Mark2

I am trying to negotiate a 10 year Extended warranty. Whe n it goes again I get my spare fitted immediately and the warranty replacement becomes my spare, that way I always have in stock the latest model. Now I know what to look out for my wife and I can manage any future problems as otherwise it is a great car.

I have bitten the bullet and ordered a spare starter/generator for £1100 which is going to sit on my shelf so at least when it goes again there is no delay. i just need to agree with Audi that they reimburse me when I need to have it fitted under the warranty extn.

Not once have they responded to me to tell me they are aware of the problem and are working to sort it out and this is what they are doing and all owners should expect a fix by a certain date, as you would expect. Instead very sorry what compensation can we pay you to go away.

I do not think the part is the problem, it is the design.in my opinion this Starter/genertor does two things. It kick starts the engine after being static in traffic and then charges the batteries. I think if yiu spend a lot of time in stop start then this will wear out more quickly.If it was a quality issue Audi would be doing a recall. As it is they are burying their heads in the sand and trying to tough it out.

Sorry to hear this yet again but not surprising. Starter / generators are now on back order so that shows Audi have a world wide problem and do not have the spares, so looks like you could be off the road for a few months. In my case I made enough fuss , although my car was out of warranty, to get Audi to pay the roadside recovery charges and provide a courtesy car until the car was repaired. My current situation is that although Audi acknowledge this failure puts driver and passengers into a dangerous situation they will not commit to a recall or software upgrade. In their view these cars are ‘old’ and the tech dept is working on stuff for 5-10 years time not messing about with old stuff so we are on our own. I am still negotiating compensation but they will not warranty this part for parts, labour, recovery and courtesy car for 10 years as a special deal. They may be able to offer extended warranty free. So I am thinking I will order a spare alternator and have it sitting in my garage, take the extended warranty and get breakdown cover so then I can be sure of getting assistance and repair.

I have now received a reply from Audi as expected the last sentence about customer safety however does not ring true- Thank you for your email. As advised, we have passed on your thoughts and suggestions to our design team regarding the alert messages on the dashboard. Often changes will be made off the back of customer comments and feedback. We cannot comment on when this change will come into effect as it will be reviewed at many levels but will be relayed back. We do not influence product development or suggestions, the best we can do is feed this back, which we have done. Any escalations to Audi Germany or the PA of the CEO's will be redirected back to the UK team, i.e the Executive Office as your vehicle is UK-registered and, therefore will fall under our jurisdiction. I can assure you not being able to provide an agreed timescale for this change does not translate to Audi not taking passenger safety seriously. I hope this clarifies our position on the matter.

I do sympathise with the dilemma. I have a similar one of whether to continue C8 ownership or try and get Audi to buy it back. My conclusion is that I now know enough to manage the next failure. The early unrelated warning signs like the Sport Diff fault light are indicative that you need to switch off heated seats and anything not essential. Then you can drive for about an hour to safety. Maybe put the 12v battery which is in the O/S rear side compartment of the boot, on charge. This could allow you to drive to an Audi dealer before catastrophic failure. Audi have been very keen to compensate me so I am going to try for a 15 year Alternator parts, labour, recovery charges and courtesy car to cover future failures. Not ideal but the car is otherwise excellent but wish I had not traded my old RS6 in which had 235,000 miles on it.

I am backing Audi into a corner as they are refusing to answer direct questions like ‘what are you doing about this?’ . My latest response below- Feranza, I am sorry but you are ignoring my direct questions and giving me woolly answers which is unacceptable. As this is a serious safety issue which can affect driver and passengers , acknowledged by you, it is not unreasonable to expect Audi design team to implement a design change. All I am asking is for confirmation that the design team will be undertaking this. You clearly have direct access to the design team , as you have fed back my comments. Therefore you are able to ask them directly when they will be undertaking a fix. You also have access directly to Herr Dollner and can ask him the same question. Failing to provide such a simple answer could be construed as Audi having no interest in driver and passenger safety, which I am sure is not the case. I await your positive response.

I certainly agree that Audi should cover this under the 7 year warranty. Although I have taken out an extended warranty my repair, vehicle recovery and courtesy car were covered by Audi. i do urge you to write to Audi UK to complain so we can keep the pressure up.

