My R8 - Poor Quality of finish

[ken murray]

I had my RB for exactly 20 minutes.
That was the time it took to look round it and find four panels either scratched, botched paintwork or damaged.
I refused the car and requested a new car. I was not about to take delivery of a £85,000 car with repair work needed to four panels.
The dealer was completely in agreement. He was appalled. Even so how it got though a factory check and then PDI at the dealers I do not know.
The dealer principal tried to resolve the problem at Audi Head Office but the earliest delivery slot I MIGHT get was in March 2008.
Just to let you guys know I ordered my car in FEB 2003. Yes thats Right 4 years and 6 months.
Audi have done so much to boost their image with car quality and style in the past few years (quite a few of my staff chose them over BMW's now,) that this travesty needs to be shared.
I am probably one of the cars' biggest fans, and the dealer principal whilst trying to resolve a better solution, loaned me an R8 demonstrator for 10 days.
I can tell you that the car is awesome. I have a Porsche Carerra 4S and I drove the cars on a little test road I use.
The Audi not only obliterated the Porsche in point to point times, it did it with comfort and safety.
It was wet and the Porsche, driven near the limit always feels like you need to be wary or it will bite you. The Audi was solidly planted, with, at the limit, a safe amount of understeer to reign you in. I did not get to the top speed in the Audi - the road is too testing for that, but at quite high three figure speeds it was very stable, my only criticism the steering feed back was a bit numb but you could feel where you were on the road and what the wheels were doing.

So now I have given it back and have no R8.
The attitude of Audi R8 team, not the dealer, was typical of a company with a 3 year order book."This is what we can do like it or lump it".
I wanted a replacement car NOW I had waited 4 years and got a very shoddy car.
Nevertheless I want a V10.
Hopefully I won't have to wait another 4 years and it will come in pristine condition. (Not sure if anyone reads these at Audi or will do anything about it anyway), they have not lost my custom just my respect.
Finally what would I recommend anyone getting one to do?
Go over it with a fine toothcomb because when you come to sell it if it has had paint, people will think YOU crashed it, or something and it was repaired.

[imclueless]

Bummer - Are you just going to wait for the V10 and don't have the V8?

[N1JEE]

I would take it up with management at Audi HQ in Germany - bet they don't even know about the issue.

[DJANGRY]

Ken
Sorry to hear about this .... but sorry to say its not come as a shock to me the "This is what we can do like it or lump it" attitude.
Trust me the Audi R8 team reads this forum , but be careful about what you say as they like to use what you say on here against you believe it or not .
I know from experience sadly.

Scott

[Guilty]

I saw the factory and the procedures. It's IMPOSSIBLE that your R8 has left the factory in the state you found him. The car is triple checked before it leaves the factory!

I think something went wrong with transport or with deconserving your car. I picked up my R8 at Neckarsulm and it was completely scratchfree, not even a swirl!

The factory has a strict planning, that's understandable. But the importer of your R8 should give you a productionslot asap.

I suggest to remove the damaged parts and transport hem back to the factory for a repaint.

[R8driver]

Ken

Sorry to hear of your problems I have to say I was not hugely impressed with my dealers hand over on my car either, I quickly noticed several areas of transport wax still evident and generally poor prepration, It was if I had just bought a VW polo to be honest, not special in any way. i was not too bothered as I was having it "detailed" the same week, but the guy doing it quickly pointed out several imperfections with the paintwork some he removed with a polisher but the panel surround on the rear engine cover as he showed me is almost dappled in effect, not great at all. They must be able to get you a replacement car from within the undriven stock in the dealer network if they cared too, and have yours sorted and sold to an eager buyer still at list price. I do think Audi Uk need to train the dealerships to have a different approach to,customer liason,car prep, handover etc now that they are appealing to different buyers £100k region. I just think you get treated in exactly the same manner as if it were £15k on an A3, having said all that I have never had a good experience yet from a Porsche dealership where they all seem to have a bad smell under their nose! I noticed fom an earlier post from one of our Swiss members that the event of collecting his car was just that, made to feel like an event, and a bit special.

[R8 England]

Ken,

Why "refuse" the car ??

Why not simply say. "Replace the panels, sort it out, and then I will pay for it. And, by the way, I will be driving your R8 until you have mine ready!"

This should not take more than a few weeks for them to get the panels in and fitted.

You still have a 3 year warranty to get anything else fixed......

[wanabe]

makes no sense to me... the cars come from the factory taped and completely paint-protected. the dealer must have been showing the car for it to get scratched-

[Ti-Mike]

first of all - sorry to hear this, what a nightmare.

as GUILTY already wrote, it's can't be that the car came like this from Quattro GmbH, the quality check is really something.

There must be a quicker window to get a new one. I have ordered my car 02.02.2007 and received it 27.07.2007 this is 5 month. I had no pre orders or what so ever. maybe because the car is right hand driven.

They should something, on the other hand. You won't have to look at the car through out the winter and wait until sunshine is back.

[Guilty]

makes no sense to me... the cars come from the factory taped and completely paint-protected. the dealer must have been showing the car for it to get scratched-

They are taped, waxed and triple checked. No way it leaves the factory scratched!

It was just bad deconserving from the dealer (happens all the time!).