RICHELIEU

Hello, this is my first time posting but a long time Audi fan... I bought a brand new 01 silver A8L in August 2001.. I love this car.. It sits in the garage most of the time and It only has about 12,000 miles in just over two years of ownership. I have a few nice toys but this car is the one that makes me smile just looking at it! Worth every penny! However, the silver paint does not match. when looking down the side of the car, you can see that the rear door and quarter panel are just a little darker shade. This is on both sides! I have shown this to the dealer and they see it too.An Audi representative came to see the car after a year and a half of me calling them and he too can see this..They all just put their hands in the air..It really shows up at night under a street lamp.. A friend saw it and asked if I had body work done and that they did a bad match up! That did it! After Audi saw that I was not going to back down, (why should I when the paint does not match on a $72,000 car) They offered to take two payments off the car.. Big deal! That would not cover the cost of a good repaint which I'm not sure if I would go that route anyway. I took all the trim off plus the rubber trim and see no signs of body work..Just unmatching paint. I am not planing on trading this car in but I was thinking of buying a new 04 A8L in the future but not after the way Audi cares for it's buyers! They just don't care! I have a new Saturn as a driver and they treat me like gold! Audi has always had trouble in customer relations and I see things are the same... I am really pissed off at Audi.. I am thinking of my next move...I will not write this off....Anyone else have this problem? Thank You.

Kapoosh1

Front and rear doors didnt seem to match. Mine was also bought new and it people always thought i wrecked it and some1 did a bad job painting it.

greenie

First of all, welcome! Secondly, silver tends to be one of those colors that shows defects rather clearly. I noticed that on my silver 04 the rear bumper is displayng an area that lokds like it doesnt match but it is small and I may do nothing. Im puzzled though because you say you mught not go the route of a good paint job. What is is that you want? Audi AND you dealer acknwledge that there is a problem which is the first step on the path towards a remedy. I am new to Audi but what I have learned is that there record is so-so in backing their dealers and customers and for me, unfortunately, it will take an incident and /or time to either prove or disprove my theory. Fortunately, my car is new and that changes the rules somewhat. In summary, decide what you want to do and after some careful thought and a reasonable approach go for it! So far, I am thrilled with my car but I have had no real issues with AoA to test them. Would I do silver again? in a heartbeat!



greenie #6625


04 A8L silver/sabre

April

Of course keep it reasonable too. By the time you sell the thing (assuming you bought it and didn't lease it) in a few years, a paint mis-match might take the car down a few $K in value, but not much more if you have proof that it's never been hit.

Want a total repaint? It's almost never as good as the original unless you totally dismantal the car - and that costs $6K to 10K for a car like this. Audi isn't likely to humour you there. They may have the car taken to one of the authorized repair centers for a partial repaint though. Are you prepared to let them do that? How about if it's no better than it was before? Silver is notoriously hard to match in all lighting situations.

Depending on what you are paying monthly, two payments could amount to $3500 or more. Given what I've seen in the past when it comes to trade-in values, if the car is unhit, you usually don't lose much more than a thousand or two if the paint is mis-matched. Now the longer you keep it, the less this becomes and issue. It's only when the car is newer, that people will be especially picky.

If you are in the SoCal region, stop by Fabricante Autobody in Lake Forest and speak to Norm. He works on A8s and can give you a quote on painting to match. They are artists of the first order when it comes to colour matching.

RICHELIEU

Thank You for the tip...However,I have been through all the B.S. with stupid Audi for two years now and they said they are able to take only two payments off the car which will not cover the cost of a top paint job....They also offered to have the car painted but I need to leave it with them for at least a month plus like you said, how do we know if it's going to look any better.. The door bolts are rusty which shows me that they were off the car for repair, or at least they had to adjust them, plus one back door does not line up well...The clear coat is peeling a little on the bumpers too...Remember I bought it new,I rarely use it, it has never seen rain or snow and I am not planing to sell it ever and they need to take care of this....I told them I will except 5 payments off and that is giving them a break! I will solve this, no question in my mind and I don't loose sleep over this tit for tat stuff as well...This is a matter of them fixing a problem that is their problem,not mine...I just want to see how many other people have paint issues...If you do, please respond here...Thank You..

April

As I'm sure you are aware, these cars are hand built to a large degree. It's not like the factory to miss something as obviously mis-matched as you suggest.

From what you describe, it sounds like there may have been an oops in the transport of the car, and something was repaired in port. The trick is to remember that the car remains technically in the hands of the factory until it is released to the trucking company for delivery to the dealer. So unless damage exceeds a certain amount or there is "frame" damage, this repair does not need to be disclosed when in the hands of the "factory." I guess if I were you, I'd see if there were transport/port damage claims made to your vin#.

Having been on this forum for several years, I don't recall there being issues with paint very often. I do seem to recall one or two though. You might want to do a search for "paint" and "match."

Paldi

Did you check with the shipper? It may be way to late to go there now!