A3 Missing Parts

[imtoocoolforschool]

I ordered a brand new 2023 A3 Sline (Hatchback) in May. Was told I would have interior ambient lighting, lights in the footwells etc. Upgraded alloy wheels, flat bottom steering wheel and was told they would remove the “A3” and “30tfsi” badges from the rear.  I also ordered it with a full grey leather interior instead of the black. I did this while in the dealership, with the salesman on his computer and he asked me if i wanted black or grey interior, showed me how it would look and so on. Come September, I get the call to say my car has arrived and we discuss a day for pickup. I arrive at the dealership, and in the excitement I don’t notice anything to be missing. Upon closer inspection when I drove home I found there to be a regular round steering wheel, no ambient lighting, BLACK interior, standard wheels and badges still on the car. It was completely stock/standard. Phoned the dealership and the same man who I ordered the car through informed me that the grey interior apparently only comes on the RS3 model, LIE. The flat bottom steering wheel and ambient lighting doesn’t come with the Sline, and that the upgraded wheels came with the black edition car. This is rubbish though. I went on the audi website all the time to build my car while i was waiting for it and it had all of the extras I was informed of. It’s been 4 months since I picked up the car now, nothing has been done and I have just left it. However it still bothers me and I don’t understand how this has happened. 

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

 

[Steve Q]

I hate to be barer of bad news but the golden rule would have been to Check the car over before driving away. Have you got proof of the build you ordered? .you're only option is trading standards 

[mstv]

I concur - if you didn't notice such fundamental differences when you first collected the car, despite having specified them when ordering, and you didn't follow up persistently with the dealership, this could be tricky. There's a window during which you can reject a new car if it's not as ordered, but that may have passed. The only real route you have here is to work with the dealership and if you don't get satisfaction there, escalate to Audi UK and also seek advice from trading standards etc. Your position may have been weakened by the fact that you haven't actively sought a resolution in 4 months since taking delivery.

[A3doc]

I had a similar experience and I feel your pain. I enquired about an Audi A3 in Covid configured it myself online, to be fair, my local Audi dealership, Audi Halesowen openly told me stock was limited and apart from new vehicles coming from Germany, nothing was available let alone configurable ( lead time 1 year +)

I settled for an Audi A3 35tdi S line spec

But I’ve noticed the front two seats have no lumber support or adjustment, which is technically part of the spec, also the cupholders at the front do not have the folding attachment as expected

I assume this was because of Covid and Ukraine and sourcing of parts, and to be honest, I was just glad to get the vehicle I wanted, but when I do hand this vehicle, I will remind them and expect a good deal on my next one

to be fair to them I do generally think there was some kind of shortage of components because I wanted the dealer to fit an official Audi dash cam and they would’ve made a lot of money from doing it but they did not follow it up. I think they just generally couldn’t get a lot of components although they should be back to normal now

You’ve gotta remember you don’t buy an Audi for interior lighting you buy it for the fantastic driving experience to be cliche. It is the ultimate driving experience although another Bavarian manufacturer would contest that

 

Flat bottom steering wheel is nice but it’s not essential. It doesn’t radically change anything neither does lighting