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Title is misleading, it was the dealers.

The Audi trademark is used on Audi dealers and therefore Audi as sensible organisation should check and influence how their cars are represented. To the average consumer there is little or no difference between "Audi" and, for example, "Blade Audi"

I can't speak to the British auto dealer experience, but in the US, salespeople are often undertrained and don't actually know enough about what they're selling.

Volkswagen can't really push its influence onto the salespeople directly, it would need to go through the dealer.

My experience in the UK (with BMW and various VW brands) are that if you interact with a dealer then the car company phones you a few days later to ask you to rate the dealer - so it is pretty clear that they are separate organisations.

Most dealership staff pretty much plead with you to say nice things to the car company when they call - or at least if there are any problems you tell them first.

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