Cally

I finally got a call from Audi Executive yesterday. The latest is that they are going to speak to my dealership to discuss rejection and buy back under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. I fear we will not be happy with their offer, however, it might be our only good option. If all the intermittent fault warnings should come to fruition, the cost of repair would be phenomenal. It is such a shame, prior to this I was very happy with my car.

Last night I posted a couple of replies on Andrew Doyle's LinkedIn profile, responding to comments congratulating him and his team on the release of a new etron model. I last had contact from Audi Executive on 23 April 2024 apologising for the delay in responding appropriately, due to a big backlog. I was told to expect an update within 2 days......7 May, I have still heard nothing. I have suggested Audi attend to their existing customers who are unwittingly driving dangerous, unreliable vehicles, before focusing their efforts on expanding their range. Less lucrative for sure, but essential and absolutely the responsible thing to do. My car has been repaired under the 7 year extended warranty but since it's return has numerous intermittent faults, all very unnerving. In all my years of driving I have never worried about driving, sadly my A6 has ruined that. The dealership performed a software update due to a P button fault. The technician advised that although the light was intermittent if I had continued driving the auto gearbox would soon have jammed as it was 'confused' about which gear was actually selected. My car is now jumping on occasion into M1 and back again, only response has been more unacceptable head scratching. The full gauge will at times return to full while I am driving and the range will increase without a visit to the fuel station, if only! I believe my car to be dangerous and unreliable, certainly not what I would havd chosen to invest my money in. I plan to start politely messaging them through social media platforms and I will also apply to 5he consumer rights programme RIp Off Britain, in the hope that if we can gain their support, Audi may be more inclined to take this seriously. I am now into the fifth month and my patience is wearing thin.

@Steph1234 my dealership is Huntingdon Audi. I am awaiting a response from Ferzana from Audi Executive, she's written to apologise for the delay, no surprise they are inundated with complaints!

@Steph1234 I have an A6 Allroad, which was covered under the extended 7 year warranty. If you go on the government website for vehicle recalls you can check by model/year. It is referred to as the starter generator.

@Steph1234 my dealership initially refused to cover my vehicle under the extended warranty too - out of warranty at 68,000 miles . If you haven't already, you need to raise a case with Audi UK and pass the number to your dealership and ask them to make an application for support. Mentioning the Consumer Rights Act 2015 was also a game changer. I am having ongoing issues with my vehicle as a result of the failure, but can confirm with pressure applied the initial repair cost was covered in full. It took a month, but I was eventually provided with a hire car which I used for a month while I awaited the repair of my vehicle. Wishing you the best of luck for a rightful resolution.

Mark, my case is also now with Feranza. On Good Friday she told me she was awaiting information from the dealership, so no 'proper' response as yet. I am currently back in the Alps and she did enquire as to whether we had made it!! As soon as I hear back, I will share her reply. Huw, I am sorry to hear you are in the same boat. It took me some 4 weeks and an unreasonable amount of effort to get Audi to accept responsibility and repair my car under the 7 year warranty. I was 8,000 miles out of the manufacturers standard warranty.

Hi Mark, I found this: Duesmann left the company in 2023. He was succeeded by Gernot Döllner as Chairman of the Board of Management of Audi

Is this person in Ingolstadt?

For information, this is the title of the other discussion. I am sorry K do not know how else to share this with you. Alternator failure related to mild hybrid system?

I'm so sorry to read your update. I share your pain. I refused to collect my car from the dealership without written assurances which of course were never received. Audi applied pressure by telling me the Mercedes I had been driving for one month was coming off hire the same day at 6pm and if I drove it I would be uninsured. The hire car was only collected by Europcar some 9 days later, so an underhand attempt at closing my case. The Leeds based Audi UK team offered me £500 for my trouble, which I rejected, again reiterating this is about safety not money. I want reassurances and in the absence of such reassurances a buy back. On it's first outing my car showed a fault warning 'P button fault - contact workshop' and was slow on acceleration and would on occasion jump from D to M1. I contacted the dealership who took over a week to respond, by which point the fault light had 'disappeared'. I took my car to the dealership yesterday after insisting they check it before I return to the Alps next week. It was lucky I persisted, my car needed a software update and reset having apparently lost it's memory. The technician advised the gearbox would soon have become jammed as it could not read which gear it was in. I am anxious to learn this within 7 days of heading overseas, I could so easily have become stranded again. I now have to hope it holds up. I have Andrew Doyle's email address (headbof Audi UK) courtesy of another user and I will share this with you when I locate it. Sadly, being polite and patient does not pay dividends. There are some other members of the forum who are pursuing other avenues including Ian Ferguson of rejectmycar.com and Watchdog, again for this fault.

I'm the same, definitely 'a dog with a bone' but with good reason! I'll let you know how I get on

Good Afternoon Mark and RSW, Thank you for the update and sharing your eloquent communication. I had been awaiting a response from my local dealership prior to contacting Andrew Doyle, in an effort to give them an opportunity to resolve this matter in a fair, reasonable and professional manner. The anticipated call came in half an hour ago, confirming Andrew Doyle is the only option remaining. The dealership insist there was no outstanding recall on my car at the time of sale and insist there has been no recall on my vehicle for this fault. The mysterious 7 year warranty that has appeared to cover the cost of repair, despite my vehicle allegedly being subject to no recall and being out of standard warranty, could not be explained. The starter generator recall on the government website advises the number of affected vehicles to be circa. 50,000 vehicles. If the dealerships statement is correct, it means the actual number of vehicles affected is in reality significantly higher, mine being additional to the quoted number. The dealership had no interest in responding to my comment that the vehicle was not fit for purpose. I have now fully exhausted all avenues, so it is my intention to draft a letter to Andrew Doyle this evening. Mr Doyle's executive office response, is it seems, as non-commital and disappointing as ever. I will endeavour to follow your example in hitting hard, in the hope that the reality starts to dawn on Audi UK that this is a BIG problem which will not go away. We are agreed, this is about safety and not money. If Audi will not take the necessary action and issue the requested assurances that design changes have been made, to restore my confidence in my car, then a buy back will unfortunately be the only acceptable resolution. I will let you know when I have submitted my email and more importantly when a response is received. Thank you again for your willingness to work together to drive this forward to what I hope will be a just conclusion.

