Autohaus Barrie

[TDIDarryl]

Autohaus Barrie under new ownership

I'm starting to consider replacing my ageing Jetta and wondered about the change in ownership of Autohaus Barrie.

I was not prepared to give this dealership my business until I'd heard about the new owners but I'm willing to give them a fair shake if I can be convinced that they've improved.

Anyone have any thoughts on the new owners? Does anyone know if any “house cleaning” took place with the management?

 

[LNXGUY]

The new parts guy doesn't give me my discount anymore, f that place, lol!

No dealership could touch the price Georgetown VW gave my parents on their '09 Jetta TDI... I actually called Barrie and Alliston and they laughed

 

[TDIDarryl]

The new parts guy doesn't give me my discount anymore, f that place, lol!

No dealership could touch the price Georgetown VW gave my parents on their '09 Jetta TDI... I actually called Barrie and Alliston and they laughed

LOL. I actually have a great price from Georgetown VW. If Barrie can match that price and they seem committed to being a better dealership, they'd sell me a car and make money on parts and some service for the next decade. I'm just thinking that Georgetown is pretty far though if I do have problems or want to get warranty work done.

The Barrie dealership has tremendous market in the area for TDI buyers but I see so many Orillia and Georgetown licence plate brackets in Barrie...

 

[northofnine]

I went there end of January this year...
Found the sales guy very pushy...
Would not put any quotes in writing...
I have heard bad things about them....
On a busy Saturday out car shopping, the place was dead. All the other dealers Ford, GM were very busy...found that weird.

I went to HJ. Pfaff motors in Newmarket....very good experience there.
Having said that I am still battling with them with regards to my Speedometer not showing the correct speed compared to GPS....thats for another forum.

 

[OhMagoo]

didn't know ownership changed. They Leavens folks in Orillai are trying real hard to bring that dealership up to their London locations standards

 

[Wingnut]

.........Having said that I am still battling with them with regards to my Speedometer not showing the correct speed compared to GPS....thats for another forum.

How far apart are the numbers? It is pretty common knowledge that most VW's read around 5-7kph slower than actual. I don't know why they do this, but they seem to be pretty consistent. You can adjust that varience with VCDS in the older cars, but not sure how to do it on the newer cars.

 

[ik0n]

How far apart are the numbers? It is pretty common knowledge that most VW's read around 5-7kph slower than actual. I don't know why they do this, but they seem to be pretty consistent. You can adjust that varience with VCDS in the older cars, but not sure how to do it on the newer cars.

Never looked into this before as I just make the adjustments in my head... Glad you brought this up.
I'm going to look into adjusting it to be accurate, the wife always complains I'm speeding, I keep telling her that it looks worse than it actually is .

 

[Baba O'Riley]

I picked up my 12 Golf TDI early March and I travel the same 50k each way on the 407 for the last 11 years.
I immediately noticed that when the Golf was showing my regular 130 that I was having to move out the way consistently.
Got out my GPS which was always bang on with my Audi TT and wifes previous 2 vehicles; and it showed 121.
Tested it again. Set the cruise to 110 digital (showed 111 on the speedo; that's fine); but my GPS said 103.

I looked through the forums and noticed a few owners with similar differences; although nobody seems to have had any luck going back to dealer with this issue.

 

[ksa63]

We just purchased a vehicle at Autohaus Barrie in early April, the salesman was great but things took a turn for the worse once we got to the business office. It has been a month now and we love the car but we cannot recommend the dealership at this time. I will update if things change.

 

[dieselsipper]

didn't know ownership changed. They Leavens folks in Orillai are trying real hard to bring that dealership up to their London locations standards

Leavens in London sucks. I bought my jetta there and the overall sales experience was fine, but service was absolutely amateur. It was as if there was no experienced mechanics that worked in the shop, and the service advisors were not even mechanically inclined. Thats what happens when a business owner does not value skill and knowledge. I would consider buying a car from there again, but would not even consider for any type of service. I'm guessing that once they have been in Orillia long enough, they will get rid of the high paid technicians and service staff and replace with minimum wage morons. Too bad because Orillia is a nice town and deserves better than that.

