Francis007

Just as an aside to my recent post on our road trip to Germany, thought I would like to just make a comment on Audi build quality verses other premium German makes. Whilst there,my Missus and I were invited out to a restaurant one evening by a good long standing German mate and his wife. We were staying in a hotel near the small town of Aerzen in Lower Saxony and the restarant chosen was located in the city of Hamelyn about 15 miles away....so a reasonable drive there and back. Our friend works for Britas, the water purifcation and the Company has recently suplied him with a new model C class Mercedes. It was ablack Estate model and I think badged c180D Our friend was rightly proud of it and it had most of the bells and whistles that all recent cars now have. Big tablet type screen in the middle that controls almost all functions, cameras and fancy lights with shutters. And it was pretty quiet too for a diesel engined car and had a reasonable amount of torque. However, the abiding memory for me as I sat in the passenger seat was how poor the build quality was compared to my Audi. And I know the 2 cars are in difeerent price ranges but I truly believe, being in quite a few model Audis from A3's to A6's that the integrity of the build in the entire Audi range is on a much higher level than the stuff Mercedes puts out The Mercedes switch gear was flimsy and made of cheap plastic, the doors must weigh half the weight of the Audi door. They shut with a terrible metallic clang. The door releases were cheap and plastic and the fancy round air vents were flimsy an didnt work with decent precision So, in my opinion.....and it is only a personal opinion, I think the Audi brand build quality far surpasses Mercedes and BMW at the moment. Which is a good job really as all of us here chose Audi eh !!! Oh and I didnt let on to our friend. The car was his choice and he was mightily proud of it and if we all chose the same brand car it would be a pretty boring world out there.

Glad to be of service Trev ! You have got to plan another trip and then tell us all about it. As you know,it's a different world over there.Driving is still enjoyable. One thing I forgot to write is that I was flashed 3 times by speed cameras whilst there. I await what will drop through the letter box in the next few weeks with interest 🤔

Not sure whether anyone will be interested in this but I just thought I would post my musings on our 4 week tour to Germany in our Q8. We just returned on Wednesday after crossing over on the Shuttle four weeks ago and making our way to Dortmund for our first overnight stop . Then we headed south to the little town of Parsbeg in Bavaria whjre we stayed for several days. Then up into the mountains of Bavaria to stay at Berchtesgaden for 5 days. We then crossed back to Berlin for a few days and then onto the wonderful city of Dresden where we stayed for a week. Finally we headed to a favourite Schlosshotel of ours in Lower Saxony whe re we stayed for 8 days. And then a leisurely drive heading for home for the same overnight in Dortmund before we spent 3 days in the little Belgian town of Ypres. I have a great Uncle who is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemery at Tyne Cot. If anyone wants to visit a site that will take your breath away visit this cemetry. The number of young British Tommies buried here who perished in the mud of Paschendale wil make you weep . I have to say that although my missus and I have been touring Germany in the car for many years the road network of the country has deteriated a little in the last few years. Not so much you understand as the apalling state that the UK roads are in now. Many more speed restrictions and repairs on their Autobahn sytem now. However the overiding opinion was that their autobahns, their A and B roads are still in a superb state compared to our roads. Great signage,billiard smooth surfaces, well engineered cambers etc. Also the standard of driving on the Autobahns is so much higher than here. Precise signalling to either come out in a lane or back in again and an almost 100 % compliance to speed restrictions . The only thing I would say is that if you do get in the big boys outside lane on the unrestricted stuff to overtake slower traffic, even though you are probably doing 120 mph, the fast boys behind doing 140/150 plus will try to bully you to get back inside ! And also just maybe the UK registration and sticker does provoke some just a tad ! The car went well. We ticked over from 8000 miles to over 1000. Comfortable and just about fast enough. We had theusual software gliches that any Audi owber recognises nowadays. Lost the top screen one time as it just got stuck trying to initialsie. Then I lost my user identity " thingy " at start up one time so when I started the car my preference didnt kick in. Nothing too nasty and all sorted by a quick reboot by starting the car up again. The most annoying thing was a repeated loud bong and red warning triangle and exclamation mark in the drivers panel warninf of " limited visibilty " ! This came onquite a few times on the Autobahn when the minimum visibilty was at the very least 300 metres and more. God bless the EU eh in forcing he manufacturers in giving us that. Hope ths is of interest. If not just ignore. Frank

