2012 A8L Audi needs to admit and RESOLVE some LEMONS

Is Audi building a few or more LEMONS and attempting to outrun their flawed automobiles with marketing dollars and by sweeping the (hopefully few) flawed machines under the rug?

A search of these AUDI forums disclose a number of late model A8L vehicles with similar problems and a lack of any candid acknowledgement by Audi that they intend to stand behind their product and make good on their promises and warrantees.

Apparently, Audi America is instead intimidating dealers, directing them to not touch the car or refusing to pay them for warrantee repairs unless they buy into the deceit that is part of the game of concealing rather than admitting and resolving these recurring problems.

I suspect that these problem may result from there being two classes of vehicle coming of the A8 assembly lines in Neckarsulm, Germany. The vehicles sold to Diplomats and dignitaries, limousine services, top Audi executives and engineers may receive vehicles built when the assembly line may move at one (slower) speed or the more awake shift employees, and the rest of us, well, we get a mixed collection of manufacturing oversights and defects, hopefully not too many in any one vehicle.

I suspect there is also a schism between the engineers, mechanics and the 'bean counters' as the integrity of the engineers and mechanics would almost certainly be willing to admit and resolve these nagging problems. What appears to have happened unfortunately, is that the manipulator/managers have decided they can disguise the flaws, claiming "as designed" and suppress any information which would cause buyers to thing twice before buying into a flawed brand.

At specific issue here is a new vehicle purchased from Audi of Fairfield, in Connecticut last summer under the Audi European Delivery Program, delivered at the Ingolstadt, Germany factory in June, 2012 and subsequently driven around Europe and shipped to the USA and Connecticut. The vehicle was delivered in the USA in November, 2012 at Fairfield, Connecticut.

Repair requests have been made in Berlin, Amsterdam, Fairfield and in Vermont. As of the beginning of February, 2013 Audi of America has now directed that two different Audi dealers NOT service or "touch" the car to implement any of the needed repairs. Audi of America appears to be gaming the Lemon Law system of requirements where a car has to be documented for three or four visits to the dealer to attempt repairs prior to invoking a state Lemon Law. This might also explain why several dealers in Europe had serviced the car and were requested in writing to address some of these issues yet nothing was documented which would satisfy the lemon law requirements. Dirty pool!

In summary:
Seat sensor - airbag deactivation
Outside mirror heat not working
tranny hard downshift when slowing
Radio station refresh
Cell phone loss of pairing - persistent
Console rattle
Door close/locks malfunction when cold
Clunk (repeatable) on acceleration from stop
MMI system fails to play .wav and .flac files
Interior headliner lights flicker
Front suspension rattles on rough road
Seat belt warnings failure intermittent

Issues identified in detail:

Front passenger seat disables airbag protection intermittently when 115 pound person is seated. Recurring issue since June.

Mysterious knock/clunk behind the dash evident on every acceleration from a complete stop. Probably motor mount or strut tower yet buried deep behind the engine. Recurring issue since June.

Since transmission program change in September, prior to US delivery, hard downshift when slowing and when engaging REVERSE on a hill. Worse than original programming yet CT dealer and Audi America refuse to document what software version was installed at European delivery and what change was made in Connecticut after arrival in USA. Recurring issue since November.

Central 'touch' locking fails when weather is cold repeatedly during December and January. Recurring issue since November.

Radio stations on MMI do not refresh when traveling from city to city, requiring changing to frequency mode selection and then dialing across the entire band to locate a station. Recurring issue since November.

Bluetooth pairing with cell phone fails intermittently approximately 50% of the time, despite having replaced phone with an older model, for one on the Audi approved list. Cannot re-attempt pairing while driving due to safety interlock. Recurring issue since November despite 'software upgrade' which seems to be the catchall phrase without actually documenting what issues are designed to be fixed by each 'upgrade' as is common practice in the computer , photo and network hardware industry.

The MMI system fails to play .wav and .flac files despite assurances by the salesman that this functionality was part of the MMI as it was in a prior documented software versions. It makes no sense whatsoever to pay for a premium B&O sound system only to discover that the system only plays MP3 and other compressed files. Audi America staff went to the extreme to asked the salesman to search his email history for a paper trail of the (verbal) assurances and then had the salesman mysteriously forget and now denies having ever made such assurances. Dirty pool indeed.

Outside mirrors heating fails to melt ice or clear fog.

Persistent Vibration / rattle in center console dashboard.

Interior headliner side lights flicker when set to dimmest level.

Front (left?) control arm(s) or strut rattles on rough road surfaces

Car 'Whoops" when driving over any bump or speed bump after start. Diminished after warm-up

Seat belt reminder warning sounds only work intermittently.

All in all, the vehicle incorporates very impressive and even amazing design and engineering. The sad and inexcusable disappointment is the stance taken by Audi of America in their efforts to hide, disguise, deny and then frustrate repair attempts. Brad Hollister to be specific, is preventing this Lemon A8L from coming to the attention of CEO Scott Keogh.

This is so contrary to the fine tradition and integrity of the AUDI brand that some heads should certainly roll.

[more about the numerous European Delivery Program fiasco to follow]

 

Have had this since delivery, and no resolution - is there any known issue related to this, or a published 'fix' yet?

2012 A8L (second Audi)

 

Update - was in for 15k service today. Advisor said he'd check TSB's for whooping noise.

Picked up car, service performed, pollen filter/oil/etc. NOTHING noted on TSB's, claimed noise might be tires or suspension and deemed 'normal'

Not surprised.

AudiUSA took three years and 9 tries to fix our 'mechatronic' problem on the '06 (after I wrote the President of Audi USA directly), so I guess I'll give 'em a couple more years to admit and find a fix for the whoop noise. It's not a huge problem, but one wonders why dealers have no information if this is being reported by owners.

 

Yep, always blame the dealer and us incompetant technicians. It's all our fault. Always is.

 

Um, no...did you read my post? Not sure if this was a response to my post or the original post, but the question was why dealers did not have any information on this from AudiUSA, never said a word about competence or technicians.

The folks who work on my Audi vehicles do a great job. The bigger problem is the lack of info from AudiUSA to the dealer level.

 

Yes and I do apologize. My comment was not called for. Just had a particularly trying day in the Audi shop and I shouldn't take it out on others. I do read on here quite often however, how all us Audi techs are incompetent, crooks, "The Stealership" etc and it gets to a person after awhile. Again, I apologize.
We fight every day simply due to lack of information on the product, diagnosis procedures, etc.... It just isn't there for us to see. So often we have to take time to make a Technical Assistance Contact, send it, then call, wait on hold to talk to an engineer to get the information needed (and we get paid zero for the time spent doing that) It's embarrassing when the customer knows about things before we do. We're on flat-rate and if it takes 2 hours to do a job that pays 1 hour, because it took us an hour to find the information to properly do that job, we worked an hour for free. Multiply that times every job in a week and it comes down to working 40-45 hours, getting paid for 25-30 and working the other 15 hours for free and the attitude goes right out the window. That's the biggest reason I'm going to an indy shop sometime in August and I guarantee my attitude will improve 1000%! Sorry, I digress.
Hope you get the concerns with your A8 resolved soon. Honestly, we've seen very few problems with the new A8 models,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,so far.

 

Did the OP ever get resolution on any of these issues?

We still have the annoying 'whoop' noise, and no one seems to be able to know what to do about it.

Probably will be our last Audi. Love the brand, love the car, but crap like this is inexcusable.