AudiWorld Forums - More on Defective 2004 Audi A8 L(emon)

For greenie and others who asked for updates:

Further news and bugs:

7/29/03

I received a call from Sabrina Burrow, Service Consultant at Prestige Imports in North Miami, Florida (the selling dealer). She said car was being made ready for pickup later today.

I asked her about the repair to the headlight leveling sensor performed on 7/17/03-7/18/03. I asked whether only one sensor was replaced or whether both sensors were replaced. She replied that only the part that had actually failed was replaced.

I replied to her that on 7/24/03, in a telephone conversation with Mr. Ron Hankley, Audi area representative, he informed me that Audi had determined that these sensors were defective in manufacture and that Audi was replacing them on all new vehicles as the cars were received at the ports of entry.

Ms. Burrow responded that Prestige Imports had no authority from Audi to replace any parts other than those which actually failed in service and could not make replacement of the other sensor as they had received no directive to this effect from Audi of America.

Therefore, Audi of America and Prestige Imports are knowingly returning the vehicle to me with a part known to be likely be defective, even after one of them failed on my vehicle.

7/29/03, 1 PM:

I received a telephone call from Ron Hankley, presumably in response to my email or post regarding my conversation with Sabrina Burrow of this date.

He stated that he had instructed Carlos Pachas and Sabrina Burrow to replace all the sensors in the car and that Prestige Imports' failure to do this was due to their oversight in not ordering the additional parts at the time.

He then went on the state that these parts are not "defective" and that his (Audi's) willingness to replace them was intended as a good-will gesture rather than a matter of correcting a defect.

I reminded him that he had told me that Audi was replacing the sensors on incoming shipments of vehicles at the USA POEs. He began to quibble with this but then accepted that my recollection of our conversation was factually accurate but that it did not obligate Audi of America to replace the non-failed sensors in my car.

I pointed out to him that my goal in purchasing one of these vehicles was to obtain trouble-free service (including "routine maintenance") at a fixed cost and without the inconveniences and sacrifice of time that one associates with, for example, used cars, unreliable brands etc. and that I felt it was unreasonable to return the car to me with parts that were known to be likely to fail in service.

He then said that at this time there were no stocks of these parts remaining on hand and that it would therefore be counterproductive to retain the car tied up in the shop pending arrival of unavailable spares.

I said that is as it may be but that if I had to chose between having the pats ordered and, at a mutually convenient time, returning to service my car or in the alternative to simply wait for items to fail and then make arrangements for replacement at unpredictable intervals, I would chose the former.

I reminded Mr. Hankley that he and I did not have very good communication since, for example, in his initial conversation with me he offered me a replacement vehicle and some adjustment made to the lease for the time and inconvenience I have already undergone and that he had already effectively denied making this offer to me in our conversation of 7/28/03. I said that I viewed this as a "pissing contest", that is, a situation in which one party claims that one thing was said while the other denies that it is true.

He then asked me who many days the car had actually been in the shop since I received it. I counted and told him that it had been in shop once on 6/11/03, again on 7/8/03, on 7/17-7/18/03 at which time it was returned but immediately failed again at delivery and was therefore returned to service on 7/21/03 where it has been ever since. Depending on how you count the days, this comes out to 13 days.

He said to allow him to review this again with Prestige Imports and "make a few calls" and to await his return call

7/29/03 1:44 PM:

Mr.Hankley called back. He said that he had discussed my vehicle with Carlos Pachas (service department manager) at Prestige Imports and that Mr. Pachas would order the parts to replace the remaining suspension-system sensors and that Prestige Imports would make arrangements to replace them in the vehicle when the parts were ultimately available.

He stated that this was as far as he was able to go in attempting to satisfy me or to resolve my situation. He stated that I had certain rights under consumer protection statutes and that this might be an avenue I would have to pursue.

I responded by saying that I was astonished to find a company attempting to position itself as a serious competitor in this market segment at which the Audi A8 is targeted telling a consumer in my situation that his sole hope was to avail himself of the Lemon Law but that, of course, he had failed to resolve the core issue with my defective 2004 Audi A8 L(emon) Vin #WAUML44E24N000822: its basic unreliability and history of failures and downtime.

7/29/03: 5:40 PM

Picked up my 2004 Audi A8 L(emon) this afternoon at Prestige Motors afternoon of 7/29/03.

As dropped off, tank full, 531 miles.

As returned, tank empty (the out-of-gas light came on within a block of the dealership) and 723 miles. That's a heck of a test drive. 192 miles! I am of course eager to hear any comments on this from the dealer.

All the items for which the car was serviced appear to be functioning normally.

Within two hours of leaving Prestige Motors, my defective 2004 Audi A8 L(emon) was back in trouble mode. An "issue" (defect) which I had previously reported to both Prestige Motors and to Audi of America re-appeared.

I had the car's headlights set on "automatic" mode. It was daylight, around 5:40 PM. I parked the car, set the parking brake and turned of the ignition and withdrew the key. When I opened the driver's door the "headlights-on" warning tone sounded (although there was no indication on the dashboard relating to headlights and they did not, in fact, actually appear to be on.

I closed the door and the alarm stopped. I opened the door again, the alarm sounded.

I re-started the car and turned it off and opened the driver's door. The alarm came on.

I switched the headlight control to off, no change. I put it back on "Automatic", no change.

I re-started the car, turned the headlights "off" while the engine was running and stopped the car. Alarm gone. I put the headlight switch back in "Automatic" and turned the car on again and re-re-stopped it. removed key and opened driver door. Everything normal. Drove to next two destinations without further incident.

As mentioned above, I have had this happen to me before although on the previous occurrence the headlights actually were on and never shut down even after leaving the vehicle for 15+ minutes while shopping.

So what do I do? Is anyone interested? It is almost impossible to manage to actually bring this car to Prestige Motors and demonstrate this behavior as one has no knowledge as to whether this will happen at any given instance of turning this bug-infested vehicle off. Any suggestions besides simply learning to adore these little quirks? I am seriously seeking a reply from Audi here, not just being "funny." What can be done?

In any case, this is not an encouraging omen. It is, in fact, exactly what I had anticipated: more nuisance, more frustration, more fruitless trips to dealer etc. I like the ride and comfort of the car when it is operating properly, but I cannot live indefinitely with a different failure or "issue" on what seems to be a daily basis.