Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

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steeve
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by steeve »

SRGTD wrote: Sat Aug 06, 2022 11:19 am
steeve wrote: Sat Aug 06, 2022 7:45 am My wife ordered her replacement Polo GTI in early November. Since ordering not once has the dealer contacted us with an update on progress. We ended up always calling them first. Even then information was scarce.
The last time we had any contact was over six weeks ago. So we've decided to cancel the order and get our deposit back. We are considering our next move, there's a ton of brand new unregistered Polo GTI's on the internet for sale with all sorts of configurations and colours. So a new GTI shouldn't be an issue, but we'll probably steer clear of ever having a VW again due to the complete lack of interest by their dealers.
IMHO, the frequency of communication from the dealership all depends on which salesperson you’re dealing with. I’ve had some really good experiences in the past and some not so good when dealing with different salespeople all at the same dealership. Sadly, your dealer won’t care that you’re cancelling as when your car arrives, they’ll be able to sell it at VW’s current list price, so they’ll earn more from the sale than they would if you’d continued to wait for the car.

Just be aware that any discount you may have negotiated on the car you’re cancelling is unlikely to be available on a new car - even one that’s in stock; discounts seem to be becoming a thing of the past, unless you buy through a broker and are happy to wait. Therefore the price you’ll pay for an in-stock car available for immediate delivery will very likely be the advertised price, and if that price is VW’s current list price, it’ll be higher than the November 2021 list price when you originally ordered as VW will have increased their prices since then.

However, sometimes individual circumstances will mean that it’ll be worth paying the higher price for immediate delivery rather than playing the waiting game 🙂. Please provide an update when you’ve located a replacement car in a colour and spec you’re happy with.
Because there's so many for sale (currently 44 on Autotrader alone), dealers are now offering some significant reductions, we could actually get a higher spec vehicle than we ordered in October if we wished, for less than the price we agreed. Just do a search on Autotrader, there's more new Polo GTI's than any similar cars. We placed our order a couple of days after the order book opened. It was the first for that particular chain of dealerships, they told us that the total number of GTI's ordered with VW was in single figures. We don't think that they placed the order with VW until some considerable time later. Amazingly the dealership has at least six new Polo GTI's in stock available for immediate delivery. The vehicle we ordered had no real rare options and amongst the cars in stock all those options are accounted for so we don't understand why ours is so late, there are people on here who ordered in December and got their cars in May. We would also have expected customer orders being prioritised over dealer stock as is usual.

As far as the sales people go we were so disgusted with the lack of communication we swapped the order from one branch of the dealership to another where we were dealing with the sales manager. Yet after six weeks no contact what so ever.
My wife has had many new cars and the thrill and joy of getting a new vehicle has seriously been eroded to the point where its become a complete non event. Well it's actually now become a negative issue. We think the car may be here this month but have absolutely no clue.
We have friends that have a couple of BMW's and one with an Audi on order, they get a phone call every two weeks with an update (even if there is none). As customers buying something of (for us) considerable value we need to feel valued and appreciated.
Her new car will not be a VW
SRGTD
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by SRGTD »

@steeve; that’s really interesting to hear that discounts are available on new Polo GTI’s that are in stock for immediate delivery and compared to many other makes of car, the Polo GTI seems to be bucking the trend.

My next car will probably be an EV. I’ll be due to change my Polo GTI+ in around three years time and I anticipate EV technology will have moved on quite a lot in that time; faster charging, longer battery range and wider choice of cars. I have doubts over whether the charging infrastructure will be much better than it is now though 🤔. I’ve already crossed VW off the list for an EV as I really don’t like the styling of their ID range of vehicles and IMHO the interiors look decidedly low rent. I also have doubts over whether VW have successfully fixed their software issues.

If I was getting an EV now, it’d probably be a Mini. I don’t need a car with a long range these days so the Mini would be fine for me. I also like the Mini’s retro styling and the build quality looks very good. And I’ll have gone full circle as my first car back in the 1970’s was an original Mini 🙂.
AndyGTi
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by AndyGTi »

@kayakerpaul - looks like Danube Highway has headed off to Sweden. But there are a few promising vehicle carriers planning to get into Emden next week.

@lancslad1985 - how was your sleep :lol: that’s good information on the boats i’m busy checking the ships & ports etc. Good fun to do a little detective work. So is your wife changing her car? Good luck with your decision-making.

@steeve and @SRGTD it does seem mad that VW are happy to send through dealer stock (I appreciate some could be cancelled orders) while making customers wait. Perhaps they are doing 50/50 and being a Polo forum it exacerbates the appearance of no orders being delivered.
It sounds @steeve that you are “done” with VW, they have always made cars that I really like but dealer experience has always been poor (unfortunately the good local dealer was bought and closed by poorer one) I’ll do anything to not go there which has worked sometimes. I found a good specialist for my Golf once outside warranty. So hopefully they will still be around in a few years when I need them for Polo.

EVs - @SRGTD couldn’t agree more! I want to go back to a small car before they disappear from roads (as new ). It will be good fit in my garage with room to spare as at moment struggling with space to get out.
Also all the EVs I have checked out are getting wider and I wanted to avoid the music stopping and no Polo around to buy. So Polo will either be 3/4 yr ownership or last until it falls apart.

