My 11 year old had some academic testing today in Concord, NH which went quickly, and since I hit 55k miles on the trip, I phoned Stratham Audi on the off chance they could squeeze me in. The service advisor told me to come right on in and they could do the 55k service right away, as well as the fuel tank rollover valve recall(at his suggestion). They took my car in right away and we spent the next 2.5 hours sitting in all the cars in the showroom and walking the lot. They have a nice silver TTs in the showroom, as well as a red A5 and supercharged A6. They also have a Stasis equipped A4 on the lot, and a sprint blue S4, has a cool carbon fiber trim on the lip. I'm about 1.5 years away from a new car, so this was an early recon mission, and I'm still not sure if I would get another A6 for practicality, or get the A5 (or S5!) and deal with the backseat thing.

Anyway, they did the recall and 55k service, washed the car, vacuumed it, total cost: zero dollars. I bought the Audi Care when I bought the car, now its starting to pay off. I talked to the service advisor about the timing belt service, which is covered under the Audi Care plan, but does not include some items, like the water pump. Obviously makes sense to pay a little and have them do it all at the same time.

BTW, in the time I was there, not one customer came in, and the phone only rang a few times. It was dead!!

Parts department said they would have my parts by this past Saturday when I was ordering parts on thursday, to which is responded, ok I will pick them up on Monday.

Take the T out to brookline hills, and low and behold, the parts guy says they are coming tomorrow morning (tuesday)...

Totally screwed up my work schedule, and just plain pissed me off.

Best part the parts were in Hartford, which if I was home is 15 minutes from my house. Awesome.

Bar none, the worst I've ever dealt with. Screwed up services, charged for work that wasn't done and attitude across the board.

c....s.ckers !!! I feel bad for the techs who work under some of the not so good writers

Bought and service all my Audis over there. No complaints

First the good story:
My tire shop lost my OEM wheel lock (well, so I thought, but then I found it months later in my lawn...oops). I called up Brookline VW/Audi and pleaded with a few people to see if I could borrow their master to help me get it off.

I show up there on my lunch break but the guy I spoke to wasn't around and everyone else claimed that there was no magical 'master' wheel lock set. I spoke to their "master technician" who basically told me that had 30+ years of experience and that he had never heard of a master wheel lock set. Granted, I might not have been using the correct terminology, but I finally gave up and went to the parts counter to inquire on some adhesive I was looking to buy.

While the guy was looking up the price on the adhesive, I started talking to him about the wheel locks and he goes, "oh, *this* master lock set?". So I ask if I could borrow it so that I could get the lock off my car and he says to go talk to the master mechanic again.

After pleading with the master technician (who wanted me to make an appointment an bring the car in), he relented and let me change out my wheel locks in their parking lot.

Now for the "Bad" story:
That adhesive I wanted? They wanted about $30 for it but didn't know how long it would take to get, so I passed. I went back to my office and found the same adhesive at Riverside for like $11.

OK, so neither story was great..but Brookline *did* eventually come through and let me borrow their wheel lock set, so I should throw some kudo's to them.

car was covered in seagull sh!* and there was no one to be found to complain to, so I took the car and left. Luckily, no permanent damage to paint, clear coat. John Carter is no longer there, either, for those of you who knew him. Word is he is selling Dodge now.

...sales are way down across the board. Dealerships must be dying, so the smart ones are making the service experience "better" than before to at least keep that income flowing.

My car was in for the 55K service as well.

....I've had my share of service issues with the dealers. NEVER again will I bring my car to an Audi dealer for maintenance (unless recall or warranty-related and even then, I'm a bit concerned). I'm fully convinced a good indy mechanic is the way to go -- especially if you plan to keep you car between 100 to 150+K miles.

At the dealer, you might get a free wash/vacuum and a comfortable waiting area -- but it only masks the fact that your car just received subpar service. And it's only a matter of time when you take your car to an indy and they point out issues caused by the dealers. For me, it was stripped oil pan plugs, broken subframe bolts (cost me $1K to fix)...and so on.

I don't blame the mechanics or service advisors at these dealerships -- it's just the system that they work in.

My perspective:

Indy = Service done by enthusiasts (with lots of real life experience in Audi's)

Dealer = Service done by a general automotive mechanic (using a Bentley repair manual.)

Rant: over.

:)

FYI - My previous Audi dealership was: Bernardi and Wagner; my current Indy shop is Shine Racing.

someone standing there watching me, thinking I looked like an idiot for trying to avoid a puddle, but they had just washed it!

They clearly did not like me or my wife. At the end of my relationship with Brookline, I made an appt to return my then leased ride to them (the car was leased through them). When I got there one of the managers said he wasn't taking the car because he didn't have room for it and walked away from me.

I took the plates off the car, walked in and told him he was going to take the car and like it. He took the car, but probably didn't like it.

They routinely botched service...
One time someone didn't properly connect the fuel line and it disconnected just as I got down the street) I fixed it on the side of the road. Call to manager went unreturned.

Once we dropped the car off for a whole series of warning lights. Car sat on their lot for 3 days with no call back on the problem. I called and they said it was ready, but couldn't tell me what the problem was. When I arrived to pick it up, I noticed the car was in the exact same space I parked it in 3 days prior. (if you know their lot, you know that if they moved the car, there was slim chance of it being put back into the same spot 3 days later)
No one could tell me what the problem was. The woman at the pickup window just said the work was done. Getting in the car, it was clear that no one had even so much as opened the door on the car. I started it up and the dash was still lit up like a christmas tree. Back inside I go and asked for someone to give me an explanation. All I got was attitude and 3 more days in the shop. Call to service manager went unreturned.

There are several other issues we had as well, but no need for a book.
I never received one call back from any manager at Brookline re service screw ups.

I've since purchased 2 Audis elsewhere. We're considering a 3rd in the next year and Brookline won't be on the list to call.