Pete G

Dishonest - Sells unsafe cars - Avoid

I had to misfortune to deal with Crawley Audi when buying an 2018 Audi A6 Allroad. I can honestly say this is one of the most dishonest organisations I’ve ever had to deal with. I thought buying an Audi approved car from an Audi main dealer meant I would have complete piece of mind - how foolish I was. They have literally lied to me multiple times throughout the transaction and have shown they repeatedly put profit over safety and will happily sell you a car with un-repaired accident damage causing the vehicle to be unsafe. They initially refused to repair 50% of the problems I had with the car in the first couple of weeks - until I threatened to return the vehicle. The salesman literally lied to me about the tyres that would be fitted to it when delivered - I said I wanted the tyres Audi would fit - what I got was Avon tyres - never fitted by Audi (but £70 per tyre cheaper than the premium tyres Audi would fit). The vehicle had been involved in an accident involving 2 of the wheels - they knew about this as they fitted new tyres onto these wheels. There is no way you could avoid seeing this damage when fitting tyres - it was very obvious and very noticeable when the wheels were on a balancing machine. Once I discovered this - it manifests itself as a vibration at high speed - they have been as obstructive as possible in getting the wheels replaced. They have tried to feed me multiple lies about how the damage was done after I got the car - I’m assured by several sources that it would be impossible to damage the wheels in this way without affecting the wheel balance - and yet they were perfectly in balance. This means the wheels were balanced with the damage already there (when they changed the tyres before I bought it). Once I pointed out how ridiculous this scenario was - and their manager Lewi Fusilo phoned me up and agreed - They agreed to replace one of the wheels. This reduced the vibration quite a bit - but not completely as you would expect - the other wheel is still distorted, although to a lesser extent, causing a less noticeable vibration. What followed over the next couple of months can only be described as deliberate obstruction and wasting of my time, accompanied by a string of lies. I guess this is in the hope I would just give up - they picked the wrong person for this. They admit they lie - I heard the line `this was former members of staff who no longer work here` this might work if they hadn’t gone on to 3 separate attempts at dishonesty over the following 30 minutes - this involved: 1) a convoluted scenario where they got my car onto a lift and span the wheels really fast - directing me to look at the rear of the vehicle, when the damaged wheel was on the front - in an attempt to get me to agree that there was no distortion, obviously thinking I’m an idiot - I called them out on this within seconds getting them to slow the spin down enough to see the damage (it is very obvious). I had already seen the damage to the wheel so I was never going to buy this. Once called out on this they tried lie number 2. 2) They tried to claim that the very minor cosmetic damage caused by touching the kerb (outside of the wheel) was actually the cause of the major impact damage to the opposite (inside) of the wheel that stretches from the rim to around 30% of the wheel itself. All without causing any distortion whatsoever to the remaining 70% of the wheel. Notice this is a different lie to the one they tried initially. 3) They told me I would need to wait until they had a `doner vehicle` to try another undamaged wheel. They lied to me about another car they had saying that the customer had just collected it - this was a lie as I watched one of their staff drive it into the workshop 10 minutes later. They later changed their story saying they couldn’t use that one as it was a customer’s car - fair enough but why tell a lie about it in the first place. I’ve since been taken the car back and tried it with a different wheel - this cures the problem, however they still won’t replace it - they are asking me to cover 50% of the cost. So they admit to 1.5 wheels but apparently I’m responsible for the other 0.5 of a wheel. As far as I can tell - this would also involve me signing away my statutory rights - something I’m never going to do. So they are happy for me to continue to drive a potentially unsafe vehicle if I don’t agree to their terms. By their own admission what happens to damaged alloy wheels is that they crack - if this happens at 70mph it could easily result in injury or death - something they clearly don’t care about. This is taken from the email I received: `Our Master Technician and our Tyre Specialists opinion is that the distortion on the inside of the Alloy could have been caused at the same time as this outside damage. You disagree with this. Therefore we offer 50% contribution.` Lets examine this: `Our Master Technician` - this is the person who tried the ridiculous fast spinning scenario above - followed by blaming the very obvious impact damage on the minor scratches. Also their employee - paid by them to find in their favour. `our Tyre Specialist` - this is a straightforward lie. Up until my most recent visit they were not admitting the damage to the second wheel existed. During the last 2 visits - no tyre technician examined the wheel at all - there wasn’t time for this to happen. The matter is still not sorted - I’ve begun a complaint with the Motor Ombudsman - if I don’t get any satisfaction there I will need to go down the legal route. In conclusion - don’t deal with Crawley Audi - you’d be better off buying from an organisation called `Bodging Bill’s Dodgy Autos` or rolling the dice and buying privately. I thought buying an Audi Approved car would be safer than buying privately - I’ve paid 19k to upgrade my car (bought privately) to one that is considerably worse that the (identical) car I traded in. Also don’t trust Audi Approved Used Cars - I’ve been in touch with them - They approve all the dishonesty listed above, they approve sending out unsafe vehicles, they approve the the choice between paying for a repair for something that’s Crawley Audi’s responsibility or continuing to drive a car that’s potentially unsafe and have been utterly useless in getting this sorted out.