Hi Will. That's a shame but a saving grace....maybe...is that the Q8 has a pretty big boot Also, a top box would surely spoil the lines of the car ! I've been mightily pleased with both my Q8's so I wish you many happy, enjoyable and safe miles in your splendid new car. Frank

Hi Will. Sorry to hear that. I am on my second Q8 now, the first was purchased in 2020 when there was a model called a ' First Edition ' I believe. If I remember correctly the model line up for the U.K then was S Line, followed by Firts Edition and then Vorsprung. I'm pretty certain ,roof rails and a sunroof were both extras on the S line and First Edition and only standard on the Vorsprung which had practically everything on the options list. I did have a look at a Firts Edition at a dealership in 2020 and it was a 50 tdi rather than a 55tfsi which is the model I had decided on. And I'm pretty sure it didn't have a sunroof. The Firts Edition models were replaced after 2020 with a Black Edition which I have now, purchased new in June 2023 Both the roof rails and panoramic sunroof were extras on the Black Edition and not options I required so didn't order. Audi are notorious on renaming models and adding small bits of kit. My Black Edition was model 23.5 which was soon followed by 24 model which did have heads up display, park plus.....and a panoramic sunroof ! Buto of course they raised the price ! Its a game all the manufacturers play to try and persuade you to buy the latest model. I'm not surprises that roof rails cannot be fitted retrospectively as it would involve drilling that could affect the integrity of the structure. Can you not go back to the dealer and explain and exchange for a Q8 with roof rails. Had a quick look at Autotrader and about half of the Q8's listed on there do have roof rails. Anyhows...Good luck.

Hi David. I had this happen to me twice on a previous Q8. .MMI screen just went completely blank. However, on both occasions, I did the factory reset as recommended by pressing for about 20 seconds on the radio on / off button and it worked both times. Screen came back to life. I replaces my 2020 Q8 with a new one in June 2023 and have had no problems with this current car....yet !

JSon. Sorry to hear about your problems with your Q8 and the 48v system. On previous posts I did write that in my first Q8 in 2020 I almost always turned the start / stop system off as I thought it didn't achieve anything significantly and it was a nuisance. It was only later that I was informed that in doing this, I was disabling the 48v mild hybrid system. So in my current Q8 I haven't disabled the start/ stop at all and therefore the 48 v unit is being used I haven't had any problems with it at all so could you please keep us updated in how Audi is responding to your fault. I hope its sorted for you soon. Frank

Gareth. Forgive me...that was me that ' liked ' your post. It was my way of thanking you as a Moderator for being detailed and logical in asking questions to always try to help fellow Audi owners out

Morning Nigel I parked my car up in old Portsmouth last night to see an old ex RN friend. It was bitterly cold there and after a pint in the pub down on the Hard, I walked back to my car and noticed that I too had the same condensation in both my headlishts that you have experienced. So, it does look as though it's a normal occurence with these units that " breathe ! Frank

