« Reply #57 on: 20 July 2009, 05:13 »
It's not at all unusual for new cars to arrive with small marks or dents in them unfortunately. You may get very lucky and the stealer will swap the car with another and put the damaged one on to their fleet but more often than not you have to put up with the repair. They will just use one of these mobile people that do smart repairs if the scratch is very minor. Just make sure you are 100% happy with the repair before signing on the dotted line. At least you saw your scratch before taking delivery, very few people do and the rest are completely unaware their car has ever been damaged.
No-one needs to be lucky to get the dealer to swap the car at all. No-one pays money for dents or marks on their car. If anyone gets a car that is dented or scratched please don't listen to this advice. Get your dealer to swap it out or you simply won't accept it. You're in control and its up to you what you accept, certainly not the dealer regardless it they repair it and no-one has to 'put up with a repair' at all. Honestly I have not read as much tosh in a long time.
It wasn't advice, it was based on what I know dealers do! By all means reject a car that you've already been waiting however many months for and will have to wait however many more months to get again. We're not talking base model Polos here, GTIs are in short supply in some specs and if you want a complete car swap for a small scratch then you could be in for a very long wait again.
However if you are leasing (hiring) or ordering from a broker it's very unlikely you'll ever know it's been damaged as you won't have seen the car in the dealer's pound prior to PDI generally. If you are already using your local dealer for a conventional purchase you may be lucky enough to see the car before delivery, but I'll bet if they know it's got a tiny scratch or dent they won't bring it to your attention or let you see it unless you are very lucky! If the dealer can put the blame on VW UK then they may authorise something, but if your dealer has to assume responsibility for it then they will become as slippery as a net full of eels. More likely as I said, they'll offer to do a smart repair which will still be covered by all paintwork and bodywork warranties and maybe will offer you some freebies to pacify you somewhat. However if it was VWKev on the forecourt kicking off they would probably give him a brand new V10 Tuareg just to get shot of him.
So to clarify, my advice is to use a bit of common sense and fully inspect the car in the dry before handing over the balance of your payment.
If you spot Father Ted doing PDIs walk away:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mdwAkWvWMw
Logged
‘25 8.5R, ‘23 8R, ‘20 8CS, ‘19 135iX, ‘19 TCR, ‘17 Ed40, ‘17 GTD, ‘15 7R, ‘13 GTI PP, ‘11 GTI, ‘09 GTI, ‘98 Ibiza Cupra, ‘05 GTI, ‘06 Polo GTI, ‘04 GT TDI, ‘05 Fabia vRS, ‘02 GTI T, ‘03 Ibiza TDI 130, ‘01 Leon 180, ‘89 mk2 16v, ‘99 Ibiza TDI, ‘96 VR6, ‘98 Ibiza TDI, ‘92 VR6, ‘88 mk2 8v, ‘92 Polo G40, ‘91 mk2 8v, ‘89 mk2 8v, 205 GTI 1.9, ‘83 mk1 GTI, ‘80 Scirocco GTI, plus some others I’ve forgotten
