Mdkellys

When you get service does your dealership give you an Audi loaner most times or do you get something else? My wife is offended that she keeps getting stuff like a Mazda 5 or Suburu Forrester when she brings her Q7 in. The dealership uses Enterprise when they run out of Audi loaners. It seems to me they have caught way back on the Audi loaners.

Houstonmobilian

I understand where she's coming from. At least she didn't get Toyota Camry as loaner. I got the same excuse they ran out of Audi loaners before. Since then, I insisted only Audi loaner whenever I make any service appointment call.

So far so good, no more non-Audi loaner.

josgarc

Hi there, I have been through the same scenario and would say this is handled differently at the dealership level especially in my rural neck of the woods.

I have two immediate dealerships I have taken my Audis and one lacks the customer service (Satellite Dealership) while the other is more professional. I even had a situation where I rented a vehicle out of my personal expenses because they were out!

In my experience Audi of America has helped me out on at least getting an A4 loaner. I would record the amount of times your are receiving lesser quality loaners to have on your back pocket.

However, sounds like you are getting a loaner at least?

hspder

It really depends on the dealer and how lucky you are. Better dealers have more loaners and have less often to resort to using Enterprise.

With my specific Audi dealer only once I got anything else than an A4, and it was because I got in pretty late. With Mercedes dealers, I've had a dealer that almost never had Merc loaners and had to resort to Enterprise 9 out of 10 times, but later switched to another dealer in the area that has ALWAYS given me a Merc...

Clenz

My Q7 was in the shop frequently in the beginning, and I was always getting an A4. I complained about this since I taxi 3 kids around to soccer and baseball with all their equipment and it was a tight fit. AofA was involved in my issues, and they were very interested in whether I was getting a loner comparable to my Q7 - which the A4 is NOT! Last time in this caused the dealer to scramble a bit and I ended up with a Range Rover from next door. Ended up driving that for 2 weeks. The A4 issue also contributed to AofA refunding a partial month's payment for my troubles (should have been much more $ refunded IMHO).

AofC_RR

Considering what it costs to run and maintain a loaner fleet be glad you got anything. Some stores from what I've heard no longer offer loaners at all. People don't want to pay profit, everyone wants something for nothing.

Austin A6 3.2

I'm with AofC_RR on this one. People make a sport out of screwing the dealers out of the profits on new car sales (everyone loves to brag how they got cars for at or below invoice), and then expect the dealer to keep multiple $40,000+ cars on the lot as free loaners. You can't have it both ways - Either you allow the dealer to make some profit on new car sales and they can pay for a large loaner fleet, or you squeeze them for every penny and get a Mazda as a loaner (and there is nothing wrong with driving a Mazda for a day or two when your car is being serviced).

People don't mind to overpay for electronics at Best Buy (and then get screwed more by the Geek Squad when needed support) and love to press car dealers for every penny they can suck out of them. In that case, you get what you pay for.

In addition to the dealer paying for the free loaners, I have heard of more than one case where cars are returned trashed inside (from food and drink stains to clumps of earth and rocks found in the trunk - evidence of the car being abused as a pickup truck to haul gardening supplies), with 500 miles on the clock after two days, evidence of racing, scratched paint and rims, etc. It requires a lot of money just to keep the "free rental car" fleet going. Audi corporate does NOT pay for these, the dealer is on the hook for these expenses (yeah, the same people you so happily screwed out of their profit margin by negotiating for invoice +$200).

I don't work for a dealer - just to make that clear.

Railflyer

Hey Austin A6, I agree with you. I bought my Q7 TDI at Roger Beasley in Austin and so far have been happy with them. I had a problem at 700 miles with my Q7 and it was in the dealer in its 10th day of ownership. At first they tried to give me a Subaru but after seeing I was going to be out of a car for more than a day they coughed up a A4. It was trashed inside like you said even though only 10k on the clock. People just don't respect things that aren't theirs.

I hope I dont have to go back for unscheduled service but will push to receive and Audi loaner if I do. Audi of America called me a week later to apologize for the problem with my Q, even the regional engineer was at the dealer apologizing and explaining everything they did. My service rep was amazed the regional engineer talked to me as he said they usually do not explain things to the customers. A of A called a few days later again and offered $200 in gift certificates which I took.

hspder

Guys, guys, guys... The dealer lovefest is fun to watch, but you're making a connection here that doesn't exist.

Loaner cars are the responsibility of the *service* department, and in any serious dealer it's the *service* department's budget that pays for them; it has NOTHING to do with car sales, and paying more for your car doesn't mean at all that extra money is going to pay for loaner cars somehow. These are two completely different budgets, which translates into different profit and cost centers.

Service departments make plenty of their own money, and even though AofA doesn't pay directly for loaners, it does pay for the warranty service (and you do for non-warranty service) and the profit margins are high enough there that they should pay for loaner cars easily.

And, by the way, most dealers end up using cars that didn't sell as loaner cars, which basically means they turn cars that are rotting in the lot into marketing / customer retention machines -- which makes them far more useful.

And as to people trashing their cars -- I feel your pain there, but what a smart dealer does is to have a line in the loaner contract stating that if the car doesn't come back in a decent condition, the customer will be charged a hefty detailing fee... That is perfectly reasonable and that's what most of the dealers around my area do, very successfully I might add.

Mdkellys

My point is that I spent $1800 at the dealer for a brake service and I don't think it is too much to ask for an Audi as a loaner. IF Audi wants to battle BMW, It needs to improve service and the overall dealer experience. As for the response from a couple of the dealers on here, I wouldn't shop from your dealership if that is the attitude you have.