The US have recalled Audis' for this fault. not in the UK!!!
Ok, so where do I start with this. In 2013 I bought my wife a 2010 Audi Q5 2.0 TDI from an approved dealer in Southport. The car had been perfect up to 2015 when we 1st experienced the dreaded "Mechatronic" fault. The car stalls at junctions and jolts erratically. It hadn't even done 60,000 miles!.
We took it to our local dealer "Hatfield Audi". They did the initial electronic re-set, that they all seem to try.
Explanation - "Audi's have a specific electronic management system (EMS) which enables the car to adapt to other peoples driving styles and this can be what has caused the issue, if someone else has driven the vehicle" (what BS), but six months later the problem was back. We returned the car to Hatfield Audi, & were told the repair would be around £5k. I asked, why Audi had not re-called vehicles for this fault & was told "not enough people have complained"
We asked for an Audi contribution and were outright refused on the basis that we hadn't had the car serviced continually by Audi. Even though we had the car serviced by an independent Audi specialist locally.
When we complained to Audi head office, a lengthy discussion ensued between Audi Head Office and Hatfield Audi. The result was us being told that as the car hadn't had it's "mechatronic gearbox oil changed at 40,000miles then the car was not covered.
Head Office kept using the term "we empower our garages to make their own judgement"....who uses that therm...empower??
When we produced the invoice, clearly showing that we had the oil changed at 40,000 miles, Hatfield Audi went away & came back a week later still saying "No". When we asked head office for their input, we were told it was due to a "component failure" in the vehicle, which was too old to be covered by warranty.
The failure of the component was pre-April 2015, so the car wasn't even 5 years old! No arguing that it breaches the sale of goods act as not being of satisfactory quality or fit for purpose gets us anywhere. Even raising a Section 75 with our credit card company, came to no avail, they said that the supplying dealer had no idea the issue existed at the point of sale so could not be held responsible? They could only help if we could produce documentation that Audi were aware of this fault and had issued a recall or had advertised a recall in the national press & we could provide evidence of such.
Total nonsense. The bottom line....Audi are there to screw you. If you don't pay out £350+VAT for regular servicing via a main dealer (Meaning you'll end up paying for a costly repair anyway over time) they just aren't interested. Despite their vehicles remaining on the road and being dangerous. We have even registered this fault with the DVLA.
To date we are now trying to source whoever we can to get this repair done as trading the car in (knowing there is this issue) Audi or anyone else will knock thousands off the price.
Incidentally, Audi Head Office's pearl of advice was to visit another dealer to see if they would be prepared to make a contribution. Every dealer we have spoken to since want to charge another £250+VAT, just to do a diagnostic - Even though we present them with the original diagnostic provided after many requests - from Hatfield Audi....
So we could end up visiting 100 garages paying £250+VAT a time before we find one who'll help us....by which time it would have cost us more than the car is worth!
Safe to say, we will NEVER be buying another Audi, but any help or advice anyone can give us, would be gratefully accepted as this is been going on over a year now!
I am leaving negative comments on all social media outlets until Audi stand up and accept they have a responsibility to their customers to acknowlesge and repair these vehicles in the UK for minimal charge.
