VW Specialist California Dealers - Unless you know differently.

[WelshGas]

Temp Removed/


To moderators. Please feel free to move to another Forum if more appropriate.

 

[AlisonF]

Wish I'd seen this 6 months ago - please post somewhere visible for prospective buyers who, like me, didn't do much research into their dealer's credentials as had assumed they would know what they were talking about...
Thanks WG

 

[2into1]

I wouldn't read any credibility into the info. It may be the dealers who have thrown him a few quid. The info is from the man who writes 1000 words about his 'for sale' Cali's but can't bring himself to say they are ex-hire.

 

[WelshGas]

The problem is , one of the mentioned Dealerships was less than helpful when the EGR valve failed on my California 2 weeks after I picked it up and 5 days before Christmas 2014, despite being only 12 miles away. The Dealership I used, 70 miles away, had it fixed within 48 hrs, whereas the local Dealer wouldn't look at it until 2 weeks after Christmas.

 

[WelshGas]

I wouldn't read any credibility into the info. It may be the dealers who have thrown him a few quid. The info is from the man who writes 1000 words about his 'for sale' Cali's but can't bring himself to say they are ex-hire.

I think there is some credibility to the list as I seem to remember VW announcing a number of Dealerships were to be classified as VW California Specialists.
However this is the only list I can find.

 

[calikev]

We need to start our own list

 

[WelshGas]

We need to start our own list

Can we just name them?, and then compile a list. Maybe seperate lists for Sales and Service Department.

 

[Martin]

good idea kev, how about we create a nationwide list based on members experiences from the dealer network... One for sales and one for service.


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[2into1]

I think there is some credibility to the list as I seem to remember VW announcing a number of Dealerships were to be classified as VW California Specialists.
However this is the only list I can find.

That would be interesting and the graphic looks official VW, but the linked page claims they are "hand picked" by him.

 

[Hotel California]

Guess who came up with the idea...(in a other tread...)
Work to do guys!
Finaly , then hopefully people can go to a trusty dealer

Edit,
As WG sugests , maybe place it under " dealer reviews " and make it a sticky , once there is a list...

 

[Martin]

There is an addon we can get for the forum where we can list all the dealers in the UK and people can then review and give a star rating ... it's works very similar to Trip Advisor so once we get a good amount of reviews we will end up with a top ten.


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[GrannyJen]

We have a dealer review section.

Perhaps a star rating, a familiar format elsewhere.

 

[Stoneybroke]

Had a look around the link, but the question is "recommended by whom?"
No qualification or user reviews...
I would give a vote for a star rating of dealers, but separate sales and servicing, as suggested by Martin, as they are two different beasts.
Good spot though Welashgas.

BTW the forum attached to the site on the link seemed broken.... Never mind, all the good posts are here

 

[AlisonF]

I think this is could be a hot potato...
I deliberately didn't mention my dealer when I did my write up as I haven't yet closed out the loop with them or VWCS and was after some feedback from others on whether or not I was being fair / unreasonable or they were !
Also, if we start a scoring system then it can become very subjective. I am not sure how you can do that effectively for a Cali without having endless categories to score against. (it is after all a house and a car rolled into one, with all the options of fitted kitchen (yes/no), extension (yes/no)).
If we get it wrong then we could lose some of the support from some key sponsors.
Handled correctly this could be very useful to all parties - but rushed into....

 

[Martin]

Keep the feedback coming and we will try and get something developed. I do think something like this would be very useful as I have heard many horror stories over the years but as Alison says it needs to be thought out first.


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[Meoncoast]

The list . My thoughts
The best dealers to buy from may be different from the best dealers to get a service from.

 

[larrylamb]

Surely as Jen says, we already have it in the dealer review section.

 

[GrannyJen]

Any rating system would be purely subjective and also open to abuse. We routinely experience in this forum people popping up, slagging off aspects of the cali, only to then disappear once it becomes obvious that they don't even own one.

