Grimsby Audi and Soft RS4 wheels

[ollys]

I never considered the law in any depth on this, but the points you make appear to be valid ones. I suppose there could be a valid contract between Audi and any exisiting or future owner of the car, the owner's consideration for the new wheels supplied by Audi being to keep the vehicle serviced at Audi. You are right, the extra page in the owner's manual does seem to support this theory. On the other side of the coin words such as "goodwill policy" tend to point away from contractual relations being intended by Audi. My personal opinion is that it would be hard for Audi to refuse you a set of new hard wheels, given how they have approached the policy in the majority of other cases that one reads about on these forums.

I still think your best bet is to try a different dealer first.

Olly

[gareth215]

Well just come off the phone from Hayden at Audi UK and he said the the wheels replacement policy changed 2 years ago. Now you must submit your wheels to audi UK for "inspection " re the warranty claim. While your car is without wheels you have two choices 1) to leave you car on axel stands at the dealer for 2 - 3 weeks while this takes place or 2) Buy a new set of rims and if they honour thew claim you get a refund!

They offer no compensation for being without the vehicle for 2 - 3 weeks and will not provide a courtesy car.

Also they only offer hard wheels know.

Have others had to do this also for the past two years i.e pay up front for new wheels or be without their car for a number of weeks? It seems the days of easy replacement from Audi are over.

[gareth215]

Well just come off the phone from Hayden at Audi UK and he said the the wheels replacement policy changed 2 years ago. Now you must submit your wheels to audi UK for "inspection " re the warranty claim. While your car is without wheels you have two choices 1) to leave you car on axel stands at the dealer for 2 - 3 weeks while this takes place or 2) Buy a new set of rims and if they honour thew claim you get a refund!

They offer no compensation for being without the vehicle for 2 - 3 weeks and will not provide a courtesy car.

Also they only offer hard wheels know.

Have others had to do this also for the past two years i.e pay up front for new wheels or be without their car for a number of weeks? It seems the days of easy replacement from Audi are over.

[TopBear]

Sounds a bit fishy to me, as I was told I had two choices, back in Summer 2007....

1) Have the dealer send only those wheels which were deemed as deformed to be examined by Audi Customer Services technical team, and if they examined the wheels and they passed their criteria for replacement, they would replace with new soft wheels. If i didnt pass there 'criteria', then I wouldnt get my wheels replaced.
In either case, the wheels would not be returned back to me, for "safety reasons"!!

2)I could have all the wheels (bent or not) replaced for the new hard (safety) wheels, at no cost, and without quibble. I would forfeit the ability to claim any future replacements though, as these wheels did not have the lifetime warranty.

Cheers
Grant

[gareth215]

I must say I smell a rat, I got a phone call back from Audi as I asked Hatden to refer the matter to a more senior person. They have back tracked from the two years statement now and will only say it a long time but not sure of the exacrt date!

I had to email over the letters and video from this website and was told I would hear more tomorrow.

So lets see.

Cheers for your help so far, thats RS246.com not Audi UK!

[lushman]

Hi All,

In light of this running post I decided to phone Audi Belfast this morning. I spoke with the service department who knew of no such goodwill or any issue with alloy wheels. They put me on hold and when they returned they advised me that they had spoken to their warranty manager who knew of no such policy. I pointed out previous press articles etc all to no avail. I advised the service department I will contact Audi UK customer services to enquire further. I spoke to very helpful person called Kelly who kept apoloigising for putting me on hold for 30 seconds at a time. She then informed me that she had just spoken with Audi Belfast and had the manager, Richard, on the phone and would transfer me. I spoke with him who was aware of the poicy and was most annoyed at his staff fobbing me off! He could not have been more helpful and I have agreed to take my car to him of Friday morning for him to inspect the wheels. From our conversation I believe that there is not going to be an issue to get the wheels replaced and will keep you all updated as to the outcome.

Regards Paul

[Contigo]

I must say I smell a rat, I got a phone call back from Audi as I asked Hatden to refer the matter to a more senior person. They have back tracked from the two years statement now and will only say it a long time but not sure of the exacrt date!

I had to email over the letters and video from this website and was told I would hear more tomorrow.

So lets see.

Cheers for your help so far, thats RS246.com not Audi UK!