Hi Nigel Sorry for keeping this running but I promise I will give you some peace and quiet afer this reply ! Many thanks for the pics. It does look like condensation doesnt it although I am suprised it has got into the sealed units. Best to keep and eye on it I think in case it gets worse and you have your new car warranty to fall back on. Re your comments about the German Autobahns. Think the Germans are not so much fun as they used to be as we have been travelling reguarly to Deutschland for over 30 years now and we have noticed how more and more restrictions are being applied to the Autobahn network. Presume it might be something to do with Olaf Schutzs administration having to rely on a coalition with the Greens to stay in power. We travelled about 2000 miles in our three weeks and I would guess that probably only on about a third of the Autobahns we used were without a speed restiction. It was always a rule that the older the autobahn, the greater chance that they would have a restiction of 130 Kph. Especially the very old one with only two lanes. However even newly built ones like the last 150 miles from Dortmund to Dresden that used to be derestricted have now a speed limit on them. I think I managed to keep our British end up by occassionally gunning my boy up to 120 mph when I could and when it was safe obviously. But I still got mullered by Porsches, Bmw's and the occassional company car VW Passat Estate that would have been chipped ! Also the UK sticker attracted the attention of the occasional German driver who decided it was a sign to have a go. My cowardly gene has now kicked in since I got into my 70's and 120 mph is enough for me now. Also, my last point. If anyone thinks that the the rash of road works on our Motorways and our roads are peculiar only to the U.K please think again. We travelled for many miles on autobahns resticted to two lanes for road works ( with no actual sign of anyone working ! ) and 80 kph speed limit. And on the way home we got caught in utter traffic gridlock as bad as anything experienced in the UK, 20 miles from Dortmund where we managed to travel about 20 miles in 2 hours....and in biblical rain ! Anyhows, it was nice to chat and have fun with your glorious Q8 Frank

Evening Nigel Apologies for asking the age of your car when it was in your profile ! I'm 76 years of age so I will blame that ! If possible, could you detail a bit more about the " foggieness " your headlights are experiencing please ? And what precisely does the manual say about that it ? I am intrigued as I said in my initial reply that I didnt experience anything like this in my first nor in my present one. My car is parked up outside in our driveway each night as it's too darn wide for our titchy little garage and I have just gone out to have a look what the headlights are like. We live in the New Forest in Hampshire and temperatures are dropping pretty rapidly this evening so you would suspect that if there was a problem, it would show up. However they are both clear and dry. So I suggest to do what Gareth has already said and ask your supplying dearlership to investigate under warranty. Apart from that , may I ask how you are finding the car after previously owning a Q7 ? The two Q8's are my first foray into the SUV sector. Up to 2020, I owned either Porsches, BMW's etc in my younger days and as I grew older, I owned 2 wonderful VW Phaetons followed by an A8 But with ageing joints it seemed to make sense to finally own an SUV. Not sure I could lower myslef into a low slung car anymore ! And it has worked. My wife and I use our Q8 for longish driving tours to Deutschland . We have just returned from a 3 week tour to Bavaria, Dresden and Lower Saxony and the car was sublime, both on bendy country roads up in the mountains and on the fabulous Autobahn system in Germany. It's quiet,comfortable, well engineered and just about powerful enough I think. I would have liked to have changed up to an SQ8 but the pension would not allow.....nor would my Missus who said I would probably kill myself now with over 500 bhp ! Apologies for the length of this. I do tend to go on rather now. So, I hope you sort this problem out and I wish you many happy,safe and enjoyable miles in your wonderful Q8 Frank

Afternoon Nigel. I'm on my second Q8. First purchased in 2020 that I owned for 3 years and 40,000 miles and my present one, that I took delivery in June this year and just ticked over 5500 miles. Both bought new and both 55TFSi. I haven't had a problem at all with the headlights so I suspect that you have problem with your particular car. May I ask how old it is and is it still under warranty ? Hope you sorted it out. Frank

Cheers Steve. Just had a look at the Autologics website and it looks impressive. Think I will get in touch to see if they can disable it permanently for me. I agree with you, dont think the Audi dealership would do anything due to EU car safety legislation. As it's set up on my car, it truly is intrusive and in some scenarios could be downright dangerous. We are off for a month long road trip to Deutschland in October, driving up into the Bavarian Alps, then back to Lower Saxony before heading north to the Baltic coast. I do not want this system kicking in when I dont want it to on our trip. Thankyou again

