Better yet, he should wait for his car to catch fire from the electrical short (maybe even burning his house down) then he can sue the dealer, the manufacturer, and maybe even this website.
Thanks.
After watching this thread unfold I couldn’t take it anymore. I have been on this board for many years and I have only seen a few posters like this guy. The arrogance is unbelieveable. I’m still not sure why he even started this absurd thread, other than to get under our skins.
As almost everyone here said, replacing the fuses doesn’t fix the problem. The fuses blew for a reason. I for one would never just replace a fuse and send the customer down the road, I would search for the cause of the short. If there was truly something burning to the point of there being a strong smell it shouldn’t be that hard to find.
I would bet this guy is not welcome in many repair shops and dealers. When they see him coming everyone hides.
Your dealer didn’t build this beast and he didn’t break it. Sometimes a high estimate is just a way of telling a difficult customer to go away. If the customer doesn’t take the hint at least you have made a profit.
You’re correct on all points and one can just imagine the conversation at the service counter when this happened.
Too bad video cameras and high end audio equipment is not mandatory at all service counters. The replays would really tell a tale. 
a lot of people are spending time pointing out what the poster did wrong and dismissing what the dealership did. if we contiually dismiss this as business as usual it will continue to happen. I worked at two gm delaership for better than 12 years and i was not in the least surprised by the posters statements. the service writer gets paid on comission and will typically ignore what the consumer wants and needs. the tech will take the easier way that pays him the most money and car salesmen are never to be trusted. at gm they had a program called conflict resolution where the area service manager attempted to settle disputes between the dealership and customers because what is a dealership without customers. past expereince leads me to beleive tho that nothing will be done, fire the salesman and he will resurface someplace else. the truth of the matter from expereince of workiing for four different dealerships are all dealerships are poorly run as a business and have no idea how to handle dishonest employees…which is why I never have went back to buy a car from any dealership twice…the dishonesty extends to how they treat thier employees. dont expect much from audi unless you are willing to go big time public
We are pointing out the fact that the OP replaced fuses without finding the cause. Fuses do not blow on their own and everyone is trying to point that out to this guy but he would rather ignore us, call us names, spout off about how smart he is, and blame the dealer.
Plus there is another side to this story. Are you really going to believe this blowhards’story? You are only hearing the story from a disgruntled customer, he is not being objective.
You really don’t know what the dealer did and as far as we know they did nothing wrong. Maybe the car really does need the repairs we don’t know, the OP has not bothered to post a detailed estimate.
Fortunately, I haven’t had bad experiences at most dealerships. In fact, several dealerships have gone out of their way to be accomodating. One time I was driving home from graduate school and as night fell, my old Pontiac started acting up. I stopped for the night in a small town and was able to get a room at a motel. The next morning I decided my best hope was the Pontiac dealer. When I drove in and told the service manager my problem, he put a technician to work on the car. The man worked for almost an hour. The bill was $5. I thought it was too low, but the service manager said that the car wasn’t right, but I should be able to make the last 250 miles of my trip and I did. He said that he hated to see a car leave his shop without being right. Another time, I had to have the windshield replaced on an AMC Javelin that I owned. As I was pulling into the glass shop through a narrow alley, I ran the right side of the car into the building and broke the fender extension. After picking up the car from the glass shop, I took it to the AMC dealer for the state inspection. I was just sick about what I had done to the car. The service manager had a fender extension in stock. A mechanic attached a chain to the bumper and the wall and pulled the bumper out so well that the damage wasn’t noticeable. They replaced the fender extension and charged very little labor.