We have a dealer review section. From reading that I would know that off my head South Hereford, Carrs, Preston, etc are excellent dealers to buy from, and quite a few mentioned are less than wonderful to deal with. Even 2 1/2 years ago, when I was shopping around for a cali, I was able to find fairly easily the dealer to look after my cali.

Without being negative, a few pitfalls. Firstly for the forum it can be a minefield being seen to offer some form of "official" recommendation. I would hate to send someone to "slimes" of Welwyn and for them to then scream the seats on their new Cali won't swivel and they only went there because it was high on an "official" rating list.

Secondly any rating system is subjective and open to abuse. Suddenly half a dozen "new members" decide that an excellent dealer such as Carrs is now rubbish and they get 6 "one out of fives". Who is going to police that?

Thirdly just how many sections do we want in this forum?

The dealer review section can perhaps be tidied, possibly regionalised and with a formalised format, something I would be happy to look after, but it has to be seen as an an individual impression of a dealer and not a forum opinion.

 

[Stoneybroke]

Paid up VIP members only? May stop the hoping in and out?

 

[Martin]

If we did this the review section would have its own page so would not actually be part of the forum, searching for reviews would also be much easier as all reviews for each dealer will be in one place rather than searching different threads. It will work very similar to the dealer reviews section that we have now on the forum but would be much more tidy and easy to find.

I personally think once dealers get wind of it, the bad ones may even start to tidy up their acts

 

[Mark13]

The dealer review section can perhaps be tidied, possibly regionalised and with a formalised format, something I would be happy to look after, but it has to be seen as an an individual impression of a dealer and not a forum opinion.[/QUOTE]

Would be appreciated and really helpful I think. Had a really bad service experience, VW Customer Services now involved - so any non defamatory thoughts about where to go (or not) next time would be very useful.

 

[Martin]

Paid up VIP members only? May stop the hoping in and out?

This is actually a feature of the add on, you can choose who can post a review ( VIP, regiestered member, by number of posts etc... ) This way it should keep out malicious reviews.

 

[T6 CFO]

I don't believe it would be a good idea. Reviewing a particle item is difficult enough as for a whole dealership on a point scoring stars basis I would see that as impossible.

I have no problem with someone posting a positive review of an experience with a dealer or a negative one, however it needs to be put in context and an explanation given. If we simply end up with a league table there are massive dangers in those being seen at the top as recommendations.

If we look at the purchase alone this is a two way process where it is easy to look at it purely from our point of view. Having information like the discounts that are being achieved, the VW loyalty bonus and deals on finance warranties and service deals was all extremely valuable information. How I chose to use this information though is far more complicated. I believe I walked away with a deal that I was happy with having struck up a trusting relationship with the dealer where we could both meet our objectives. It's complicated but had I just gone to a dealer at the top of a recommended list I believe I would not have been as well informed. It could potentially make a prospective purchaser or user of a particular dealership lazy. You must I believe in the end gather your own information and make your own judgements. It's complicated!

I suspect the list at the start of this thread is based on the facilities and size of the dealership. It is a starting point perhaps but not foolproof as there are some on that list that no doubt have weaknesses in some areas and strengths in others. There will also be dealers not on that list who are excellent.

One of the things I like about this forum is that it is very diverse. In some aspects maybe of a technical nature I would put more weight on some peoples opinion than others. It is why a point scoring system would not work. It would be difficult to weight it. Length of being on the board, posts made etc etc would not work.


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[andrewjh009]

I use review sites before I buy or do anything now, I personally think it makes hotels, restaurants, suppliers to up their game. If I had bee able to search easily for reviews of a dealer it could of saved me a few headaches in the past. Fair enough there are dealer reviews on here already but they are not easy to search for as they are on numerous threads.

 

[Duncan]

The good garage scheme has done a lot for clearing out the cowboys in the car servicing industry for independants, they work on a very similar method.

We are all adults and reviews are just a guide and we just need to make our own decision at the end of the day
If I was new to owning a Cali I would like to be able to look down a list of local dealers and choose the best one one even if it meant travelling a few extra miles.