There is plenty of anecdotal evidence about dishonest / misinformed salespeople and dealers going around, but in the case of Audi UK, it was a BBC Watchdog investigation which found that the nine out of 10 dealers around the country made false claims to customers about the Euro NCAP safety ratings of their cars.
The investigation was performed by undercover researchers who asked Audi UK salespeople about the Euro NCAP ratings of the A5, which…has not been tested by the organization that is funded by a number of European governments and motoring bodies. Yet, six out of ten dealers told them that the Audi A5 has achieved the maximum five stars!
The British broadcasting company says that this not the first time, as the issue came to their attention last year when Daniel Jenkins, owner of a high-end car rental business, had an accident in an R8 that he bought in 2012. The dealer had told him that the R8 had a five-star Euro NCAP rating. Did we mention that the R8 has not been assessed by Euro NCAP? After the accident, and just out of curiosity, Jenkins decided to research the safety credentials of the car and contacted dozens of dealers.
“Forty-eight of the 50 dealers I spoke to told me directly that it had been put through the Euro NCAP programme and it had a five-star rating,” Jenkins told the Watchdog.
The man then contacted Audi’s head office and informed them about the situation, with the German firm’s UK arm responding back in December of 2013, telling him that they “were taking his allegations seriously”. Obviously, that was not the case, as this happened five months before Watchdogs’ investigation…
Tim Shallcross, Head of Policy for the Institute of Advanced Motorists, told BBC: “I find it incredible… that a company of the reputation of Audi, and their parent group, the Volkswagen Group can allow their product to be misrepresented so badly in that way. Nobody’s saying the cars aren’t safe, but if they haven’t been tested… to say that they have, that’s outrageous.”
Audi UK responded to the allegations stating that it’s dealers had no intent to mislead buyers and that it will address the problem.
“Audi UK wishes to emphasise that there has not been any deliberate intent to mislead on the part of its customer-facing staff where the Euro NCAP safety test performance of the Audi model range is concerned,” said a company spokesman.
“Audi vehicles are engineered to exceed international motor vehicle safety standards. The company fully supports Euro NCAP’s efforts to improve vehicle safety. We are now aware that our sales and customer service staff must be more conversant with the Euro NCAP safety test register and specifically the Audi models included on it.”
“We have already begun a comprehensive and far-reaching review of all of our communications and training procedures to ensure accuracy of information on test data provided to our customers,” the spokesperson concluded.
By John Halas
Thanks to Carson for the tip!
PHOTO GALLERY
