Audi Customer DIS-Service/Warning/timing belts

[RM]

Let me preface this by saying I love Audi cars. I own them, I sell them and
I repair them. I'd never consider anything else when it comes to all wheel
drive no matter how good of a deal it was. However, what happened this
morning was proof that VW/Audi of America has allot of work to do in the
public relations business.

A good customer of mine had her car towed in yesterday. It's a 1998 A4q 1.8
turbo with **62k miles** on it. The timing belt had stripped, effectively
bending valves. The car is a non-tiptronic automatic and the lady drives
very sensibly. Audi has a 3 year 50k mile powertrain warranty, and
recommends that the timing belt be replaced every **105k miles.**  My
customer bought this car from us a little over a year ago. We had bought it
directly from Audi Financial Services, Audi's lease company.

I called the local Audi dealer first. They told me that they have been
seeing a rash of timing belt/tensioner failures with all 1.8t's and 2.0 VW's
that use the new style automatic tensioners. The told me to call Audi NA and
explain what happened and sometimes they offer assistance. I then called
Audi's toll free customer center and was greeted by a lady. I calmly
explained the situation. I presented it in a polite way, didn't ask for any
help and didn't demand a thing. I had expected this approach would yield
some sort of condolence at the very least. Maybe by chance I'd be asked what
they could do to help? The first words I heard were, "tell your customer the
first problem is she bought the car from an independant car dealer." She
went on to explain that if she had purchased the car from a legit. Audi
dealer, that Audi might have offered compensation for the early failure of
the timing belt, even though she was not the original owner. How about
that....

I explained that the belt would have failed no matter who sold the car, or
who worked on it. I also said the local Audi dealer has seen an unusual
number of failed belts as well. "Well sir, apparently your customer didn't
follow proper maintenance procedures, or you failed to notice that the belt
was about to break".  That sent me over the edge. I went on to tell her
we've been in the Audi and VW repair business since 1975, I'm Bosch and ASE
certified and that I personally inspected the belt 6 months ago, and now,
and it still looks fine. There was no indication that this belt was going to
fail and furthermore, based on Audi's printed claim that these belts do not
need replacment unti the 105k mile mark, why should I suspect it? She huffed
there is nothing Audi will do. My last words were... "It's not wonder people
buy Lexus and BMW's, their customer service is allot better.