointed at the one in the showroom and said "I'd like that one", negotiated an £8k discount, drove it away 6 days later.
All the comments about production stopping cannot be correct, As an idea another manufacturer I deal with the production line cost is £36000 per minute, the numbers are huge, VW would go bust, I would suggest that they are just not shipping cars to the UK, most of the manufacturers are concentrating on China and Russia as this is where the growth is.
VW dealer said the factories in Germany were closing for 2 months.
So is this 'issue' only for cars to the UK?
Are these new 'real-life' mpg figures a UK only thing?
Are these new emission things a UK only problem?
As you say, presumably the cars off the line are fine for markets like China and Russia but surely these sales not enough to compensate for a complete lack of UK (or EU?) sales for the best part of a year.
If this is all true, and certainly the evidence does seem to support the case, then the money losses for the car industry are going to be huge.
Last edited by solwisesteve; 21st June 2018 at 09:57. Reason: typo
The UK market is tiny for them, some manufacturers will reach the point where UK spec cars aren't worth the effort.
https://www.ft.com/content/2f16801d-...7-4eec5c665861
So you're thinking these new rules for mpg and emissions are a UK thing only? tbh I'm not convinced. I'm thinking this is an EU wide issue.... certainly for the emissions but these seem to be tied into the new mpg rules so it might be you can't have one without the other.
However a bit of the google thing and maybe the pressure for this is outside the EU.... from the bbc news site:
"It noted that China had recently introduced mandatory zero- and low-emission vehicle quotas for manufacturers from 2019, and that some US states had established a "regulatory instrument to enhance the uptake of zero- and low-emission vehicles". "
btw found some more info on the SMMT web site which has an interesting comment: "Meeting the pan-European 2020/2021 new car and van CO2 targets looks ever more challenging, given recent market developments and government policy announcements."
Last edited by solwisesteve; 21st June 2018 at 11:24.
Wouldn't tooling for Japan and the UK be similar?
I'm no expert on the similarities aside from driving on the left.
No, even though the parts are similar, they will be PPAP'd and meet Grade for different markets, unless you are involved the process is a nightmare.
I cant find any official announcement regarding extended shutdowns or stopping production, I would suggest that this is a sales trick to maybe stimulated demand or improve margins. if customers walk away they will soon re think this strategy
Last edited by adrianw; 21st June 2018 at 13:54.
^thanks AW.
Whilst there is some reason to suggest there might be stock in it, it is highly coincidental that the moments the car market picks up pace on a downward trajectory that a "we're having to stop all production, expect long waits on new cars" line is peddled to stimulate getting the thousands of stock-piled cars out of the door.
Very interested in what happens to the new/nearly new market over the next 12 months.
Having a scheduled shutdown is by far the most efficient and cheapest way of stopping a production line, it allows routine maintenance or replacement of the machinery , cleaning and repainting, new systems to be installed without unscheduled and extremely expensive loss of production, summer shutdowns are the norm for the car manufacturing industry
I think that's an interesting point, sales are down , residuals are down and pcp cars are being handed back leading to a potential glut on the forecourts , however some of the VW models being affected are the better sellers
WLTP is the problem here, not the brand not wanting to sell vehicles to consumers.
It is affecting every single OEM and progress and position is varied by every OEM.
Your theory doesn't consider the impact of a forward order bank that every retailer needs to survive.
Selling from stock is essential ahead of WLTP/NEDC2, but so is building an order bank to avoid weak months/quarters.
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