The most troubling experience I had was at a small town Ford dealer. I had a problem with my Ford Windstar and they told me to bring it on in. If they couldn’t repair the problem right away, they would send me back with a loaner. As I was waiting for the diagnosis, a petite young female high school student went up to the counter and asked each of the emloyees if he or she knew anything about geometry. None of themn did. I finally asked the student if I could be of help as I used to teach mathematics. The textbook was practically unreadable. I finally figured out what the author was asking the students to do. I helped the girl work a couple of problems and then had her work a couple more problems for me. When I took the loaner back the next day to get my Windstar, I asked if anyone knew who the girl was that I had helped. It turned out that she was the daughter of one of the owners. He came out and talked to me. He said that the teacher couldn’t understand the book and would just assign problems and tell the students to do the best they could. The owner of the agency was grateful for the help I gave his daughter. I realized that in my field, teaching, we have some policing to do of both teachers and textbook authors. I can’t be too critical of those in the auto business when we have clunkers in my own field. I try to do my job well and most of those I have encountered in automotive service seem to be honest and work hard at their jobs as well.
oh the poster did make mistakes but too many people here are trying to paint the dealerships as guiltless. yes the car has more problems than just fuses, and altho I was there I did see similar attempts at coldblooded fraud all the time. what i am saying may have been missed, nothing will be done, because it is accepted as common practice. I saw it all the time whether it was a service writer who was married to the service manager (and the service manager did not know anything about cars either, she had been promoted from cashier) who did not know anything about cars but would write up whatever the tech wanted to do and lie about it. to techs who could not see very well trying a dozen parts from the parts department until he finally hit the right one, to the general manager of a Honda dealership knowingly shipping a brand new accord that had been badly damamged and poorly repaired to a honda suppliers president, to a salesman who scheduled a pickup of a car at night in the rain because he knew the whole paint job had orange peel and he knew the dealer wouldnt do anything about it. so lets not say that dealers are guiltless…there is more than enough guilt to go around here. but mind you nothing will be done by those who are in charge to make good any problems and so they fester.
I have been participating in a number of boards on different topics over the last 12 years since I retired. Boards go through cycles.
As bad as this board has gotten in the last months, this has to be the funniest thread I have seen here in a long time. A bunch of obnoxious people with no people skills call a man a lot of names, because he is obnoxious with no people skills. Too funny.
I must wonder if you former professional mechanics realize how bad it sounded for your profession to paint the moves by the service people and salesman as normal???
So exactly what did the dealer here do wrong other than give an extremely high estimate?
Put yourself in a service writer or manager’s position for a minute. A customer is standing in front of you with a car with multiple and severe electrical problems.
This customer is doing one of several things:
A. Wanting an etched in stone price on a complete proper repair.
B. Wanting a rough guesstimate price. ((and it would be very rough in this case)
C. Does not want to spend even 100 bucks to even begin looking for the problem and is trying to fish for free advice in a backdoor manner about a quick fix. (with no one having a clue as to what the problem even is.
If someone tried to pin me down to the mat on a price BEFORE even looking at the car I would do the same; give them a worst case scenario of disassembling half the car and replacement of the wire harnesses.
When I worked for VW we had a guy curse us to oblivion on an electrical problem that he had to pay dearly for and this car had less than a 100 miles on it. What happened?
He bought a new VW, did not like the quoted price of a new stereo upgrade (felt he was being ripped off), and decided to buy his own stereo and install it.
Assuming the power antenna lead was an additional ground that’s exactly what he did; grounded it.
To solve the problem of popping fuses he just kept adding a heavier fuse until the main harness behind the dash went up in smoke.
He blamed us, the stereo maker, VW of America, and everyone in town except himself after having the car towed in and was told WHY the problem existed. And the “why” was only determined after a lot of digging and the car owner finally providing the info about the radio antenna lead and fuse replacement.
Whose to say that in this case the Audi in question does not have, or had, some add-on electrical component that may have contributed to this.
Many years ago I even saw an older Subaru towed in with a fried main harness. The headlight fuse (glass) kept popping and after continuing to pop the highest rated fuse available, the car owner simply cut the nose off of a worn out No. 2 Phillips screwdriver and inserted that into place. At least it cured the blown fuse problem.
