A.U.D.I Service (Long)

[ultradub]

Absolute Unadulterated Deliquence of Integrity

I am not turned off by the A8, yet I am truly dejected that Audi seems to still think and behave as an upscale VW. And although they hope to establish a benchmark in luxury with the all new A8 and bolster the Audi brand to compete with MB and BMW, perhaps they should recognize that some of us gave them the benefit of the doubt long before the "all new A8".

[highlands555]

With an expensive, complex car like the A8, the dealers and AoA should be a lot more helpful and responsive than they are. This is a real betrayal of their loyal customers.

[barryl]

Hello,

I don't think you can really generalize so much about
Audi the car manufacturer and any particular Audi dealer.

Like all other brands, I'm sure there some good Audi
dealers, and some bad Audi dealers. I know for a fact
that some Porsche and BMW dealers are dishonest,
cheat, treat customers poorly, etc. I also know that
some dealers are great and go above and beyond what
is expected.

You need to find one of the good dealers.

Barry

[fusilier]

Ultradub,

Your dancing the grey area there on the warranty service where a customer complains about a nuisance noise in an otherwise sound car. Its subjective on what is or isn't acceptable noise. And much of the dealership's willingness to hunt down and find such noises has more to do with the customer's attitude than warranty policy.

So after a dealership replaces a transmission which is major work, and then subsequently refuses to replace a right front axle. They are essentially telling you they no longer want your business. Even though to this point, you haven't paid for anything. I.e. "bring it back when something really breaks"

I'm not saying your wrong, but you have alienated that dealership. Regardless of whether its Audi BMW, or MB or anything else, the workers there need to feel appreciated and that their work matters and is making the customer happy. Nothing more frustrating than working extensively on a car and the problem isn't fixed and the customer gets more upset. They haven't messed up your car and you have some new very expensive tidbits on it. Be happy. :-)

One thing about the A8. And this should apply to anyone on this forum. Whenever someone's car has a mystery noise or something like that. Everyone should bring the problem up here prior to taking it to the dealership. Here's why. Dealerships see very few A8s which means for the most part it will the very first time a worker is trying to fix the problem. Most techs have not done specific D2 training. So they're guessing. Here we have several hundred motorhead A8 owners who know their cars.

IMHO, replacing the transmission was a $$$$ MISTAKE and probably has blown the funds for any subsequent mystery "warranty" work that AoA is willing to pay for. I bet AoA is 100% behind the dealer on this. What is that? A 10,000 dollar item including labor? Half-shafts have four wear items on each one (2 boots, 2 joints), I would have started there myself and also done the wheel bearing replacement prior to replacing the transmission. Probably new bushings on that side as well.

Good luck with the car. Sounds like its okay except for that one mystery noise which very well might be the right front axle.

[PaulW]

I agree with some of your points, but come on, they replaced the transmission for a noise that was coming from somewhere else?

I get a lot of emails from people with problems on their A8's that are not posted here. Yesterday somebody told me that their instrument cluster was replaced under warranty and it no longer backlit during daytime, the lights need to be turned on to get the back light to come on.

He asked the dealer to fix it, what did they say? Oh, we can't, there was somebody who tried to sue somebody 'cause they thought the lights were on during the day when going through a tunnel because the dash was lit.

WTF is this? Every Audi comes from the factory with backlit dashes.....come on. They probably just don't know how to do the adaptation using the VAG 1552.

Dealers for the most part are nothing more than a bunch of techs with bunny ears on performing an "Easter Egg Hunt" on your car when something really needs to be troubleshot.

I'm not saying they have to fix everything the first time, nobody can do that, but they should most of the time. In my older years, I usually fix stuff the first time with the right parts and nothing more.

My GF has an A4, she doesn't know a thing about cars, so she relies on the dealer to fix it for her. Good thing it's only been two coil packs to date, and they know how to replace those things!

pw

[subtitled]

[subtitled]

so far I have tried 3 dealers around the chicago area to service a problem that I have had since day one. none of them are able to fix this problem and most of them hint at telling me that I should come back when my A8 is on a flatbed!

I agree that dealers in general are out to make a buck, but AoA should be responsible for monitoring these dealers that represent the cars audi makes.

who wants to buy a $70k car if they can not trust the service department and another dealer is 500 miles away?

[fusilier]

Somewhere along the line, AoA or the dealership authorized a transmission replacement which with hindsight we know was a mistake. A costly mistake. I don't know if this was the dealership's Idea or the owner's suggestion.

All I am saying is that people including the dealership and owners should be as knowledgeable as possible before going off half cock on a bizarre repair strategy.

Owner's do not need to know how to fix a car, but at the same time. If they don't know what is wrong with the car, they shouldn't make any recommendations on what should be done to it. In this instance, the owner is questioning the dealership's service department's conclusions so obviously there is a conflict there. If your going to say the owner doesn't need to know how to fix a car, then how can you state the owner shouldn't question what the service department says? Thats a contradiction in thinking.

To be honest, we all know that people bring their cars in for warranty service and attempt to get certain things replaced for "free". Whether or not its actually fixing anything is a different story. I would not have authorized replacing the tranny before trying less expensive more obvious solutions so as not to burn my bridges with the dealership and AoA.

Not knowing the actual extent of the noise really makes this very argumentative. If 9 out of 10 people don't notice the noise and there is no effect on handling then the problem is that much harder to diagnose. The A8 is pretty quiet already so the smallest noises tend to be exagerated to levels that someone in an A4 would find well under normal. Its all very subjective.

I look at it like a doctor would. You got people dying from gunshot wounds and then you have someone complaining about a slight buzzing sound from their right ear.. There is nothing clearly broken in Ultradub's car. Very hard thing to authorize 10,000 dollars+ in repairs for a noise.
Not knowing the actual extent of the noise really makes this very argumentative.

I'm still sitting on the fence on this one. I'm not sure Ultradub or the Dealer is right. But I clearly don't see the dealership doing anything wrong in this case cause I haven't been in his car or heard the noise personally. Can't comment on that. But the dealership has spent significant energy and funds and the minor problem persists. Either way, the chasing down of typical road noises can be a bad precedent to set.

[subtitled]

would be that they are incompetent on making their own diagnosis. sounds like a problem with the dealer. I do not see any reason this could be blamed on the customer. not this time and ever. most of us here on AW are interested in diagnosing and fixing problems, but the majority of audi owners are only interested in driving a car that functions as advertised. the bottom line is that these audi service departments are just incompetent and there is no excuse for it.

[fusilier]

Still not 100% convinced its an incompetent tech or dealership. I've had my wranglings with AoA and Audi service before. BTDT.

It could very well be a bad tire on the right side.. Don't know

But I see a major investment from Audi in the car and problem, not just the typical run around that a bad dealership would pull. Seems "fishy".

on an aside,
I have a good stead with my local dealership. If I went in there and said something like "My brake rotors are acting funny." If they drive the car and thought the brakes were fine. They'd still replace the rotors cause I asked them too. #1 because they know if I'm complaining its not nit-picky stuff, and #2 they're a good dealership and I have 4 audis and am a repeat customer.

But If I came back a week later and said "my rotors are still acting funny" I think they'd get a little pissed. So what should they do now, start replacing calipers, pads, the whole setup? See the tangle one gets in when a vague problem is presented and recommendations are made? At some point it becomes abuse of the system which was really meant to protect people from real mechanical failures.