This is a 100% honest safety warning to all parents who own an recent model Audi Q5 or Q7 that is made before 2017. We are long time Audi owners and were planning to lease the new 4 door A5. My wife's 2015 Audi Q5 2.0 is our family SUV and we thought it would be a good choice for our family.

Well last month my 4 year old daughter got 3rd degree burns on her thigh when she was helping her Mom unload groceries from the back. Our entire family heard the painful scream when her leg touched the 300F steel exhaust that is not recessed back enough to be remotely safely. 3rd degree burns cause permanent scaring and color distortion. I'm very upset at VW/Audi for this lack in safety and this is just another reason why tailpipe will thankfully be obsolete in less than 20 years.

Why did VW/Audi engineers design such an unnecessarily dangerous exhaust purely for aesthetics? Mini Copper has a recall for this same matter and I have submitted a case to the National Highway Transportation Safety Agency who is examining this official case.

Has anyone one else been burned by their Audi's exhaust?

I hope that no one else gets burned and we would have chosen a different model or even brand had we known how easy it is to get burned by the Q5 exhaust. The 2017 models are now updated and have a safer design that has an outside aluminum housing that cools quickly and then the ugly steel exhaust is recessed back several inches -- not making any contact to the aluminum so there is minimal heat transfer.

Sincerely,
A Loving Father