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As an Audi enthusiast and a recent new member to the site, I thought that I would let others know about my recent experiences with Audi Paintwork Warranties and an Audi Approved body shop that formed part of a well known Audi Franchise on the south coast.



However, first I feel the need to give you a bit of background to my Audi history. I first drove an S4 Avant 4 years ago but with a young family and an imminent house move on the agenda the progression from my A4 1.8 t was not to be. In the past four years I have filled the gap with a 2.6 and a 2.8 Quattro avant.



In the summer I found myself in the lucky position to be looking for an S4, it had to be an Avant after finding them so easy and practical with a young family, recaro leather seats, low mileage, and Full service history. Like many of us, I trawled the internet and was on a well know Independent’s website everyday and found a 1 owner 2001 S4 Avant with FSH and just 48,000 miles in Nogaro blue and black leather recaro’s. The colour Nogaro blue is one of those colours that you either love or hate and once I saw the car gleaming in the showroom I immediately new that I had to have it. A deal was struck which included a cambelt change, full inspection oh and a REVO upgrade!



Once I had picked the car up and the grin from driving it home had worn off for another day, I felt the need to polish the car and familiarize myself with it! This is when I found a number of what looked to be “Rust Pimples” beneath the paintwork to the bottoms of all four doors and the two rear wings. My heart sank and i immediately turned to the Paintwork Warranty booklet that is issued with Audis at purchase.



Luckily I had the car booked in for an oil change (As advised by this Forum to regularly change at 5K miles)with an Audi dealership and took the opportunity for them to look at the car. The dealership was very helpful and arranged for an Independent Audi assessor to view the car at a later date.I was expecting a fight on my hands! However, the assessor viewed the car and stated the car had not had any bodywork in its five year life span and viewed the “pimples” and straight away stated that there was a manufacturing fault and that Audi would rectify the fault. I breathed a sigh of relief and also took the opportunity for the body shop to paint the passengers wing mirror as at some point a poor isolated paint touch up had been done.



My S4 was dropped off and the car had been in for a week and a half before I got the call that changed everything! I was told that my beloved car was complete and ready for collection so as I had missed it so much I promptly got myself down to collect.



The standard of works that I was presented with was appalling and in summary immediately found the following:

The Wing mirror had not been painted.
Blue over spray to both front inner wing wheel liners
Blue overspray on NSF headlight
The "lips" to all four wings have an orange peel effect.
There is overspray on the door shuts
Where the rear doors leading edge tuck behind the front doors there is poor finish and obvious signs of bodyworks.
The same applies where the rear wings flow into the rear door shuts.
The OSR wing where it was sprayed with the bumper in place and masked poorly is finished poorly where the bumper and wing meet.
Inside the petrol filler cap there is overspray on rubbers poor paint finishing is obvious.
Overspray to the S4 door runner strips within the door shuts
When I raised the issues I was not presented with any form of apology or justification but just that they had resprayed both sides in their entirety and that I basically should be happy!

I did not care how long my car was kept for just as long as it came back to me in pristine condition.

The standard that I was presented with was not the standard that I would expect from a Franchised dealership but that of some backstreet paint shop.

I did not accept the standard or drive the car away and instead insisted that they keep the car until it was up to my required standard.

I contacted the Dealer Principal and in fairness he took a vested interest in rectifying this long list of faults and put the issues down to the body shop undertaking a large amount of Insurance work where the same standards are not expected! Surely, the dealership should set the standard and have pride in the work that they deliver???

My S4 was there for a further 2 days. I received a further call to say that it was ready for collection. Based on the previous call I dreaded to think what state the car would be in the second time. I must say that a bit of attention to detail goes along way and the car was in a better condition but I have found that there are a couple of paint overspray marks to the headlight seals which are recessed between the light unit and wing and the front door shuts have overspray. The overall standard is extremely poor so have arranged to make a further visit to the franchise and that they have the original independant assessor there to view the current standard.

I am sure that I am not the only one that has saved up for there dream car and so to have it devalued by substandard work is not acceptable.


It would be interesting to hear back from anyone else that has had similar problems

I will let you know how I get on!

An excellent post

I would love to hear how you get on when the original assessor comes to look at the car again. I'm looking to get some things done by Audi on my car soon...

Thanks for the response on my first post. (didnt want to come accross as some sad picky b!)

When chatting to the dealer principal i was told "off the record" that just because the bodyshop is audi approved means that they are approved to undertake insurance and warranty work and it does not mean that they are any better to other approved bodyshops! I think in hindsight it would be worth checking out the quality of works that a bodyshop produces prior to giving them your pride and joy to work on.

I see from this months Audi driver that the S4/RS4 featured hads some major works undertaken to high standards so it goes to show that we should not necessarily be using Audi bodyshops but one with the right attention to detail!

Will see how this afternoon goes.

I wonder how it works getting Audi to stump up for repair when not using one of their body shops?

I have been back to Audi Approved body shop in Brighton this afternoon for the 3rd time! Unfortunately, I was told that the Original assessor could not make the meeting and that although he assesses warranty and accident works he does not inspect the quality of the works once complete. Once again it was stated that although it is an Audi Approved Bodyshop all this means that they are approved to undertake insurance and warranty works and not a "specialist restorer or paint finishers and they are no better than other insurance approved bodyshops"

The dealership did not dispute the issues that I had raised with my S4 and no apology was offered!

Apparently, I should be thanking them as they resprayed both sides in their entireity even though Audi warranty had only given sanction to correct the fault and respray the low level doors and rear wings and not the whole side! I would of appreciated this if I had not had a list of issues as long as my arm! It was also offered that I would not have to pay for the mirror "so I had a result" according to their personnel! I would have quite happily paid for that and any other additional work if it was the standard expected. When it comes to my cars, money is not an issue when maintaining them in a pristine condition (not for me anyway, my wife may disagree!!)

Without going on anymore, the car is back to them Monday to have overspray removed from numerous areas and flat spots sorted on the paintwork and hopefully that will be it!

I have got to the point now that anything else I will deal with myself with the aid of Autoglym products.

Some information I also found out today which may be of interest to others is that this warranty work that has been undertaken by an Audi Approved bodyshop is only covered for the period of 3 MONTHS!!! Whoopee!

I have used a couple of bodyshops with previous audi's and found the best by a country mile was an independant bodyshop that specialises in Porsche repairs, they are about double the price of the franchise dealers but the quality is absolutely 110% and as long as someone else foots the bill the price is no issue!

Sorry to hear about your problems, good luck!

If you get stuck, I can recommend a professional detailer that will probably sort all of your problems.

Steve, Many Thanks for the offer. I will see how things go and might be in touch for your recommended detailers no.

Bit late on this one but agree with SteveH.
Similar story , had to use Audi bodyshop following accident, job was appalling.
Subsequently I used an independent....... I enquired after I saw M-B and Rollers outside ( a bit of a shack type of place as well !!
Brilliant place, promised me that if I could see where they had worked ( metallic paint as well) I need not pay.......... I'm picky. I had to pay !
bad news .....he retired early to Devon.....

I'm in a similar predicament with am extremely small rust pimple on my roof rack rail. Nobody else can see it, but I can!

It wil be repaired as part of the paint corrossion warranty, but i'm scared that because its red, it won't match and look worse than it does now .....

Dave

As your bodyshop is rectifying there work, would it not be beneficial to forum members to tell us the bodyshop so everyone else can avoid it ?

Dave

Dave sorry for delay, but had a minor accident in my car and have been busy at work. The bodyshop was Brighton Audi which forms part of the Caffyns group of garages in sussex