It depends. I always bought my cars from Crewe Audi (I live in Manchester/Edinburgh/Norwich) and I had them serviced there whenever possible. Over 14 years I had 9 cars I think. Sometimes just the one, sometimes my household was running as many as three. I had an issue on a 4-year PCP with an A6 allroad at three years and seven months with the S-tronic gearbox being a bit jerky. And they wanted something like £3900 to fix it. And I just said “what can you do?” Audi covered 100% of the parts cost and Crewe did the labour at 50%. So it was still £800 but a lot better than £3900. If you have any sort of relationship with them (I was active in the TT Owners Club and I was running a heavily modified TT diesel at the time so they knew me) you should be able to get a bit of goodwill out of it.
I would have definitely been happy with that outcome in your position but as you mentioned can only imagine that your loyalty and familiarity with you contributed massively.
This is the reason I do not keep cars outside of the factory warranty, especially German cars with DSG boxes, no chance.
That's exactly how I feel but this was one of those moments of... "Should be alright" but to try and avoid any potential repair costs when I bought the car it had Audi Warranty until 27/11/2020 followed by 2 Years of RAC Platinum Plus Warranty (Not that it's always worth the paper it is written on) but this was provided free by the reputable dealership.
Just to give some background, the issues I have are minor but annoying none the less.
- The brake pedal when in use developed a loud squeak, crunch to a point where you could feel it in the feed back of the pedal but thinking it was a case of needing lubrication I took it to a long time family friend who is a mechanic at his garage and he diagnosed it to be down to the Brake Servo after lubrication to the pedal it made no difference at all.
- Auto Hold is sticking on intermittingly regardless of weather quite aggressively to the point where back end squats down and I catapult away which is problematic in bumper to bumper traffic and has nearly had me re-ended a couple of times. Sometimes the brake pedal goes rock solid when it does it fully to the point where it needs manually switching off.
Now since my original post I have called Audi back, they explained my warranty expired on 27/11/2020 at
Midnight therefore I explained the fault started Friday evening which by that point your phone lines are closed and that I called Saturday and was promised a call back which never happened so with servicing closed Sunday I called Monday to explain my fault and got told again warranty has expired which I disputed with having warranty right up until midnight according to them but I questioned what use is it having warranty until
Midnight if you aren't contactable and when contacted a short period after the date your response is it has expired? This is all with a nice attitude but obviously doing my upmost whilst being polite to try and avoid any repairs bills if I go down the route of taking it to Audi.
She spoke to the service manager who explained that I will need to pay Diagnostic fee's and it will be down to Audi Extended Warranty to see whether or not they will contribute or pay for the entire bill whilst considering the circumstances and fault... I spoke with Audi Extended Warranty who then explained that is how it works but they mentioned that if the dealer did want to approve the repair work they could do so.
This was booked in with Audi closer to my original post and as there first available appointment with a courtesy car was 16th December I booked it with the intention of using my RAC Warranty in the meantime and if all problems resolved cancel my appointment. My car is currently with an Independent RAC Approved Garage who called me yesterday to explain he had contacted a previous colleague/friend who currently works as an Audi Technician for some guidance.
Issue 1 - They have ordered a Brake Servo and will be fitting today/tomorrow
Issue 2 - The mechanic explained all 4 callipers are used during Auto Hold and he believes the callipers are sticking on one side but due to their diagnostic limitations he believes it will be a trip to Audi to rectify. (What are people's thoughts on this? They are an experienced garage with a good reputation who actually sell endless BMW's / Audi's / Mercs etc so for them to say it may need to go to Audi it's abit of a worry as for something so small I imagine it would be an inconvenient bill.
Would welcome peoples opinions and how they would proceed? Ultimately my goal is to have it repaired and pay nothing but worse case scenario I accept it's not brand new.
I bought this vehicle 4 months ago with an RAC Inspection and 2 Year Warranty and have taken it to a garage for warranty work which does all pre-sale work for the dealer I bought from to only to be told it may need to go to Audi... I'm tempted to call them and ask there advise as a last resort in my bid of avoiding any repair costs, perhaps they may not want to know but worth a try if they can point me in the right direction to an RAC Approved Garrage who may be able to fix the Auto Hold as they now use someone else since Covid Started due to demand.