If I take my car to the dealership and the salesman from whom I purchased the car is there and not working with a customer, I’ll often talk with him. The service writer at the Chevrolet agency where I bought my Uplander is taking on-line and night courses to advance in a new career. When he isn’t waiting on a customer, he’ll come to the waiting area to talk with me. Most of the people I have dealt with in the automotive field from mechanics to sales people have people skills. Maybe that is the way we are here in the midwest.
It’s not just in the Midwest. When I take my car in for service, I frequently sit and talk with both the saleswoman from whom I bought the car, as well as the owner of the small dealership–both of whom greet me by name 8 years after I bought the car.
Even the “parts guy” would greet me by name when I came in for service–7 years after I bought the car. Unfortunately, the downturn in car sales caused him to be laid off, with the parts work being done by whoever is available at the moment. It is a small family-run dealership.
The new service manager seemed–at first–to have no people skills. However, on my last visit we began talking after he complimented me on the incredible condition of my car. As it turned out, he also has people skills, even if they were not obvious at first.
a comment was made that I was beleiveing the op’s word without knowing whether it was true or not…yep I did. just like most of the responding posters beleived the dealership without knowing what they actually did. now in response to your statement…if you were my service advisor I wouldnt trust you a bit…sorry. i prize honesty. I want the service advisor to tell me he doesnt know and wont give an estimate till he finds out what is really going on. I dont want a high estimate or a low one that cant be fullfilled, I want an honest estimate. if you have a customer fishing for tips…dont lie to them, tell them you dont know…but you will find out.
The part about the salesman swooping down like a vulture on a carcass is normal and one should not be offended by that at all. There’s a simple fix; tell the guy to firmly take a hike and blow the matter off.
As to the service manager, the OP has yet to provide any details behind what happened. The OP could provide the name of this dealer, a quick mail could be sent, and the dealer could weigh in on the details.
I would ask these 2 questions of anyone.
- If you were dealing with a car and someone standing in front of you was wanting an exact price quote on an electrical problem like this you would…?
- If the OP was trying to sell this high mileage Audi to you “AS IS” with the aforementioned electrical problem(s) and was insisting on the roughly 12 grand Bluebook, you would fork over the 12 grand, fork over half that, or fork over nothing at all and look for something else?
As Rick from “Casablanca” said “I am shocked that there is gamblimg going on in the back room”
OK4450… I’d like to know what they were going to do for $6300. For an estimate to be that high they would have to be replacing the engine, transmission or both.
When was the last time a dealer gave someone the blue book value when they traded in a car. It’s just a guide, market conditions have more to do with the value of a trade in.
You could have a Suburban that is in excellent condition with all the options but it has the 6.2 engine and gets lousy gas mileage. The blue book value is $35000 but in todays market who is going to pay full blue book price for it.
I just bought a 05 Suburban with 60,000 miles on it, blue book was $25000, I paid $17000. It’s the market.
irlandes
I have been in this business for 30 years and I am still in it. I have worked for independent shops, dealers and now teach auto mechanics. I have always treated my customers with courtesy and professionalism but there are customers who wear out their welcome and are asked to leave.
George browne wore out his welcome with his attitude and if he doesn’t like the way he was treated he can leave.
No one hear said what the dealer did was normal, we don’t have enough information to know what they did. If george would post an itemized estimate of the recommended repairs we would have a better idea of what happened. It doesn’t appear he will do so, that might prove the dealer did nothing wrong.
irlandes… If you don’t like this board then you can leave too. You critize us for name calling but you turn around and call us unprofessional… nice move, real nice. You sound like someone with too much time on your hands since you retired and just sit around surfing the internet. Get a life. I checked out your profile, you don’t list what your background in automotive is… why? Because you have none?
I tried to post this a couple of time and it never showed up so if it appears a couple of times…sorry.
He owns an Audi, arrogance comes with the car.
Actually, it was the French Gendarme officer (Captain Renault??), played by Claude Rains, who said that.
Rick was the owner of the gambling establishment.