May I ask a question about the Audi pre-sense system please ? Is there any way of getting into the software andturning the system off permanantly ? May I explain my problem ? I have lived in a small cottage in Hampshire for over 40 years. I have a driveway with a narrowish turn in that has two 4ft.metal posts which frame the gate. In over 40 years and in many cars, I have managed to turn into this gateway without once hitting the posts !!!!! Even now at my great age of75 years ! My previous Q8 had pre-sense and not once in hundreds of turn ins to my home did it ever activate. However, on my new Q8....with pre-sense.....on every occasion I get home, it activates and slams on the brakes. I take the same angle of turn and at the same slow speed. When it firts did it, I honestly thought I had hit the far side post, such was the force of the braking ! So, I looked into the Audi owners manual and it looks as though I can turn the sensitivity of the sysstem down a bit but this only lasts on the cars cycle. As soon as you turn the engine off, it seems to revert back to max sensitivity. It is a pain and makes you look foolish when the car slams on for no apparent reason. So, any ideas please in switiching it off permanently ? Many thanks in advance Frank

Steve Just been having some more thoughts about your problem with the 48v mild hybrid system on you car. This is not a criticism of you at all but can I say that I did know that all Q8's sold in the European market had the mild hybrid system and it was well documented in all the Audi literature that I read plus the many road tests and review I read before I decided to buy a Q8. That doesn't help you of course at the moment with your particular problem, I realise that. But Audi did highlight the system as it was their way in pretending that this car was a " hybrid " in some way orform and therefore te car was " eco-friendly " ! An absolute nonsense in my opinion with a car with a V^ engine pushing out 340 bhp. On thinking about my experencies with the system I have realsed overnight that I was being a bit disingenious with my reply to you in saying that I had never experienced a problem. The fact is that in my previous Q8, the firts two things I did when I got in the car on start up was to disengage the lane departure system which was a !Removed! nuisance and also to switch the stop/start system off because that.....in my humble opinion.....was a pain the bum too . It was only after about 24,000 miles and two years of ownership, I ound out that in switching off the stop/start system , I was also disengaging the mild hybrid system too. And I found out that supposedly the 48v battery could give me a few miles more MPG and a little more brake horsepower ! So, in realising I might be missing out, in the final year of ownership, I only switched off the lane departure. In my current car which is barely 2 months old , I have not switched the stop/start system off once so I am using te 48v battery and I have had no problems. As I think SteveQ has stated in a previous post, if you are still within the firts 30 days of ownership, you can return the car if you are unhappy with it, so then of couse I think you must do that. Frank

Evening Steve I'm on my second Q8 now, both were purchased new. I've not had any problems whatsoever regarding the 48V mild hybrid system on either car. Firsts one completed 34,000 miles before it was sold and my current one has just turned over 2000 miles as I bought it in June Could you possibly give more detail on the exact problem you are experiencing ? Cheers Frank

Kamar What a strange thing to occur, only on European roads and not in the U.K. I thought the previous reply from Steve Q might have hit the nail on the head, referring the problem to the lane assistance system , which in my opinion is a thoroughly useless system but you switch it off on start up as I do and I suspect many other Audi oweners do to. So, it cannot be that. On an SQ8 may I ask what other " Auto safety systems " do you have that a base Q8 would not have ? We travel to Europe, mostly Germany, at least twice a year and although the Autobahns are generally far superior to our Motorways in quality of surface, signage, degree of camber etc, the more minor routes, depending on the region, can have pretty poor surfaces and bad cambers as much as some of our apalling roads at the moment. May I ask what countries raods are you driving on when you experience this ? The reason I ask is that we generally tour two distinct regions of Germany on our travels. Saxony and Bavaria. Bavaria is the wealthiest region of Germany and it show in it's road network which is superb and Lower Saxony is the least wealthiest region and it genearlly shows in the poorer quality of the roads there Also, maybe as you are driving on the "wrong " side, on a poorly maintained road with a degree of camber on a road in Europe was the culprit in making your car pull to the right. Just a word about Audi safety systems and how they evolve and how intrusive they are. I had a Q8 purchased in 2020 andfor 3 years I carefully returned home, driving through a narrowish gateway into my drive with a hedge on one side. Even at my advanced age I managed to do that safely without once activating the " pre-sense emergency braking system " on the car. I have had my new replacement Q8 for just over 1 week. I have driven into my gateway a number of times since taking delivery and on every occasion, when turning in, the damn emergency system has detected the hedge or the gate post and applied the emergency system !!! I come in at the same slow speed and at the same angle and with a fair distance away from both but it has activated every time. These systems that the manufacturers are forced to fit are crackers in my humble opinion.