Don't stand for any messing mate, seriously, I took mine to Audi Newbury and found out that one of mine was buckled but they had already been replaced with the hard wheels (part number ending in AE) so I had no chance as the original soft alloys had been replaced already.

[gareth215]

Just got a phone call back from Audi Uk, all they will do is offer me a loan car for up to a week while my wheels have been sent away for assessment. The problem is the can not say how long it will take and it may well take a lot longer then a week. so then I would have to pay for a hire car for maybe a couple of weeks. They said that is all they will offer and invited me to sue them. I am very tempted to call their bluff.

The trouble is I just don't trust Audi to be reasonable when they assess my wheels, why cant it be done at the dealers. Also I have no idea about audi's definition of "other significant damage to the wheel" will they pick up on a tiny kerb mark which could not have caused the inside of the rim to bend.

[Contigo]

They assess it, normally the guy in the warranty dept looks at the current state of the wheels for kerbin etc and then decides to see if they think this damage could have lead to the buckling of the wheels. It's a hard one but Id be inclined to take the loan car for a week and try to arrange alternative wheels or even buy a cheap set of reps with a view to sell them off in the future, Surely someoneo on here has some B5 wheels and tryes that they would be willing to let go for a fee?

Put a wanted note in the classifieds section asking for four wheels and tyres if I were you.

[kcsun]

Just my 4 pennyworth

I took my car back to my dealer in November, told him to check the wheels please, they were checked "while you wait" 10 minutes max, two fronts deformed, rears OK. They rang Audi for warranty confirmation - girl at call centre said she knew nothing about wheels, my service manager rang Audi on my behalf stated she was talking crap and both he and the customer knew about the situation, two replacement (admittedly you do have to have hard wheels now - but they also come with a 2 year warranty) wheels were ordered, had them fitted following day with my choice of alloy valves free of charge, and being the good hearted dealer they are gave me the old ones for spares as Audi did not want them back.

Oh, and the dealer said I still have two rear "soft" wheels that can be exchanged under warranty any time

kc

[lushman]

Took my car to Audi Belfast today. They took pics of the 4 wheels and I was told it would be Wednesday before they could order any. Later this afternoon got a phonecall from the service department for me to book my car in and get the new wheels fitted for 22/04.
No mention of checking them first so hopefully all the grief I initially had and having to involve Audi Uk has saved the examination process of this!

Very happy

Paul

[lushman]

Yipee got a brand new set of rims for the stealers for free!!

Paul

[lengster1]

You might want to try Hull audi they changed a few of mine without a fuss

[Rs4Fan]

Took my car to Audi Belfast today. They took pics of the 4 wheels and I was told it would be Wednesday before they could order any. Later this afternoon got a phonecall from the service department for me to book my car in and get the new wheels fitted for 22/04.
No mention of checking them first so hopefully all the grief I initially had and having to involve Audi Uk has saved the examination process of this!

Very happy

Paul

Paul, I had the exact same experience with the wheels three years ago. I go through the trouble of shipping my car up to Audi Belfast for all the maintenance. It costs me a small fortune but they really know what they are doing.

[quattrokid1]

Sounds a bit fishy to me, as I was told I had two choices, back in Summer 2007....


2)I could have all the wheels (bent or not) replaced for the new hard (safety) wheels, at no cost, and without quibble. I would forfeit the ability to claim any future replacements though, as these wheels did not have the lifetime warranty.

Cheers
Grant

I had Helens changed at Ayr Audi ( ingrams) as opposed to the official Ayr dealer now..... anyway I bought a spare from Top Bear since we didnt have one, so I went to Ingrams to ask about getting the wheels changed... fast forward a few months and still no joy about the availability of soft rims... however I did find out that some greedy sod in Ireland had managed to get through 36 RIMS!!!! W.T.F does he drive on????

asked my service manager what the hell was the delay and so if I was to get the harder rims instead of the soft rims when could I have them........ oh in A FEW DAYS!!!! why the bloody hell didnt you say that 8 months ago eh ...

reply you didnt ask for hard rims.!!!!! I could have swung his clock round

Anyway got 5 hard rims curtesy of Audi.

Going back to what Top Bear said about warranties.....ANY replacement genuine part has a 2 year warranty.... so I assume if you buckle it a bit then your well within your rights to get it replaced... are you not