Delivery blow out

[William_Foster]

I am not a lawyer, but I would suggest you read the contract you signed for the order; I know mine had a clause covering this issue which I asked for an explanation of prior to signing; basically if I cancelled the order for whatever reason I had to pay 5% of the order [This didn't include stamp duty or on-road costs]. I am not sure if all VW dealers use the same contract so I can't say for sure you will have the same clause.

Be nice to the dealer as I know mine said we could come to an arrangement if I did need to cancel given the wait; but I left thinking that it was a comment based on the fact I hadn't signed the contract yet; post signing I am pretty sure the answer may have been different.

[burned]

My Gti deposit was $1000

William - my contract says something along those lines, but when the dealer gave me a yell to say 2012 he said they would understand if i cancelled and refund my deposit 100%. I've got nothing against the dealer so it should be an amicable split.

VGA must be losing so many sales out of this (and I know that vw owns audi lol)

Cheers!

[triode12]

this is all assuming that mistakes on options are made by the factory (and not the dealer entering the car config into the systems) and that the handling of options does cause any delay.

the biggest delay in the first batch of R's was the DSG gearbox, not any of the options...

If they had preconfigured cars, apart from the fact that it would less opportunties for mistakes to be made either by the dealer or factory, They wouldn't have to wait for orders to come in before building the cars. They could build the cars before hand and have them landed in the country (in significant numbers) ready for sale on model launch.

[Frostee]

I'm seriously contemplating switching teams - $8k more for better spec, better badge and saving 7+ months is hard to say no too.

What do you guys reckon?

Have you ever tried selling a second hand Audi?

[William_Foster]

Although Australia did not appear to be widely affected by the Global Financial Crisis it happened, and is still happening. These issues are being experienced by most buyers of most marquees as the manufacturers limit their exposure to costs, such as financing hundreds if not thousands of cars sitting on the docks waiting for new owners. Unfortunately it appears that ordering and waiting is going to become the norm for most marquees if you want something out of the ordinary [i.e. options].

On the subject of second hand Audi's; I haven't heard too many happy stories from sellers; but they are much happier than sellers of BMW 5 series and above.

[Gladiator]

My Gti deposit was $1000

my contract says something along those lines, but when the dealer gave me a yell to say 2012 he said they would understand if i cancelled and refund my deposit 100%.

burned; how is that your mid dec 2010 order ended up becoming a 2012 delivery? plenty of ppl have ordered after yours with similar specs and are receiving their GTI's much sooner than 2012. not sure what your dealer has been messing around with behind the scenes but it's a pretty big foul up.

[Corey_R]

Dealers were given an allocation each. Maybe his dealer already sold their allocation for 2011 before burned ordered his...

[GTI JOE]

Hey all - so after being told to expect 2012 delivery despite ordering in mid Dec 2010, i went out and test drove an A1 ambition today. I must say i was pleasantly surprised! It has more options and is more customisable than the gti, which is important for me, and on road with a similar spec as the gti I ordered was about $8k more (it included a couple of extra options like wheel upgrade, speaker upgrade and metallic paint) which was better than expected. The Audi dealers are much nicer when it comes to negotiating as well! Plus if I order in the next 2 weeks, i'm guaranteed mid June delivery (which is fine b/c i'll be away for 2 months in May/June).

I'm seriously contemplating switching teams - $8k more for better spec, better badge and saving 7+ months is hard to say no too.

What do you guys reckon?

John McEnroe would be screaming...'YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS" an Audi A1, similar spec to a Polo GTI? I don't think so. I am afraid that the GTI would wipe the floor with the A1 (in it's current configuration). Could be another story when and if the S1 comes around though

[burned]

never tried selling a second hand audi before.. i'm only on my first car at the moment (an '04 mazda 3 sp23). I'll be buying the a1 to drive it though... not sell it lol! We'd all be driving pretty bland cars if we were buying based on resale!

Corey, you're right. My dealer said he took 15 orders in Dec, i was about number 6 or 7 and they have only been allocated 4 cars for 2011 (not sure if he was bs-ing though). I ordered from parramatta, which is a pretty big dealership i think. I see your logic though gladiator. They obviously must be doing a white/xenon production line around now because there a couple of guys with same/similar specs with eta's of june/july! That obviously throws the whole 'delays due to production efficiencies' argument out the window!

VW are making it sound like they are getting like 100 gtis (i'm guesstimating) for 2011. Multiply that by say 20 international markets gets you to 2000 units a year from one factory (again guessing) or 5 cars per day. I'm pretty sure Aston hand build more cars than that! I honestly still do not understand why delays are so long. I understand that non-gti polos would be in huge demand throughout the world given all the awards that its won during the last year, but come on: how many countries are as prosperous as ours and have people willing to drop 30-35k on a small hatchback? There's no demand in Russia, China and USA b/c they prefer sedans or SUVs. The GTi is very expensive in japan (approx 35k aud) vs their equivalent hotted up jazz (approx 20k aud) so demand can't be that big their either!

Is there something that i'm missing? Are they building SEAT's in the same factory in spain?

[Gambit]

i would not wait till 2012, i'd get my deposit back and get the A1 if i could afford it.

[Gladiator]

My dealer said he took 15 orders in Dec, i was about number 6 or 7 and they have only been allocated 4 cars for 2011 (not sure if he was bs-ing though).

4 cars a year? I was under the impression each dealer sold and delivered more than 4 GTI's a year. Can't be right can it?

i would not wait till 2012, i'd get my deposit back and get the A1 if i could afford it.

Neither would I. Probably would've called up every single dealer to try find one in stock!

[gavs]

My dealer said he took 15 orders in Dec, i was about number 6 or 7 and they have only been allocated 4 cars for 2011 (not sure if he was bs-ing though). I ordered from parramatta, which is a pretty big dealership i think.

I ten to think that you are right that they are feeding you BS as most reports from dealers and the media state that there are 30-35 GTIs coming in per month or as what dealers have been told in the past few months, "one vehicle per dealer, per month".

Take your business elsewhere, see what they can do for you. While the A1 is a nice car, the first time you get burned (pardon the pun) by a mere Polo GTI at the lights, you will kick yourself for settling for an inferior vehicle

[GTI JOE]

My dealer said he took 15 orders in Dec, i was about number 6 or 7 and they have only been allocated 4 cars for 2011 (not sure if he was bs-ing though).

These are the sorts of greedy dealerships that are screwing VGA, who lets them get away with it BTW I guess they deserve each other.

[Gambit]

Fingers crossed my car is marked for delivery this Friday ! yay!

[Smacca]

When I ordered my GTI in Feb, I was told straight up it would be a 12 month wait with delivery expected Feb 2012.

But I just got an email from my car broker saying the dealership had updated the delivery date to mid Oct 2011. Sweeeet!