Wanting to share my experience to date of owning a new Q5 TFSI-E Hybrid that we purchased in January 2020, hopefully people will read below, and make up their own mind before purchasing one.
Purchased Jan 2020
March 2020 1020 miles Breakdown “electrical drive system failure” unable to move vehicle. Vehicle recovered by lorry and returned to dealer.
March - June - Awaiting replacement Hybrid switch module, + COVID shutdown
June - Collect car
July 2100 miles Car has moment “ Drive system fault” this clears and car is ok – reported to Dealer response from overseeing mechanic “Strange not something I’ve come across before especially with that given situation. Possible just a glitch in the system, please monitor”
Mid-July 2456miles Car breaks down again “electrical drive system failure” unable to move vehicle. Audi Assist attend at site & manage to get vehicle moving, follows me home. Recovered to audi dealer.
Late July-Response from Dealer , stating software update carried out that “Hopefully” fixes it, & if it were to happen again they would push the brand for help with either a refund or replacement.
Sought confirmation of the meaning of "hopefully fixes it"
Offered Goodwill gesture as "full and final settlement" - We rejected it, and moved to an alternative suggestion as below..
After the second failure & subsequent discussions, the car has been at the garage since June. I have now formally rejected the vehicle as not fit for purpose.
IMO this model has an issue within the hybrid system / software. The dealer has admitted that there was not a fix at the time of our discussion, Audi are working on it. We were offered a “goodwill” gesture as “full and final settlement” Which we rejected as it would take away our right to reject the car in the future if this failure keeps happening. Having sought legal advice we tried to come up with a compromise as below
I.e :- await fix, run a required mileage circa 5-10k and then agree a goodwill once the vehicle had proved itself and re-installed confidence. The dealer/Audi rejected the various proposals.
So now we are potentially left with the consequential losses, as the the dealer/Audi absolve themselves from these through their T&C’s.
Update – Have now received a refund, but we are still landed with the other expenses outside of the Audi invoice, - finance settlement costs (Own finance), towbar removal etc due to the above.
My opinion Avoid Avoid Avoid !
