SoCal Dealers Recommendations

Apologies if there is already a thread like this. I haven’t seen one and search function turns up nothing.

Which dealers do you guys recommend for purchasing a GTI?

I am planning on buying my first GTI an 18 autobahn next weekend. Super excited. I test drove one on two separate occasions and couldn’t stop smiling the entire time. First time its ever happened on a test drive

I’ve contacted over 20 dealers. Currently VW Muerrieta is on my short list.

They gave me the best quote, put it in writing and has respected my time by not blowing up my email, voicemail and text.

They are about 45 min away but I like their approach.






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Sounds like you already answered your own question.

I bought my car at a SoCal dealer who said they couldn't give me much on the trade-in due to a mileage issue on the title (apparently a previous registration omitted a number in the mileage so the actual mileage was now suspect even though it's several years later and I've registered it for the last 4 years in CA) and, as a result, they could not sell it at retail and would have to sell it wholesale.

3 days later it was listed on their website for 2.5 times more than they gave me.

Don't go there.

kevinkar said:

Don't go there.

Click to expand...

Don't go where?


Anyway, I got my R from Cardinale Way VW in Corona. They were OK. I had a decent experience. Didn't get worked around. I had a better experience than trying to buy a GTI back in 2008 from City VW in San Diego.

Who are you dealing with? i'm at VW of murrieta but I'm on the service side.

CDavis7M said:

Don't go where?

Anyway, I got my R from Cardinale Way VW in Corona.

Click to expand...

You went there!

I got mine for about $4k over a week ago. I find more dealers are getting them in now and some claim on their websites they don't mark up much or at all but in the last couple of weeks of looking, they all marked up $5k-$10k. So this was not that bad but could have been better.

Because I tried to get a '17 last year and failed (they went much faster than I thought they would) I had to jump when I found one and that was probably a mistake money-wise.

My experience was OK but it was stereotypical car dealer stuff with the guy going back and forth "asking the manager" and us trading numbers over and over. They wanted $10k over but there was no way I was going to pay that.

One thing that bugged me was they added vinyl film to the door edges and the rear bumper as well as ShadowMark tags (apparently a theft deterrent...) which is typical "value added" stuff that really results in only dealer profit and they did that before even putting the cars out for sale so you have little choice over the matter. I checked other models and sure enough they seem to put them on all the cars. That's lame in my opinion.

So I over paid a bit (not to mention the issue with the trade in) but at least I got one this year.

While I haven't dealt with their sales department much other than them letting me look at an '18 R while my car was getting some warranty work done, South Coast VW has been nothing but a pleasure to work with. My car has had a ton of problems (is in the process of being replaced by VWoA) and I've been to South Coast more than I would care to ever go to a dealer, but it's always been a positive experience for me.

I also did not care for Cardinale VW, when I was contacting them about buying an R, their "call me back by 2:00" really meant, call me back in 2 weeks, which was after I had already bought my car.

IMHO, the best way to buy a car is to pick however many dealers are within a reasonable distance from you and email all the sales managers with a throw away email. (They sign you up for all their ads once you contact them) Give them all the specs you want, ask for the best price. Look for the lowest price, then email a different dealer saying you were quoted "x" price, can you beat it? Go around the dealers until no one can beat the price, and voila, you have a price in writing ready to go. While it was a little bit easier for the R, since almost no dealer would budge on price, that's how I bought my R.

I saw a couple Dealers starting to list the R online at MSRP now in LA area. Some are still listing 3K to 5K over MSRP. I just have to be patient.

I got mine here, shipping was negotiated. I financed with Chase.

https://www.stonemountainvw.com/new...all&perform=get_results&model[]=Golf+R&page=1

I got mine at Alhambra VW...