Mark2

Steph, the guy I have known for years at Bath Audi is Sean. He has taken over Simon’s role until he is replaced. He has asked if I could let him have your name he can speak to Bristol first. If you do not want to do that call Bath and ask for Sean, tell him yiu know Mark Hayward with the RS6. Good luck

Steph, that is news to me about Simon Gray, however I have dealt with Monmotors for 20+ years and I will try to get someone else for you.

Simon was very helpful and even gave me the email address if Audi Executive to complain. I am happy if you mention me.

Mine failed in February this year, contact Simon Gray at Bath Audi.

Does the A3 have the mild hybrid 48v/12v system? If it does then it should be covered by the 7 year extension. My RS6 was repaired by Mon Motors who own Bristol Audi but at Audi Bath.

Hi Steph, you should get confirmation from Audi UK about the warranty extn if not I could get your dealer to contact mine . Audi uk paid for my vehicle recovery , alternator and loan car my battery was ok once it was put on charge.

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.