Anybody had experience with Lennock's in Canberra?

[Preen59]

Hey guys, just wondering about your thoughts on them, good or bad? Experiences?

Cheers.

[Rocket36]

They used to be the only VW dealer... My sister bought her Mk V Golf GT Sport from them and got a GREAT deal. It was a 4500km demo, sold as a demo because it was the Dealer Principle's wife's car. However the after sales service was shocking and expensive.

When I wanted to buy a CC (and ended up with an R36) I went to Gerald Slaven. I have bought more cars than I can count from them, Holdens and HSVs. So when they bought a VW franchise it's where I went.

Got a better deal on a MY09 R36 in Biscay Blue than the 4000km demo MY08 R36 in white Lennock had. And mine had both Sat Nav and sunroof (all white ones come with a sunroof).

Anyhow, the after sales service and general relationship I have with the whole dealership, sales, service and a couple of the managers at Gerald Slaven is great. It's where I'd go and where my sister also takes her VW now for servicing.

Hope that helps.

Cheers mate!

[Preen59]

That's what i wanted to hear..

They just quoted a mate of mine 3 grand to replace the exhaust.. That doesn't even ****ing need replacing!



On his way up to Orange a few weeks ago, he did some damage to it..

Basically, he went over a big speedbump or something (didn't explain it well) and hit something. Said the brakes had gone really hard, it was idling funny and it was really loud.

When he got here i put it on the hoist and had a look. When he's gone over whatever it was, it has jerked the engine back pretty hard. It hit the firewall and pinched booster line at the end, causing it to split and come off. It had also busted the exhaust manifold/downpipe gasket (No, i'm not a mechanic, but my old man is.. And he agreed with me). There was no marks or issues with the exhaust apart from that at all. It was spotless. Didn't even have an OLD scrap mark, let along a new one.

I fixed the booster line with some self vulcanizing tape and told him it would be fine to drive back and get the exhaust fixed by someone else later on. We didn't have a gasket and i didn't want to spend a few hours doing it on my weekend.


So basically the car was taken to them today. They told him the whole exhaust needs replacing. Even if it did, including the manifold it should be nowhere near that. Not even half that. He's not happy and I told him to go elsewhere.

No wonder mechanics and dealers get a bad name! Gotta feel sorry for the legitimate ones....


Thanks for the info dude.

[Calais]

3 grand for an oem exhaust is ridiculous (its just made that much worse when it really doesnt need replacing anyway). Even a custom mandrel system in stainless with a new cat would come in less than that.

I agree that with tactics like that, It's little wonder that dealer workshops get a bad name.

[Rocket36]

Tell him to take it to the Exhaust Shop in Mitchell.

[Preen59]

Tell him to take it to the Exhaust Shop in Mitchell.

Cheers man. I'm on it.

[jamesatfish]

If you're on the Southside, Fyshwick Exhaust Centre on Newcastle St is very good also - they've made up some great custom systems for a few of my cars at very reasonable prices.

As for Lennocks, I've had some poor experiences with their service department over the years - from an ongoing inability to fix the roof on my Beetle Cabrio (took at least 6 attempts to fix all the niggles), to ordering interior parts in the wrong colour for my Touareg on several occasions and in some cases not actually doing the work that was requested. Since discovering Peter at Canberra VW Centre I haven't been back to Lennocks for service.

[GTI_racer]

+1 for Slaven

They have been great with both the GTI and Jetta

[Timbo]

+ 1 for Fyshwick Exhaust Centre -- Raff & Neil are good blokes who solve problems simply and communicate with their customers

Lennock's service record is, IME, pretty mixed. They have solved some problems, one-off, but on other occasions it has taken many unhappy returns. Expensive, too.

[Preen59]

Cheers for the info guys. Haven't heard back yet..

[dubai gti]

interesting to hear, as Lennocks are one of the oldest names in Australia for VW's for the last 35 + years........hmmm

[jamesatfish]

interesting to hear, as Lennocks are one of the oldest names in Australia for VW's for the last 35 + years........hmmm

I should add that the VW sales team at Lennocks are much better than the service area.

In the last few years I've bought my Polo, Touareg and Caddy from Lennocks and I had a good purchase experience in all three instances. The blokes there are all good to deal with and they've put together good deals on all 3 cars so I'd certainly recommend Lennocks from a sales point of view.

The service department on the other hand is a combined VW / Nissan / Skoda etc workshop, and I think they suffer from being jacks of all makes rather than just VW specialists.

[gregozedobe]

The service department on the other hand is a combined VW / Nissan / Skoda etc workshop, and I think they suffer from being jacks of all makes rather than just VW specialists.

Seeing as VWs and Skodas share mechanicals and electronics I'd be interested in your reasons for saying that makes them "jacks of all makes" ?

I'll concede that Nissans are different to VWs, but it is a pretty big workshop, so probably has enough mechanics working there that some are Nissan specialists, and others are VW/Skoda specialists.

I've been going to Lennocks for servicing and warranty work 3 years now, and I've yet to have a really bad experience with their work (but have had some disatisfactions with the way VWA insist that warranty work is done).

[jamesatfish]

Seeing as VWs and Skodas share mechanicals and electronics I'd be interested in your reasons for saying that makes them "jacks of all makes" ?

Fair enough - there's shared components & knowledge in the VW / Skoda range and 'all' makes is not entirely accurate. My point is more that they're a large workshop where you don't know who is working on your car and whether they're a VW specialist, general apprentice or work experience kid.

I also find the disconnect between the mechanics and the desk staff reduces the effectiveness of the service dept. Although they have different service counters for the different makes it's not uncommon to be served by one of the non-VW counter staff - and when dropping off your VW Beetle this makes it harder to explain a problem when the service desk staff member mainly works on Nissan Patrol issues.

I've been going to Lennocks for servicing and warranty work 3 years now, and I've yet to have a really bad experience with their work (but have had some disatisfactions with the way VWA insist that warranty work is done).

Perhaps I just had bad luck with my experiences - work not done correctly or at all, wrong parts ordered and not identified until the car went in, mechanics using my car to learn on because they hadn't had experience with that model previously, bookings not written down and so on.

[doc dogg]

I have dealt with the sales and finance guys over the past 2 weekends and while they were struggling a bit with the number of people wanting test drive and information, they made us feel supported through the whole process and were willing to answer all of our silly questions between serving customers. The even let us play around with the cars in the show room while we were waiting...I don't think I could ever get sick of raising and lowering the Eos's roof

They discovered someone had cut the GPS aerial off the roof of a test-drive GTI with tin snips while we were there and were scratching their heads as to what someone would want it for without stealing the head unit as well