Re: Audi of America, are you listening?

[johnc@together.net]

Osman:

>     It seems that Audi is not very interested in improving parts on
late
> model Audis. How many parts have we identified that systematically
fail?

yeah, i am ALL over this!  my A4 is a high quality vehicle, lots of
attention to detail, good engineering etc.  however, it seems that
whenever
a problem IS discovered, Audi does some cost-benefit calculation and
decides
that reengineering and issuing a superceding part is too much trouble.
so
you have known problems, like:
    heated mirrors burn out over and over and over
    turbo-intercooler hose blows out
    wastegate rod breaks from heat

ok, so for the last one, they have a fix - an extra heat shield.  but
general Audi dealer reputation is that unless mine breaks, they won't do
the
fix proactively.  and reputation is that mentioning that you know
anything
about problems like this is likely to get you more trouble from the
dealer
than you had in the first place.  and if the rod breaks, you need a
whole
new turbo so better hope you're under warranty...

so here i am, a potential loyal owner, HOPING that the car will have a
significant mech failure so I can get the fix before it goes out of
warranty.  to continue your comparison with other makers, this would not

happen with my Acuronda, in fact that dealer covered a couple things
that
were not covered by warranty with 'good faith' exceptions.  and before
someone starts flaming, no i'm not going to trade my A4 in for a Civic
or
anything, it's just the point that Audi doesn't get the Cust Serv thing.