I am going to be purchasing an Audi A3 2.0t..........Can anyone tell me which dealership in the area I should start with and can I see posts of any negative or positive experiences people have had. TIA

 

I would warn you to be careful of Diablo Audi in Concord. Definitely do not let the salesperson Chris, if he still works there, handle your purchase. He totally )$@#*ed mine up. They have a great sales manager Dave who cleaned up the huge mess Chris made though, so I have to give them some credit. Their finance guy was very nice as well. But because of all the foulups and delays and failures it turned that joy of going to pick up your new car into a feeling of just give me the damn keys and F-OFF, complete disgust.

As far as service/repairs, well, they contracted Sirius installation out to a place called Autohaus for my new A3 and when I got my car back not only did Sirius not work, but they had disconnected my cd changer in the glovebox and that no longer worked, ok -- whatever I'll see how they handle it -- I have to drive back and forth a bunch of times to get it resolves and they lie and tell me the CD changer NEVER worked when I had been listening to it for a week before the Sirius install. Autohaus also installed a guidepoint security system that didn't work and I had to spend quite a long time getting that up and running to.

 

I had an excellent experience with Jim Higgins at Oakland Audi. Totally professional and informative throughout the transaction - and the price he initially offered blindly over the internet was better than anything anyone else offered, at Diablo, Sonnen, etc., even after negotiating quite a bit.

If anything, they are worth a call.

 

Thanks for the quick replys............I use to own a 2003 TL-S Acura and really want to upgrade to a Audi..........I am getting tierd of the run around at Royal so I may try Oakland Audi.

BTW. Has anyone heard of Cartelligent in Sausalito,I heard they can find cars for good prices,but they scared me away want me to put $300 down right away...Is this company reputable????


Also I love this forum alot more helpful than acura-tl.com

 

I highly recommend carsdirect.com for negotiating the actual price!!

Do all the testing drive you need in person at whichever dealer is closest but when it comes time to talk price I cannot convey enough how much easier it is to get a seriously good price (500 over invoice on a fully loaded A3 in my case) negotiating over email than it is in person talking face to face with a sales person. Carsdirect has a feature where you can use it to get prices from the internet sales dept of all the dealerships near you, this is very desirable. Get a good price this way and if you really want to purchase it at a specific dealer then go ahead and call them (do not go in face to face) and let them know what you're looking for exactly as far as options and that you've got XYZ price from another dealer but if they can do that price you'd rather go through them. Worked for me I would not negotiate face to face ever again and no I don't work for carsdirect I'm just an extremely satisfied customer.

Also if you like this forum you may want to check out http://forums.fourtitude.com/zeroforum?id=548 its another A3 forum fourtitude.com for Audi news

 

I have had a very pleasant experience with Royal Motors on Van Ness.
I think that they were selling the Audi A3's in stock for $1600 off MSRP around september 9th.


Good luck,

 

Hey Yurry, I'm about 200 miles North of San Fran, but there are no Audi Dealers this far North. I shopped around Sacramento and the Bay Area... Got a few experiences (I'm also the former owner of three Acuras over the years.)

Sacramento - Niello Audi - STAY AWAY!
- Ouch, these guys were the worst. First salesman I liked, when I came for a visit to see the A3 the first time, but when I called him back two months later he was gone. Let go, or what?? Don't know.... After that, they couldn't give me information when I wanted it. Had no concept of why I couldn't "just drive down tonight" when I tried to explain I was 200 miles away over the phone. They seemed annoyed that I even called them. Until the end, when I called about a 'used' ad they had online (which I think was a total lie) and then they wouldn't leave me alone! Even harrassing me to buy the only car they had on the lot because "It was the last one available on the West Coast."

Stevens Creek - Good selection of cars and colors. Phil was a nice guy, we just didn't end up going back. We weren't ready to buy and they didn't make that huge of an impression.

Diablo Audi - This is where we got our car. Now, mind you, haven't actually picked it up and paid yet, but so far the deal seems good for an ordered car. If you go there, your guy has got to be Ernst. He's a nice slightly quirky german man with a heavy accent selling Audis. I never had to deal with anyone else, which impressed me the most. Hopefully it goes good when we go pick it up next month. Ernst has been a great guy to deal with.

I phoned most of the others...but no big impression good or bad.

 

I dealt with Ernst at Diablo on the phone - and had I gone with the 2006 A3 that we were talking about, I think it could have been a good transaction. Oddly enough, though, he knew I was interested in a specific A3 he had on the lot - but he didn't call me - as he said he would - to follow-up with financing information I had requested. He had one of the two A3's I wanted...and had he followed up as he said he would, I might be driving a car from Diablo. All told, as posted above - I went with Audi of Oakland. Decent people. It can't hurt to shop around...it's the beginning off the model year and you should have your pick of whatever you want out there.

 

we must have 20+ a3s in stock now. just got a huge truckload, if you want to come check our inventory give me a call!

 

I purchased my A3 from Rector Porsche/Audi in Burlingame. I definitely have to say that the dealership (in particular Kevin Washburn) was great to work with. I definitely felt like he took care of me and seemed genuinely enthused about the products. We had a little color mix-up, but I felt that they did what they could to make amends. So I am very happy. I even felt I got a good trade-in value for my 2000 GTI 1.8T. They offered $7200 for the trade-in with about 80k miles on it. Not too shabby IMO.

My recommendation is to go through Costco Auto. They have a no haggle price in which they will tell you what the invoice price is and the price is $500 over invoice. You can't ask for much better than that. I cannot speak for service yet since I just bought the car. But for sales I definitely recommend Rector.