Private vs Dealer Purchase - B7 RS4

[karl]

In the last twelve months I've had over 3K of work done on my car (2K under warranty, 1k not). So things can and do go wrong and can and do wear out! Buying a car like this always carries an element of risk, and I'd have thought a professional inspection would ne a must when buying privately.

Chris,

What work was required under warranty?

[drcarrera]

In the last twelve months I've had over 3K of work done on my car (2K under warranty, 1k not). So things can and do go wrong and can and do wear out! Buying a car like this always carries an element of risk, and I'd have thought a professional inspection would ne a must when buying privately.

Chris,

What work was required under warranty?

DRC and MAF sensor/throttle body mainly, plus a few minor things like a wiper motor. Admittedly if this work was out of warranty you'd probably go to a specialist so the cost would be less.

[lengster1]

Maybe i run mine differently but take the above few posts for instance,drc is covered on every car until its 5 years old and that would of been at least 2k of the claim,vagcom would of identified the maf and is a 10 mins 2 jubilee clip install and i would source the wiper motor from a scrappy for a not alot and fit myself or if you dont do spanners any good garage will do but certainly isnt a skill level that requires £120 per hour main dealer tech,£1100 for a days labour of a car mechanic!!!!!!!!! ok deduct the ecu £2-300??? sorry but your wasting your cash a good non franchised specialist or even normal garage will have vagcom or similar and a labour rate of maybe even a third of franchised dealer,if you just walk in and leave it with em you might aswell hang your arse over the counter and ask if your gonna do it now or on collection!!!!!!!!

[lengster1]

To the OP have a look through here to assess for yourself the level of cover the audi (mondial) warranty gives as theres plenty of examples of knocked back claims,the favourite is "we will strip it n then decide if its covered but if not you will owe £2k labour" ive bought 2 rs4s and both have had the warranty its good certainly better than most but your kidding yourself if you think it gives full cover,much lands in the merky dealer discretion area,you have more comeback and leverage with a car that came from an approved centre but you will have to negotiate everything before purchase and inspect it well,rs4 sells well and dealers will have a go at shifting anything if theres a profit in it,several members here have seen poor stuff on forecourts at top whack

[karl]

Couldn't agree more lengster1; too much faith and importance is placed on a warranty. And as for dealer cars, mine was a dealer car and came with Audi warranty and the multipoint 'approved used' check. Two weeks later I discovered one of the front shocks was soaked with oil and had been like it for some time, yet it wasn't picked up on the multipoint check! It goes to prove that a dealer car is no better.

[lengster1]

Mine needed front discs and pads within a few thousand miles yet all ticked as good on the 114 point check!!! I learned recently that for an mot ONLY brake performance is failable now,seems unbelievable but scoring or worn does not constitute a fail if they meet the output requirement,also recently learned on here min tread depth for an approved used car is 3mm and it used to be only ok if they had more than half life left,seems a few things are slipping in the quality department but the prices have stayed.

[Noahweb]

Seems fitting that my first post at RS246 is regarding this....I'm completing the sale of 07 RS4 this weekend from a private seller. Honestly I feel that purchasing from an enthusiast is often better than the dealership. The former having some pride in their vehicle, while the latter is simply there to push the vehicles out the door.

As for price, I'm well under the average sale price. Though I'll hedge anything further until I have the car Cheers!

[neckarsulm]

..just going back to Dave's earlier post, how does a newish car "develop" a water leak?

Unless there is a design issue that affects every example (Fabia and Leon for example) it's usually from leaves blocking drains or from some previous work not having been done correctly (grommets left out, incorrect installation of pollen filter, broken window replacement not done right etc) - Passat B5s have water ingress issues through pollen filter housing and they are more similar to our cars then you might think.

Hence I can see why a warranty co. wouldn't cover it and I'm convinced that my currently dry car will stay dry unless someone messes with something.

[drcarrera]

Maybe i run mine differently but take the above few posts for instance,drc is covered on every car until its 5 years old and that would of been at least 2k of the claim,vagcom would of identified the maf and is a 10 mins 2 jubilee clip install and i would source the wiper motor from a scrappy for a not alot and fit myself or if you dont do spanners any good garage will do but certainly isnt a skill level that requires £120 per hour main dealer tech,£1100 for a days labour of a car mechanic!!!!!!!!! ok deduct the ecu £2-300??? sorry but your wasting your cash a good non franchised specialist or even normal garage will have vagcom or similar and a labour rate of maybe even a third of franchised dealer,if you just walk in and leave it with em you might aswell hang your arse over the counter and ask if your gonna do it now or on collection!!!!!!!!

Many cars will be reaching 5 years old next year so any prospective purchaser will have to take into consideration DRC may not be covered if it develops a problem. Perhaps I underestimated the costs on my car, though, as I'd only factored in £1K for the DRC! The main warranty item on mine apart from DRC was a replacement throttle body and associated issues, and these issues were, apparently, not logged. The tech tracked them down as he'd come across a similar issue before. But I agree about labour rates - as I said in my post, it'd work out cheaper if done at a specialist which, had the car been out of warranty, I'd have probably done if I could find one close enough.