I'm not sure whether people here will be interested in this post. However it is an Audi Q8 website so here goes. If this is boring or not interesting please just ignore or delete. I started a topic some weeks ago about putting an order in for a replacement Q8 55 TFSI for my existing one and being informed that the lead time for delivery from the Factory would be 25 weeks. Since then the supplying Dealership got in touch and said that they had just had a new Q8 55 TFSI delivered and would I be interested rather than wait for the new order. I gave it some thought and then 2 weeks ago drove the 180 miles from my home to where the Dealership is located to take a look. The car was a good spec for me. It was in the colour I wanted, black, and had the C and S pack that my last car had. However rather than an S line it was a Black Edition with 22 " wheels rather than 21's The car had all its protective stuff still on but it looked good and I made a decision to purchase it. Just a note to any other prospective Q 8 buyers on this Forum. This car is listed as a 23 spec model. In the next couple of months Audi will be supplying 23.5 models. Now the only diffference is that the C and S pack will now be called the Technology pack or Plus pack. Depending on what spec you choose, this gives you the full integrated camera system and uprated sound system as before but with a heads up display and a panoramic sunroof. By the way, all UK spec Q8's now have " Parking Plus pack " too. Now I decided that I have been fortunate enough to have owned some pretty decent cars for over 55 years now and managed to live without a head up display and a sunroof which I would never open so I decided to go with the car that had just come in. I have had the car for 1 week now and after 250 miles I am quite surprised how different it is to my old Q8. By the way, Iam old school so I intend to run this car in carefully for the first 1500 miles as I did my old one. The differences are surprising and all good and probably a testament to the Audi engineers constantly tweeking and improving the car. For a start the suspensionn seems to be much more supple than my old one. Despite the fact that this car runs on 22 " wheels on a 40 profile tyre rather than the 21 " wheel with a 45 profile. I wasnt expecting that and it is a suprise. It might have to do with the Original equipment on the 2020 car being Hankook tyres and this one running on Continental Contact Sport 6 tyres. Also I tend to run the car in " Comfort " mode most of the time. The second suprising thing is how Audi seemed to have worked on the dreadful lag in the lower gears on pick up. Something that seems to affect many newish Audis and is something to do with the softwear I believe. Even carefully adapting my revs at the moment before it is fully run in, the engine seems much more responsive and lively. Apart from that and a few minor " design " changes like the oak effect panels and facia and the black start / stop button rather than a siver one, the car feels very " Audi ". Unsurpassed buid quality....no squeaks or rattles....beautifully comfortable and quiet and a distinctive Audi look on the road that all Audis seem to have As I said at the beginning, I hope this is of interest. If not, please ignore or delete Frank.

Peter May I ask whether you have solved the radiator shutter thing yet ? I have decided not to wait for a 25 week lead time for Factory supplied new Q8. For many reasons now that doesn't make any sense when there are a fair number of new Q8's with the Dealerships at the moment. So , I have been touring a few Dealerships to see what they have in stock and yesterday I went to one who had about a dozen new Q8's in their new car lot. All still had their protective gear on and there was a mix of 55TFSI, 50TD i and 2 RSQ8's. And some had a shutter and some did not and it wasnt reliant on a particular model. Only sales staff around and they didnt have a clue when I asked why !

Lovely colour. The car looks stunning in that.