 

[northofnine]

I'm due for my first service next week...I will see how Pfaff is for quality of service...also going to have a face to face meeting about speedo issue....to me its not safe...7kms variance is too much...driving on the 400 too slow is almost as bad as too fast...
I hate doing math while driving...

 

[Dieselducky]

I'm due for my first service next week...I will see how Pfaff is for quality of service...also going to have a face to face meeting about speedo issue....to me its not safe...7kms variance is too much...driving on the 400 too slow is almost as bad as too fast...
I hate doing math while driving...

My BMW is the same...unless it's calibrated for police use most cars are off but the Odometer will be accurate

 

[northofnine]

can the dealer tell if a VCDS is used to correct speedo??...dont want to void the warranty...

 

[LNXGUY]

can the dealer tell if a VCDS is used to correct speedo??...dont want to void the warranty...

I doubt it.

 

[P2B]

can the dealer tell if a VCDS is used to correct speedo??...dont want to void the warranty...

Not sure if new cars are the same, but on the MK4 correcting the speedo with VCDS makes the odometer inaccurate. You have to open the cluster and move the speedo needle if you want both to be accurate.

Simon

 

[northofnine]

Follow up to Pfaff service: no issues...I recommend them...they said 90 minutes and it was done in about an hour...
Follow up on Speedo: The speedo issue is being sent to VW customer care...Dealer has done all they can do.

 

[northofnine]

Not sure if new cars are the same, but on the MK4 correcting the speedo with VCDS makes the odometer inaccurate. You have to open the cluster and move the speedo needle if you want both to be accurate.

Simon

When Pfaff replaced my speedo cluster they said my odometer was accurate over 1 km...
my GPS tests over 100km show its not...odometer shows 103km...gps says 100 km...

Its no wonder VW is boasting such good mileage..we are driving slower than we think we are...therefore better mileage...

 

[Wingnut]

Do GPS units take into consideration elevation changes? Point A to point B on a flat road is different than on hilly terrain. The GPS assumes you are driving flat all the time, but every hill you go up & down adds distance to the odometer that won't get tracked by the GPS. Granted, 3% is probably a lot larger a variable than any hilly terrain will cause, but you cannot comapre GPS distance to odometer distance unless you do all your driving on a flat terrain.

 

[Cheekee]

Barrie Autohaus

I purchased a 2012 Jetta TDI a few weeks ago at this dealership..... I'd heard a few negatives about them, but they were advertising that they were under new management, so I thought I'd check them out...... sales guy was pretty good , but the promises fell apart in the finance office pretty quickly , and even more so on delivery of the new car...... I love the car, but in hindsight, I should have walked out of the place as soon as the promises began to evaporate in the finance office...... I ended up speaking to the sales manager and eventually the general manager to get some of the wrongs righted ....... But none of that should have been necessary , and I wish I had purchased elsewhere..... the whole experience left a very bad taste in my mouth...... I'll be getting my service done elsewhere , that's for sure.... I heard good things about the dealership in Orillia , so I went up and introduced myself to the service manager...... He seemed very cool , and took the time to answer all my questions and concerns.... I wish I had bought the car there.... Cheers

 

[clamb]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[My2012tdi]

Barrie Autohaus

This is just a heads up to anyone wishing to deal with Barrie Autohaus. if your looking to to buy a new VW from this dealer, I would suggest buying it somewhere else and you won't run into the same problems that I am having with this very in professional dealer.I heard negative things after the had gone through and now am going through all the trouble of trying to get it fixed. I have the car only two months and have made at least 50 calls to these guys and numerous messages left and not one returned phone call. I hope by posting on here it will prevent people from going through the same issues me and numerous others have gone through !

