Is there a competent VW dealer for parts round here?

Just had a painful experience at Vindis Sawston trying to order parts for my '94 Polo. The guy didn't have a clue, didn't give a s**t and had probably never heard of a G40 (I don't have one but have the brakes from one so my reg was no use to him). He told me to "ignore the pictures" when trying to buy all the bolts, seals etc. for the calipers and couldn't come up with a straight answer about whether a part number meant the repair kit for the sliders for both bolts per side or not, and a few very unconvincing other things.

He also reckons the manifold to downpipe gasket is discontinued but the head to manifold gasket is still available - I'm unconvinced.

I went there after being unimpressed by Vindis Cambridge insisting that a part number I looked up on vagcat was invalid (something along the lines of "you can't trust the internet" was said on the phone), and when I insisted they found it and it was discontinued.

So (rant over!) are there any good ones around here for older car parts? Many things I'm happy to go anywhere for but some things I do want genuine VW parts and it seems you can only get them from main dealers.

Cheers,
Ray

No mate, they are all crap. I had a painful couple of days with Cambridge in particular,and Kings Lynn when I had to get a wheel trim for a Polo. I ended up buying from a main dealer in Sunderland, who posted it to me f.o.c.

Ahh I had no idea they delivered - is this common? That opens up a whole new world of potential crappy dealers, but potentially good ones too...

Mainly the parts dept is useless at vindis.

I thankfully have an account with TPS.

What exactly are you after I can go and harras pete at parts and see what he can do for you.

i also use tps. very good!

Hmm never heard of TPS but they look good from the site. Unfortunately I have no links at all to the motor trade so they surely wouldn't have me :(

I've managed to get hold of most of the stuff he said he couldn't get from ECP so there's not really anything specific I need now, it's more for the next time but thanks for the offer. Unless, of course, it's really easy for you to find out about the slider repair kits for G40 (VWII) calipers - how many are actually needed and is it really going to cost me over £40 for both sides?? For a few bits of rubber and a few sleeves? Ridiculous! I don't need these and certainly not at that price, but I'd change them if I could get them for around half that price!

Cheers,
Ray

Next time I phone TPS I'll ask for you.

I'll get him to fax the fische over and attatch prices. (he's good like that)

Cheers mate that'd be awesome. It's numbers 4 and 15 on the ETKA illustration 45-15 that I'm after - however many I need to do both sides.

how about trying GSF?

Well there isn't a GSF around here and their new website won't let me into their online shop despite trying to register several times

Plus there's some things they don't do or that i want genuine parts for.

If you try ringing the heahrow gsf the guys there are on the ball and they deliver too !

How urgently do you need the bits ?

Guy if you can get them I need them this week, but if you can't then I don't *need* them at all, if that makes sense!

MOT runs out next week and I need to do the brake conversion before I put it in and am planning to do the conversion this weekend. However I think the new callipers I've got have all the bits on them (and if not I can probably steal them off my current callipers) so I can go ahead without. I just don't want to do it all with the old bits then get the new ones a couple of days later and have to take it all apart again :-)

I should be going in weds or thurs for a couple of bits so you're probably in luck, but dont hold me to that !

guy wrote:

Mainly the parts dept is useless at vindis.

I thankfully have an account with TPS.

What exactly are you after I can go and harras pete at parts and see what he can do for you.

If you mean TPS in Cambridge it's owned by Vindis!

The problem with older cars is a lot of the parts do get discontinued due to lack of sales not just in the UK but worldwide. Bit harsh to blame a dealer cos VW have stopped making a certain spare part. But I can agree that the parts person should know how the system works after all ETKA does give quantity of that type of part fitted to the car next to the part number!

Ian83 wrote:

If you mean TPS in Cambridge it's owned by Vindis!

The problem with older cars is a lot of the parts do get discontinued due to lack of sales not just in the UK but worldwide. Bit harsh to blame a dealer cos VW have stopped making a certain spare part. But I can agree that the parts person should know how the system works after all ETKA does give quantity of that type of part fitted to the car next to the part number!

Good & valid point my friend, On top of which it's the manufacturers that provide a system that uses reg or vin to identify parts, not really his fault if your running a kit car with a hash of different parts.

would also be willing to have a tenner with the OP that if he has collected his parts he has found the parts advisor was right about quantities and he has been wrong all along, respect to him if he has the maturity to post an update as to if the parts advisor concerned had ordered the right parts or not, although I suspect he will be strangely quiet on this point.



