William Vandegrift

Review of Audi North Austin

Salesman: Dishonest and very little knowledge of t...

Salesman: Dishonest and very little knowledge of the car model I bought. Told me I was looking at the last BASE model A3 they had at the dealership. When I questioned why I wasn't getting the advertised lease price on the website, he said I didn't have the BASE model. When I said I was unhappy and going to leave he used more dishonest sales tactics to get me to agree on an extremely unfair price. The tactics include stretching the lease from 36 to 42 months and lowering the mileage from 10k to 7,500 miles per year and "paying off" my current lease but adding $100 per month to the monthly lease payment ($4,200 over the life of the lease) when the lease only had $1,500 left on it to be paid off. I understand this is my fault for not catching and stopping it from happening to me but I have been used to being able to trust a salesman for the last 10 years and 4 cars that I had leased from Chevy.
He also told me about a technology the car had that was a HUGE selling point for me that a few days later, after purchasing and not being able to get the tech to work, found out my model doesn't have it. Salesman said, "oh sorry, thats weird all of the models I've seen had that tech. Its because you have the base model . He then literally walked away from me after that. So I DO have the BASE model! I have an Audi and the passenger seat has a lever I have to pull to move it, not power! Seriously?!?
In the finance office, when signing the lease agreement, I asked the finance lady what my residual lease payoff amount would be at the end of the lease and she said $33,000+. I was shocked because the sticker price was that amount. She gave me a long explanation about how Audi does things differently than BMW or Lexus and they keep the residual very high in order to offer lower lease payments. I asked, Why would anyone pay lease payments for years then buyout the car for the original price? Her answer was that no one buys out leases, they just lease a new model at the end of the other lease. After the paperwork for my lease agreement printed, it showed my residual lease payoff amount was $14,000. I brought this up and she said, oh sorry, yea its $14,000 . Another sign that these people were making things up on the spot to get me to sign no matter what. Being someone who is non-confrontational and having my six year old begging to leave after three hours at a dealership, I signed despite all of these warning signs that I was not involved in an honest, fair sale.
The final horrible experience at this dealership was the service department. I was only given one key for the car at purchase and was told another has been ordered. When it arrived my salesman called and told me I could stop by and grab it, that it will only take 10 or 15 minutes to have the key programmed. I stopped by the next night after work and after waiting about 10 minutes for my key to be found the service guy walked over and said to me, you really have a couple hours to wait for this? I told him I was told it was 10 minutes. He laughed at me and said, no you need to make an appointment . So I made an appointment for Saturday. Saturday I dropped the car off and asked to be called when it was finished. I received a call about 40 minutes later and was told the wrong key was ordered for my car. 15 minutes later she called again and said they found another key that would work. An hour later she called and said the car was ready for me to pick up. I got my girlfriend to drop me and my daughter off at the dealership. I went to service to get my car and the lady said they were just hand washing it and it ll be there soon. 30 minutes later I still didn t have my car. This went on for over 2 hours and the service lady was very apologetic and confused as to why my car wasn t being brought to me. Overall it took about 3 hours to get my car after receiving a phone call that my car was ready for pickup.
If buy an Audi, DO NOT GO TO NORTH AUSTIN AUDI!

UPDATE: Emailed the guy who responded to my review and provided all personal contact info now over a week and no contact.