[Dave_M]

I'm still awaiting clarification from the dealer on the source of the water leaks - initially they found the pollen filter housing was leaking and sealed that up. However they then found it was still leaking from "an issue with the bulkhead" - I've asked for further detail on what this was, and have asked the dealer to pursue a goodwill claim from Audi if it was a manufacturing fault. The car is 4 months out of the 3 year warranty, and I really don't expect a "premium" car like an Audi to totally flood the interior when it rains!

I have my reasons for using the main dealer - 1) they should know how the interior trim comes apart without breaking all the clips and ending up with a car where everyrthing rattles, 2) if there is a defect which has been there from new I do stand a chance of getting some goodwill contribution from Audi and 3) there aren't any indie garages nearby that I know and would entrust with £30k of car. A bill of over £1k still hurts a lot though, particularly as neckarsulm says when it's a fault you really woudn't expect to develop.

BTW - when it went in a month ago with the same problem, the scuttle was clogged up with leaves - they cleared it out and thought this would fix the problem - turns out it didn't and as a result the convenience ecu is now wrecked as well.....

Dave

[neckarsulm]

I'm still awaiting clarification from the dealer on the source of the water leaks - initially they found the pollen filter housing was leaking and sealed that up. However they then found it was still leaking from "an issue with the bulkhead" - I've asked for further detail on what this was, and have asked the dealer to pursue a goodwill claim from Audi if it was a manufacturing fault.

It's unlikely a manufacturing fault would surface after 3 years - the 8E (B6/B7) chassis cars had been in production for 6 years before your car was built.
However I wouldn't put it past a dealer tech to break something when doing a pollen filter change

Has it ever had a windscreen as again these are a frequent source of leaks if not installed properly and nothing to do with manufacturing faults?

I have my reasons for using the main dealer - 1) they should know how the interior trim comes apart without breaking all the clips and ending up with a car where everyrthing rattles

it's sometimes impossible not to break clips as modern cars have been designed to be built quickly and this involves numerous clips that destruct if disturbed. When the tech is on a bonus for his efficiency I don't think he's really going to care enough to order clips in that could take 48 hrs to come and then rebook you to take the panel off again to refit the missing clips especially when he can't charge any more. Or if it's under warranty, he'll have been on a fraction of the usual hourly labour rate (often 50%) so will be in even more of a rush to get the job done. Not saying indies will be any better, just not to expect any more care and attention for a main dealer. Plus you may get the apprentice on your car who has to learn somehow!

[Dave_M]

It did have a new windscreen about 2 years ago. The difficulty is that the guy I bought it off garaged it every night and parked it in an underground car park at work - whereas I leave it outside all the time. So the leak could have been there from when the windscreen was fitted, or could have been there from new, but the symptons never showed up. I suspect I'm on a loser, but if you don't ask.....

Take your point about the trim clips / rates / apprentices etc - if I knew a good indie locally I'd use them. I don't and until someone can recommend one I'm reluctant to move - I live in (maybe misguided) hope that if the dealer completely fouls it up, Audi will provide some support. As an example I had an indie garage do some work on another car recently - I can't prove it but I'm fairly sure they didn't do what they told me they'd done (though they did fix the problem), charged me £270 for the privelege (all labour - I suspect it took them a lot less time than they charged me) and wanted payment the minute they'd finished the work even though they'd had the car 1.5 weeks and kept making excuses why they hadn't don it. Makes me nervous they have so little cash and that the car could end up repossessed when the bailiffs turn up at their premises. And that was a recommended garage! Maybe I've just been unlucky in the past...

Dave

[lengster1]

I understand your reservations if you have no good local alternative,i would like to be a little more optomistic about garages but so often proved right in being suspicous,only last week i was in the main dealer for the rs4s free audi mot and have the tdi a4 serviced too,they tried to charge me for the mot as they hadnt yet serviced my rs4,its not due yet!!!! Offer to bring back in there own letter sorted it but the point being they tried!!!! A4 tdi serviced no probs,front tyres 5.5mm sir rears 3mm,dropped it off at kwikfit on the way home and left it with them to check tracking and balance all 4 wheels,a call 1 later "rears arent worth balancing there less than 2mm" not bad eh lost over1mm tread in under 5 miles!! Its nice when find good old fashioned decent service but it seems its rare eh?

[Dubel]

So I posted earlier in this thread about buying from a main dealer, and my deceisions to why...(now eating my own words up because I still after months I can not find the right car) it does seem that perhaps the warrenty might be included, and I do believe that things do get fixed especially the louder you shout, but getting the right car seems hard especially from the dealer.
I even told a main dealer today that he would try and sell me anything....
Most frustrating, having the money to buy a car and still not be able to get the RS4... Moving on to look at what potential private cars might be worth parting with my cash now.

So if there is a low mileage black, sliver, or grey saloon, with buckets, FBS, auto lights & rain sensor, auto diming rear view mirror, adaptive lights, drop me a note.

[mark758]

I'd consider buying a car without auto lights & rain sensor, auto diming rear view mirror and coming home - just to widen your choice of vehicles.
These can be easily, if not cheaply, retrofitted.

My car has had a lot of work done under warranty in my first year of ownership but I think it's partly due to the change in ownership profile.
I suspect the cars are now falling into the hands of enthusiasts who know when something is wrong and more importantly want it right.
New perhaps these cars had a large percentage of owners who weren't quite so interested in the cars?
Certainly many of my rectifications were issues that would have been easy fixes if noted and addressed early on.
My dealership service manager did make the point that RS4 owners are now far more demanding!