I agree totally on the VW design and the software worries. I think they are really suffering and having seen interior of Skoda, VW and Audi I would put VW bottom. Interestingly there was a YouTube test of these three and VW was bottom and least appealing. I still hope there will be some performance EVs from VW.
Also in terms of advancements VW are plannng a new platform (SSP) from 2025/26 and Autocar says Audi turned down using MEB (to build an IDE equivalent) to use the SSP platform for new A3 due in 2027. Also I saw quotes saying VW (despite saying there would be ICE Mk9 Golf) that they actually haven’t made final decision and rising development costs might not make it worthwhile for likely smaller market for them.
Also I think the future Mini EVs might turn out to be a good bet too.
lancslad1985
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by lancslad1985 »

@AndyGti she is indeed. Changing to a Smokey grey r-line. She loses winter pack but gains LED headlights, digital dials, climate, armrest and folding door mirrors. So she’s excited.

I decided against it. It was only a saving of £4 a month for kings red or £9 a month for reef blue and it drinks more petrol than the Tiguan as my previous car was the gti plus. Told them if they can drop it another tenner a month I’ll change so see what they come back with.
AndyGTi
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by AndyGTi »

@lancs1985 oh excellent, I saw a smokey grey GTI on the M4 yesterday. It did look a good colour. I’m a fan of heated seats since I had them in my 2013 Polo BlueGT but the new kit she”ll gain makes it worthwhile I think. There was a Reef blue down at my local dealer and it does look good. First time I tried LED headlights I was amazed how good they were... I could see more on dipped headlights than I could on full beam on my bi xenon headlight equipped Golf.

I was going to go Boooo! As to your decision but I see you’ve tried to get them down another £10pcm. So we’ll see how much they want your Tiguan.

Don’t blame you on fuel consumption as we need to do all we can to conserve some fuel and money in these times. Polo fuel is pretty rubbish in terms of capacity these days, but improved Consumption should hopefully make a bit of difference.

PS EMS Highway left Emden heading for Grimsby
lancslad1985
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by lancslad1985 »

Well I’m back in the group. Reef blue coming on the RCC Europe for September delivery. The dealership matched my requirements.
AndyGTi
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by AndyGTi »

Excellent news :D good choice on colour :wink: too.
lancslad1985
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by lancslad1985 »

Thanks. I’m very excited, as my dislikes about my previous plus have gone - it now has sat nav as standard, has climate as standard and keyless has gone. It’s basically the spec I wanted last time but they don’t have the flash red, so sent for the blue.
MikeDO
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by MikeDO »

lancslad1985 wrote: Sun Aug 07, 2022 3:56 pm Well I’m back in the group. Reef blue coming on the RCC Europe for September delivery. The dealership matched my requirements.
Same ship as mines on (IE. RCC Europe), currently in port at Adidjan (Ivory Coast). ETA for Emden currently the 19th August.
johnpolo2
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by johnpolo2 »

It's such a protracted business coming from SA.
I wish they still made it in Spain , well the 3 door they did. Think the 5 door was always SA.
Have monitored marine traffic previously but won't bother this time.
I'm thinking possibly my last petrol engine , I don't like the current VW electric offerings, a styling desert....
SRGTD
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by SRGTD »

johnpolo2 wrote: Sun Aug 07, 2022 5:57 pm It's such a protracted business coming from SA.
I wish they still made it in Spain , well the 3 door they did. Think the 5 door was always SA.
Have monitored marine traffic previously but won't bother this time.
I'm thinking possibly my last petrol engine , I don't like the current VW electric offerings, a styling desert....
My 2016 previous generation Polo GTI was a five door and was built in Spain. I remember reading that with the previous generation Polo for the UK market;

- GTI’s; both three and five door cars were built in Spain
- Five door (non-GTI) Polo’s; built in South Africa
- Three door (non-GTI) Polo’s; built in Spain

IMHO the build quality of Spanish built previous generation Polo was better than the build quality of the AW Polo too. In fact of the five VW’s I’ve owned, the build quality of my Spanish built Polo GTI was by far and away the best of all of them.

As for forthcoming small EV’s from VAG; the Cupra UrbanRebel looks interesting (due to launch in 2025) - much more interesting and stylish than VW’s electric blandmobiles;

https://www.cupraofficial.co.uk/cars/co ... rebel.html
lancslad1985
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by lancslad1985 »

MikeDO wrote: Sun Aug 07, 2022 5:46 pm
lancslad1985 wrote: Sun Aug 07, 2022 3:56 pm Well I’m back in the group. Reef blue coming on the RCC Europe for September delivery. The dealership matched my requirements.
Same ship as mines on (IE. RCC Europe), currently in port at Adidjan (Ivory Coast). ETA for Emden currently the 19th August.
It looks like it just left port. My dealer has given me a potential handover of 30th September to allow for delays, so roughly 6 weeks.
johnpolo2
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by johnpolo2 »

@SRGTD. Blandmobiles is a perfect description!
SRGTD
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by SRGTD »

johnpolo2 wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 5:10 am @SRGTD. Blandmobiles is a perfect description!
👍 🙂
AndyGTi
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Re: Any one ordered the new facelift GTI?

Post by AndyGTi »

SRGTD wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 8:22 am
johnpolo2 wrote: Mon Aug 08, 2022 5:10 am @SRGTD. Blandmobiles is a perfect description!
👍 🙂
Couldn’t agree more, that VW design on their EVs seems to be lacking.
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