 

[My2012tdi]

I love the car but wish I would have never bought it from Barrie Autohaus. I won't be taking the car back to this dealer for any of the maintenance or warranty work. I was wondering how Alliston Volkswagen is. I have talked them on the phone when looking for parts, but was wondering if any has had any service done there and has an opinion to whether or not they are good.

 

[LNXGUY]

Orillia and Barrie are under the same ownership if I'm not mistaken.

As far as sales/service Georgetown or Pfaff can't be beat.

 

[TDIDarryl]

I love the car but wish I would have never bought it from Barrie Autohaus. I won't be taking the car back to this dealer for any of the maintenance or warranty work. I was wondering how Alliston Volkswagen is. I have talked them on the phone when looking for parts, but was wondering if any has had any service done there and has an opinion to whether or not they are good.

Couldn't comment on Alliston VW service since they refused to do warranty work on my car because I didn't buy it from them.

The Barrie dealer is now owned by the Dilawri Group but there's no evidence that they have a centrally driven common service level amongst their dealerships (at least, I can't believe they're all as crappy as Barrie).

I'm not sure who owns Orillia, but I'm pretty sure it isn't the same company. Perhaps try them?

 

[northofnine]

I decided to try my 30K service at Barrie....not impressed.
Appointment took much longer than the expected because I made the mistake of saying yes to having the car washed...I eventually told them to forget the wash and give me my car...45 min waiting for a wash was a waste of my time.
Also got the line..." Mechanic recommends" a $120 front end alignment due to a bit of tire wear...
I was skeptical so said no...I do not have the time today.
Took the car to Active Green and Ross to have the alignment checked...$20.00 to find out that nothing needs to be done....

Back to Pfaff in Newmarket for service in the future...

In my previous posts I mentioned the speedo issue....no resolve...VW Canada won't do anything.
I'm getting use to the deviation but still frustrating.
I am going to do the VCDS tweak in the near future...

 

[ksa63]

Orillia and Barrie are under the same ownership if I'm not mistaken.

As far as sales/service Georgetown or Pfaff can't be beat.

Orillia is owned by "Leavens" out of London. Barrie is owned by some large car dealer conglomerate apparently the largest in Canada. "As of March 8, 2012, Autohaus Barrie Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of Dilawri Automotive Group."

There is absolutely NO comparison between the 2 operations. I would reccomend Orillia VW 100%, I have purchased 2 VW there and had most of my service performed there. I would go back to Orillia VW at any time.

I purchased one 2012 Audi from Barrie Autohaus and wish that I could feel comfortable to recommend this place but my experience has been almost totally negative there. The service department has been my best experience there but it is still much poorer than my experience in Orilla.

 

[ng3]

I can't believe I'm just finding this thread. I bought 2 new cars from Barrie in May. Everything up to signing papers went smooth. Then came delivery. I'm trading in my car, at 3pm day of delivery they ask me if I need plates for the second car!!! My car has 400km on the odo, wife's car has no second key. Fixing all problems with both cars took 3 months, going back to Barrie VW for anything is an absolute NO.

Pray to whatever god that you don't have to deal with the sales manager, at one point I was offered a chair to get the f*** out of his office. Service is another joke, no tracking of paperwork whatsoever.

 

[mckracker]

Was dealing with Barrie Autohaus and they wouldn't put anything on paper until I gave a 500 deposit. Came up with a deal which i'm not sure about and they gave me an end of day deadline to make a decision. He said they need the deposit so I don't go to another dealership with they're price and ask to beat it. Seems shady! I can't even get free oil changes out of them. I guess I will check out Orillia VW. Anyone trade in to Orillia VW?

 

[ng3]

You might want to try Alliston if it's not too far from you.
I've heard nothing but good things about them and they're rated pretty good online. They were closed the day I went looking for mine so I ended up in Barrie instead.

 

[RoadTrip]

Orillia wants you to pay the sticker price.
We went down to 401 Dixie & get a very nice deal.
Also if you can wait until the end of the month & name you price.
Just my 2 cents.