2012 Audi Backup Camera announcement
 

Here is a bulletin from Audi of America regarding the backup camera for the 2012 models (Q5 and others). Per the bulletin, it appears that the camera shortage will affect a few of the final 2011's that are built as well. No timetable on availability of parts.

Thanks for the Info!!!

Thanks for Posting....I Think
 

I'll be calling our dealer Monday.

Our deal for a dealer-swapped factory order bank MY11 went final on the day of the memo, and I suppose it's possible that the order might not have been entered until the next day 5/3.

So, if I read this correctly, it means that as our order was not "customer sold" before 4/26, our order including NAV plus rearview camera will not be filled as ordered, and will be "adjusted" or "measures will be offered to impacted customers". However, the first sentence in the second paragraph of the memo can be interpreted a couple of ways. Mr. Optimist says it's only a portion of the production run in weeks 20-21 that is affected. Mr. Pessimist says that the "small volume of MY2011 vehicle orders" refers to the entire MY2011 production run, and that the cutoff is basically the production runs beginning with weeks 20-21. Mr. Pessimist seems to have the edge here.

What's interesting about this is that our dealer sent an e-mail this week indicating that our car would be "shipped at the end of this month" and "here" in the first week of July. So they must have been aware of this memo, but haven't told me about this issue. Is that because our car was actually produced between 5/3 and 5/15? Sure hope so because it looks like anything produced after May 15 is subject to the camera component constraints.

Y'all stay tuned. :confused:

Thanks! That's more info than I would have gotten from my dealer!

Clarification
 

I checked my paperwork, and the deal for our MY11 was finalized on the day after the memo was dated. So this should be an interesting discussion with the dealer tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Cabo,

Yeah keep us posted as I for one am very interested on how they'll play this out with you. Best of luck!

Rob

I hope I didn't throw any dealers under and get them in trouble!

:D

Let us know how it goes Cabo. Ultimately I think it's better to have the information than be surprised at delivery. The conversation would not go well.

R8 will be the only car getting back up camera.

Imagine driving a $80k A8 without back up camera. That will be like driving an econobox without radio.

That's not accurate - all cars that order a back-up camera will be getting a back-up camera. R8 is the only model getting one straight out of the factory; all other models will get theirs installed at dealerships when available.

Still Awaiting Word
 

Well devx, according to the memo I think if anybody threw anyone under the bus it was Audi, not the dealers, at least not yet. Waiting on return call from dealer.

As far as I'm concerned, the Messenger lives!!