I now have an update from Audi UK and my response is below, by way of an update: Dear Mr Hayward I hope all is well? Thank you for your email. Thank you for sharing the experiences of other Audi owners and taking time to review this in your own time. While I fully appreciate your experience, I am unable to predict future faults of the car. I would like to assure you that we have fully taken on board your comments and viewpoints regarding your most recent experience. Please rest assured, your thoughts and suggestions will be fed back to our design team regarding the alert messages on the dashboard. Often changes are made off the back of customer comment and feedback. While we are unable to change what has happened, we can definitely restore your faith by offering a gesture to recognise your experience. Therefore, please can you advise what we can do for you? Please note, any escalations to Audi Germany will be redirected back to the UK team, i.e the Executive Office as your vehicle is UK registered, therefore will faull under our jurisdiction. I await your response. Dear Feranza, Thank you for your response but I am still not getting a straight answer. Firstly, I do not know if there is a misunderstanding but I am not expecting you to predict future faults in my car. I accept faults and components fail from time to time. My whole argument is the lack of warning from the vehicle to the driver. My question remains unanswered ‘ Why does Audi think it unnecessary to provide a ‘no charge’ indication? You indicate that Audi UK have taken on board my comments and suggestions but the car is designed in Germany. Can you tell me if Markus Duesmann is still with the Group or has Gernot Dollner taken his place ? Have my comments been sent to either of these two gentlemen? From what I understand there maybe up to 50,000 vehicle in the UK which could suffer similar faults. If this is the case what is the Board of Management responsible for Technical Development and Product Lines in Audi AG doing about it, or going to do about it? You tell me that even if I write to the Board of Management my communication will come back to Audi UK, because my vehicle is UK registered. However these faults are appearing in Audis all over the world which were designed in Germany. Until I have a positive response that Audi AG know about this and are taking positive action I consider that direct communication with Audi AG is the only way of obtaining straight answers. Thank you for continuing to ask me what financial gesture would placate me, however that is secondary to obtaining a positive answer that AUDI AG are developing a fix which will be available within a reasonable timescale. In the meantime it would be appreciated if you could provide me with the email address for the PA of the person who now has Board responsibility.

Well done, saves me embarrassment, got Markus from 2023 Who’s Who in the motor industry. I will change my request to Herr Dollner

I have now found the man responsible- Marcus Duesmann Board of Management responsible for Technical Development and Product Lines at Audi AG. Am trying to get his contact address.

I am very pleased we are singing from the same hymn sheet. It was my dealer who told me to do to Andrew Doyle and at least yiu get replies in writing. I am a bit like a Rottweiler, I do not let go. The more owners we can get to join us the better.

I now have a reply from Audi UK Executive office see below and my response Dear Mr Hayward I hope all is well? Thank you for your patience while we have reviewed your case. I can completely appreciate the points you have raised regarding the warning messages on your vehicle and the situation you and your family were placed in. I can assure you, any of us including myself would have felt the same way if were in that situation. While I apprecate we are unable to predict what could have happened as a result of the faults on the vehicle, I can definitely sympathise with your viewpoints and thought behind what could have happened. When a certain issue arises with the vehicle, we have assistance in place such as our breakdown services, the AA. Please rest assured, your thoughts and suggestions will be fed back to our design team regarding the alert messages on the dashboard. Often changes are made off the back of customer comment and feedback. I appreciate every point that has been raised and cannot apologise enough for the situation you experienced. While we are unable to change what has happened, we can definitely restore your faith by offering a gesture to recognise your experience. There is no way to place a monetary gesture to describe what would be adequate here. Before I can position a gesture from my side, please can you confirm what your expectations are or if you have any suggestions you want me to explore? I await your response. Thank you for your response. I am pleased that you and Audi UK appreciate the dangerous situation that the lack of warning caused to my family and me. I note you appreciate what could have happened as a result of the Starter/generator failure but this did actually happen to an A6 Allroad , I reprint a summary of her story below, pasted from Audi Owners Forum- Posted Friday at 03:58 PM 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. 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....... I have suggested this owner writes to you but as you can see the report describes what I advised could happen. Although you suggest that some form of monetary compensation would help to my mind this is secondary. I clearly asked the following- At no time did the MMI system warn that the battery was NOT charging, there is no such warning message. How can this be? For the last 100 years of car manufacture a red ign light illuminating was probably the first ever car component failure indicator, then ammeters were fitted then my last RS6 had a voltage meter. Either way for almost 100 years drivers have been advised that their battery is or is not being charged. At no time was I given any reasonable time indication that within X minutes the car would be undriveable. WHY DOES AUDI THINK THAT IS NOW UNNESSARY TO PROVIDE A ‘NO CHARGE’ INDICATION? As am Audi owner since the 1990’s I have always had faith in the brand to provide a trustworthy, quality, well-engineered product. To regain that trust I am looking for a recall where you install a software fix so the MMI system gives the drover adequate warning of component failure which could lead to catastrophic failure. Can you please tell me if and when Audi will undertake this? If you are unable or unwilling and are happy to knowingly allow owners to drive unsafe vehicles then I too would appreciate a buy back.

Well done, I am working on Matt Allright BBC consumer rights journalist. Just sent him Cally’ s story