Hi Everyone. I would just like to share my story of being an A7 owner for 2 years now in particular with the awful service I received from Audi who today have done the right thing for me with regards to the tyre issue. (Today I can't praise them enough) My car is Bi-Turbo black Edition. This will be long winded so I apologise in advance.
My story starts 2 years ago when after purchasing my a7 I allowed a friend to drive it and 3 corners later he curbed the alloy. The repair was done by Audi who sent the alloy off to their preferred repairer. It came back a week later not repaired due to the repairer not having the tools to repair 21" alloys. It was therefore sent away to another repairer. It came back 1 week later and was on my car all finished ready for collection (Or so I hoped) When I went to pick the car up I instantly noticed the alloy was painted the wrong colour. It had a gold tinge rather than the gunmetal grey. I brought this to the attention of the bodyshop manager who looked as shocked as me that the alloy was painted wrong and had been fitted on my car for collection. Audi sorted this out in house and I had another 2 days wait before being able to collect my car. I had owned the car for 18 days 14 of which it had been at Audi. (I was given a courtesy car) When I returned to collect the car I inspected and noticed a small dent on the rear wing. I had inspected the car with a fine tooth comb before purchasing it and can confidently say the dent was not there when I dropped the car off at Audi. Audi agreed to remove the dent using their own dent removal specialist who attends every Thursday. I had to bring the car back the following day to get the dent removed. So I drove the car away. After 2 hours of driving my low tyre pressure warning came on. I checked the tyre and it was significantly under pressure so I pumped it up reset the values and decided to wait to see if the tyre lost pressure again and how quickly this would happen. It took 4 days for the warning to come back on and for the pressure to drop to what it did before I pumped it up. This to me was significant because Audi had my car for 14 days and it takes 4 days for the warning to show and I had the car back for 2 hours before it came on for me which conclusively proves IMO that the puncture had happened whilst in Audi. By this time I was in London and so took the car to Audi Victoria who found a small pin in the tyre and repaired this without charge. Overall not a great start to my A7 ownership.
4 months later is when things become a lot more interesting and serious. I was driving along and I again got a low pressure warning come up on my back right. I checked the pressure and it was low. I saw a nail in my tyre close to the edge so had a feeling the tyre would not be repairable. I booked it in with Audi and left it with them all day. I was called to say the tyre was needed to be replaced but no tyres in stock and could I bring the car back the following day. I agreed and picked the car up and drove it away. I remember this day as clearly as anything, It was torrential rain and I had 30 miles to drive up the M1. When I was on the M1 I felt for the first time that my car was pulling to the right. It didn't feel good at all. I slowed down and got myself home. Following day I drove back to Audi and felt the car pulling so I drove slow and avoided the motorway. When I booked the car in I mentioned the car did not feel right and asked if it could be looked at. When the assistant looked at my notes she went away to speak to the tyre fitter. They both came back to ask who told me I could drive away the previous day. I told them I was asked to pick the car up and bring it back today by the person I was dealing with yesterday because they had no tyres in stock, I asked them why? They obliged by showing me what was wrong with my tyre. See picture. I was stunned to say the least . I felt they had put my life at grave risk allowing me to drive away with a tyre in such a bad state.
I must say I am one of the lucky ones that I purchased tyre insurance when I purchased my car and I was able to claim for this tyre.
4 months later another speed wobble and I found another tyre had split and this was also replaced using my insurance. 2 weeks ago another tyre split and again my insurance paid. At this point I did ask Audi what was causing this to happen and they advised I should get the wheel alignment check done @ £200.00. I decided to go to ATS who carried out the check for free and told me that my set up looked OK and had no explanation to what was causing the tyres to split. Whilst on the ramp I looked at the tyres and found yet another tyre split which was only 5 months and 4000 miles old - 5 mm tread. No uneven wear.
I therefore felt I had not option but to book my car in with Audi for them to do the £200 checks themselves and then to take things from there using my Audi warranty.
It was then when I came across this forum and found so many of us experiencing the same problem with the Dunlop tyres. So today armed with everything that's gone wrong this past 23 months of ownership I used my appointment to speak with the service team and asked them to take some responsibility. I told them how many more of their customers was experiencing split Dunlop tyres showing them the forum pictures etc, I suggested to them that the Dunlop tyres were dangerous and not fit for purpose, I asked them if they would be prepared to replace the split tyre using my last insurance claim and to also replace the tyre I had replaced only a few weeks ago with Continentals.
I have to say the 2 people I have dealt with today in Audi have been fantastic. They had a private meeting with who I assume was the service manager who then agreed to replace 2 tyres using my insurance for 1 tyre and the 2nd as a token gesture FOC. They also told me they would send the split tyre off to Dunlop and to also add to that a report stating this has happened to 3 other tyres.
I am happy about this outcome even though this will still leave 2x Dunlops on my car which I will replace at my cost with Continentals ASAP from an independent and all my insurance claims have now been used up.
When I pick up the car later today I will ask Audi what they now intend to say to customers who need new 21" tyres. I'm hoping they will advise they can no longer supply Dunlop Maxx GT's.
