New Audi Trouble

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18 Nov 2002
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551
my parents bought an Audi A3 from an independant dealer 3 weeks ago and after a few hundred miles we have noticed a knocking from underneath the car, a faulty passenger airbag light and a engine management fault light.

after taking it to Audi yesterday they have got back to us saying it has a faulty cambelt tensioner, a faulty engine speed sensor, a cracked anti-roll bar (the source of the knocking) and a few other niggles.

This is a £1700 job to put right. the warrantee provided by the dealer covers £500 of any repairs.

has anyone been in a similar situation? should we ask the dealer to cover the costs? are these things that the dealer should have checked?
 
No way those faults have developed over 200 miles. They were obviously there whilst the car sat on the forecourt.

Tell them where they can stick their £1700 bill.
 
If it's from a dealer, you do have more legal protections than you otherwise would, so it may be worth seeking advice from trading standards or similar as to exactly what your rights are.

With regards to the warranty, does it cover £500 worth of work, or £500 per fault, because that would make a difference...
 
i'd like to know how you know those 3 jobs dont add up to 1700 quid when the OP didnt give a full breakdown on the work carried out (quote and a few other niggles)


tbh if your looking at cam belt tensioner an ARB and a sensor or 2 plus whatever reset to cure the airbag light issue factor in some dealer rate labour and i'd be expecting 4 figures minimum
you obviously never bought parts from an audi main dealer :)


i have an A4 and know how much they like to bend owners over and treat them rough
 
parts and labour are definately expensive but the service has been top notch. they actually called back exactly when they said they would. better than any other dealer ive ever experienced.
 
sormicoft said:
i'd like to know how you know those 3 jobs dont add up to 1700 quid when the OP didnt give a full breakdown on the work carried out (quote and a few other niggles)


tbh if your looking at cam belt tensioner an ARB and a sensor or 2 plus whatever reset to cure the airbag light issue factor in some dealer rate labour and i'd be expecting 4 figures minimum
you obviously never bought parts from an audi main dealer :)

Nope and I wont ever buy an Audi either. :)
All I hear is grief.
 
ok well......the dealer has offered to either give us our money back or to pay for the car to be fixed.

now other than these faults we love the car to bits and its in great condition.

should we bite his hand off for the refund thinking these faults are the sign of having bought a pup? then go looking for another car that we wont know if we will have trouble with.

Or should we get it repaired leaving us with a car we know has certain things that have recently been replaired?

what is the more sensible option?
 
What Audi was it? (year wise and engine)

I can't imagine it being a new one. Audi/BMW are the only vehicles I rarely here complaints about and when their are, usually they provide an excellent service.
 
For an ARB to crack in half it must have either been faulty from day 1 (weak) or had a BIG whack!

All of the items you have listed could become faulty on any car, however, I wouldn't buy a car with all those faults.
 
As it's a faulty cambelt tensioner, I'm not surprised it's so expensive... I think the whole of the front bumper assembly has to come off to get to the cambelt - which takes hours. At £90-£100 an hour dealer labour charges, I'm not surprised it was so much.

A friend of mine had a new A4 estate back in 2003. It went in for it's first proper service a year or two later. Cost somewhere around £1400 if memory serves, all for stupid things. What took the biscuit was the dealer trying it on with the windscreen wipers. My mate knew the wipers were shot, and had a friend in the local audi parts place, so bought some genuine Audi wipers for about £25 or so, and fitted them on - literally a week before the service. He had a phone call at work the day the car was in: "Sorry sir, but your windscreen wipers are very worn, we'll need to replace them... £60 for the fronts and £40 for the back one." "Sorry," said my mate "I replaced them last week." "Sorry sir, we can only recommend you use genuine Audi wipers - we'll need to change them." "I did use genuine Audi wipers - got them from parts place X, they were part numbers XYZ, and only cost me £25 - not the £100 you seem to want to charge me".........long pause........ "I'm sorry sir, I seem to be confusing your car with another customer's, your windscreen wipers are fine!"

Thieving so-and-sos.....
 
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