Thank you for providing the email address for Andrew Doyle. I have notified the dealership and the Audi Escalation Team of my intention to contact him. I had hoped the threat alone might suffice, but so far not even an acknowledgement of my email.

Hi Mark, Absolutely you can copy and paste. Thank you for asking.

Which is an excellent avenue to pursue. I am considering Rip Off Britain and Watchdog as other options. In writing to Audi I have told them they are not only risking the safety of Audi drivers and their passengers, but also the safety of other road users forced to take evasive action.

I am currently in discussion with Audi UK regarding the 48v MHEV starter generator fault on my Audi A6 Allroad, which caused it to suffer a total catastrophic failure on a Swiss motorway on 6 January 2024. Just prior to joining the motorway we had descended a steep mountain pass. If the vehicle had shutdown whilst descending the pass it would have been very difficult, potentially impossible, to stop the vehicle safely. Our children were trapped in the back seats as we could not open the doors and our dog was trapped in the load space. Audi UK only accepted responsibility for the repair after a one month battle and many, many telephone conversations and emails (from me). My request to communicate in writing, has so far been ignored, with not one written response being received. The vehicle was repaired under the 'special' 7 year extended warranty. I have been informed that the part number has been changed, but they cannot confirm if there has been a design change which would prevent such a catastrophic 'out of the blue' failure from reoccurring. Due to a change in part number there will be no further warranty on this fault. My car was returned to me a week ago today and on our test drive it immediately showed a fault, albeit a different one. This time the fault advises 'P button fault, please contact workshop'. This fault was not previously apparent and we therefore do not know if it is a consequence of the catastrophic fault, or due to workshop intervention. One week later I am still waiting to hear from the dealership. We travel to the Alps several times a year and I believe this vehicle to be unfit for purpose. I have reported the vehicle as a dangerous vehicle to the Driving Standards Agency. I have received a response that acknowledges a quality concern does exist, however, further investigation had been hampered by Audi refusing to release further information. I do now have the technicians report and I will be submitting this along with other evidence and await the government departments response. I have reviewed the Audi America Technical Bulletin (kindly posted on this forum by another member) which relates to this fault and it confirms that the fault affects vehicles throughout the Audi range. I have also established that there were in fact a total of 50,000 cars in the UK affected by safety recalls for the same fault in June 2020 and October 2020. This information was obtained from the UK government website. Despite being a VW and Audi driver for over 20 years, I have totally lost faith in my car and the brand and requested a buy back and so the argument continues.......

We have reported our vehicle to the Driving Standards Agency as a dangerous vehicle. We have just provided the additional information they requested. We trust they will find this failure warrants a safety recall, wd had a narrow escape. I would urge others who encountered the Electrical Malfunction and a total immediate shutdown of their vehicle systems to do the same, this problem it seems has been present for years.

Finally, after one month without a vehicle we have received confirmation from our local Audi dealership that the alternator has failed. No news on when we can expect replacement parts to arrive. We have been offered no courtesy car and we are yet to find out if Audi will be covering the cost. An absolutely appalling attitude from Audi UK, their response to the dealerships request for goodwill is awaited......

Thank you so much for the update. I am expecting my vehicle to be delivered to the dealership on a transporter today. I have been informed by the service department that they are currently inundated with vehicles and unable to confirm the date my car will be attended to by technicians. Diagnostics have been carried out by AMAG Audi in Switzerland but apparently need to be repeated here in the UK. I have shared the Audi UK case number with the local dealership and they will be requesting a courtesy car from Audi UK but are unable to confirm if this will be granted. Why am I not surprised the sales department are more proactive than any other? I can just imagine your reaction when you received that call!! I hope you reach a positive outcome very soon. I would be grateful for an update.

I have an A6 Allroad 45TDi Quattro 68,000 miles with this same fault. The vehicle shut down suddenly on a motorway in Switzerland and is now being repatriated to the UK due to parts being on factory back order - lead time indicated was 6 weeks. The Audi main dealer in Switzerland has failed to disclose the specific nature of the fault and parts required despite repeated requests in writing. Parts shortages/cost aside, this fault raises serious safety concerns. The illumination of the amber warning light, to illumination of the red warning light was a matter of just a few minutes with no chance to exit the motorway. The consequences of this happening on a UK 'smart' motorway do not bear thinking about. The Audi dealership which sold us the vehicle advised me appointments would be available from 11 March 2024, which is totally unacceptable. After contacting Citizens Advice I called the dealership back as advised, citing the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and I was then told the car could be dropped off as soon as it arrives back in the UK. It is worrying that Audi seems very dismissive and disinterested. I have spoken to Audi UK head office and asked them to escalate this to Audi Europe, but so far I have had no success. I would be interested to hear if you have made progress. I have found details of a lawsuit in the USA relating to this issue and lots of other reports of issues. This is clearly a design issue and us absolutely not fit for purpose.