Morning Tony These packs and specs are quite strange aren't they. I have never had any traffic recognition capability in my current car. And in the past week there was another post from a Q8 owner who spotted that some Q8's have a radiator shutter and some have not ! I had a look and mine does not . I think you did well with your 9 weeks from build to delivery. That would be fine for me. For various reasons I might not be able to hang on till November for the car I have on order. So I am pursuing alternate Q8's through Autotrader and CarWow. I see you are from Nottingham. When I first took delivery of my present car I decided for the firts time ever....and I am 75 years of age now !....to have a dash cam fitted. And the best seemed to have been a small company in Nottingham called TTW Installations. Took the car there and they did a superb job fitting a 2 camera system from Blackvue plus battery pack, Highly recommended. So, when I finally get my mitts on my new Q8 I think I will go there and have another system fitted. They also do all sorts of things like Trackers and Entertainment systems so they might be able to help re your phone charging. They are very expert at those sort of things. The owner is an impressive bloke who realy know his stuff. Much more so than any technician at Audi I think Enjoy your car . May I ask what colour it is ? Frank

Good morning Tony Firstly, congratulations on your new car and may you have many happy,enjoyable safe journeys in it. I am in the process of changing my 2020 Q8 55TFSI for a new one. So I have been busy trying to spec it. I think what has happened is that in the last few months Audi have changed the specs a bit of the Q8 and renamed the various packs and what they include. So, in 2020 my S line came with a " Comfort and Sound " pack which included the various camera systems plus the uprated sound system. That was my only extra apart from the Orca Black metallic paint. In 2020 features such as traffic sign recognition came with another pack. I'm not sure now what it was called Now it seems that the new cars that are arriving from the Factory , no longer have C and S and that has been replaced by a Techno pack and a Techno plus pack. Both have the the Traffic Sign recognition feature that you wanted and did not get . Both give you a heads display up and from how it reads, the Plus pack also includes a panoramic sunroof. There is a considerable difference in price between the two of £3000 ! I am staggered that your car doesnt have wireless charging. That was a standard featue of all Q8's and most other lesser Audis ! So, I think that your car came with a C and S pack and not the new Techno pack. I'm paging through the current new cars available at the moment and most have the C and S pack and just a very few coming through now with the Techno packs. I'm ambivilent about the various packs. The C and S pack in my car has been enough for me. Not really sure I want a heads up display and / or....a panoramic sunroof ! Lead times are very long at the moment for an ordered car. I put an order in last week and was quoted 25 weeks. Sincethen the Dealer has rang me to say that I might now receive my car in September. So maybe things are improving. Anyhow good luck with your car, I hope you enjoy it and get your spec troubles sorted. Frank

Hiya Peter How are you getting on with your new Q8 ? Re the radiator shutter, I am in the process of ordering a replacement Q8 for the one I have now, so I have been studying specs, colours wheels etc. Just looking at some stock cars on Youtube that Audi dealerships already have in and most....although not all strangely enough..... do have a shutter between the front grill and the actual radiator itself. It doesn't seem to differentiate between model or engine type. Isn't that strange ! Frank

Hi Peter Enjoy your wonderful car. And I think your 50tdi engine probably fits the Q8 better than my 55TFSI. More driveable and torque when and where you want it . For the last 20 years before my current Q8 I ran V6 diesel large saloons like the A8 and the VW Phaeton and I was a diesel fan However the PC herd have now decided that diesel is Satans fuel so I reluctantly went for the petrol version when I got mine in 2020. Please dont get me wrong. The V6 is a mighty fine and smooth engine with decent power of 340 bhp . But going twice a year to Germany like we do, many cities there are now making it quite difficult to get in to with a diesel engined car. So we went with the TFSI and that's what I have ordered again for delivery at the end of the year. Also can I say that I have been pleasantly surprised by the retained value of these cars. So much better than the 2 A8's I had and of course the 2 VW Phaetons ! So, have fun with your car and I hope it gives you many safe and enjoyable miles in the future. Frank

Morning Nowa Not sure whether this helps as I have a Q8 55 TFSI so maybe the cooling requirements of a petrol engine would be different to a diesel. But up early for a morning cuppa and I've read your post and just gone out to have a look at my car in the drive and it doesnt have a shutter. You can see straight through the grill to the radiator situated behind. And I bought my car new so no repair or work has taken place. Frank