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Geefer wrote:

Ian83 wrote:

If you mean TPS in Cambridge it's owned by Vindis!

The problem with older cars is a lot of the parts do get discontinued due to lack of sales not just in the UK but worldwide. Bit harsh to blame a dealer cos VW have stopped making a certain spare part. But I can agree that the parts person should know how the system works after all ETKA does give quantity of that type of part fitted to the car next to the part number!

Good & valid point my friend, On top of which it's the manufacturers that provide a system that uses reg or vin to identify parts, not really his fault if your running a kit car with a hash of different parts.

would also be willing to have a tenner with the OP that if he has collected his parts he has found the parts advisor was right about quantities and he has been wrong all along, respect to him if he has the maturity to post an update as to if the parts advisor concerned had ordered the right parts or not, although I suspect he will be strangely quiet on this point.



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Regarding discontinued parts - of course this happens but I gave a specific example of something that didn't make a whole lot of sense and said I was unconvinced. Read what I said and tell me that's not an unreasonable thing to think.

Regarding parts for a car I don't have a reg/vin for - I don't know s**t about Golfs but I bet if you came in asking me for mk2 Golf GTI brake calliper service parts I could find them. It gives engine codes for all the parts, if he'd asked me I would have told him.

And finally regarding quantities - I picked the parts up yesterday and what I ordered was correct including the questionable "how many exhaust gaskets do I need", so fair play for that. Again if you go back to my original post I said that he couldn't give a straight answer - he was contradicting himself every other sentence and was at one point or another "absolutely sure" about both options. So if I had ordered those parts whether he got it right or not would have depended on when I gave up and believed him

well done, big respect for admitting you were wrong, i appreciate why you did not feel confident, but perhaps that is down as much to your perception than it is the service you got......


So to answer the op's original question, is there a decent VW parts dept locally?

It appears there is, it at Vindis sawston and Vindis TPS

Geefer, you don't happen to work for Vindis do you?

With the gaskets the manifolds ones are normally the same for all the say 1.3's but sometimes downpipes vary so they may sell less then end that item due to insufficient sales.

Maybe you got served by the parts apprentice!

Henry wrote:

Geefer, you don't happen to work for Vindis do you?

I'm afraid not, however they are my local dealer and I have used them on a regular basis for the last three years, After lurking here for a while I thought I would post simply because the OP's story rang bells, I disagreed with them a few times to begin with, each time I was wrong and had to eat humble pie, now I simply take them at their word, they have not failed me and my old golf yet.

just think sometimes the "internet community" is all too eager to brand a company, based on what is just a small fraction of opinions, made worse when these opinions have got the wrong end of the stick, and occasionally the balance has to be redressed.


and any way even if I had,did work for Vindis the point would still stand that in this case the OP was happy to publicly make a statement about the knowledge & ability of staff at his local dealer when actually they had informed him right and he was wrong, had he posted back that indeed they had messed up then this would be an entirely different conversation, perhaps next time he won't as my old ma used to say "Holler before your Hurt"............


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Geefer wrote:

just think sometimes the "internet community" is all too eager to brand a company, based on what is just a small fraction of opinions, made worse when these opinions have got the wrong end of the stick, and occasionally the balance has to be redressed.

Yes I agree, but "keyboard warriors" aside I've been dealing with Vindis as dealers for 25 years and they have been at best, bloody hopeless pretty consistantly, I found one good parts guy at milton rd and I've stuck to him like glue, he's now at TPS.

I also have other issues with Vindis (commercial service) and it seems as dealers vindis are pretty incompetant across the board.

I knew Mr Vindis very well, as a boy I delivered his paper, cut his grass, went to school with his grandsons and spent all my pocket money in his shop above the sales room, he would have had a shit fit if he saw how it was letting customers down, and his how staff didn't really give a hoot.

I use milton keynes vw or colbourns for any major work I cant do myself, they are brilliant, worth the time and the expence of travelling.
They make Vindis look really very poor indeed. they dont charge any more or any less.
They restored my faith in main dealers, I spent 30 grand on a vehicle and got treated like a retarded lepper, I had better service from Mercedes even after I dragged the service manager over the counter by the tie for being down right arrogant and rude.

If I could avioid giving any of my money to Vindis I would, but they have the local dealerships sown up so I have my hands tied.

Just to point, out I have not let this dealer upset my deep seated love of the marque.