Bad Experience New Q8
 

Hey everyone. I've been registered here for years as I've owned several Audis over the years, but have never really posted. I wanted to see if anyone else has had a problem similar to mine.

So I leased a 2019 Q8 a couple of weeks ago, brand new. Drove it for 5 days and absolutely loved everything about it. The ride was great. Interior top notch. Just an all around amazing car. About five days into having it, I get a Drivetrain error on the dash and a message stating that revs are limited to 3500 RPM. I immediately take it to the dealership as I just happened to be driving past it at the moment on my way home.

This was almost 3 weeks ago, and I still have not gotten the car back. Apparently some kind of harness needs to be replaced, and this had to be ordered from Germany and is taking forever to get. I guess I've been pretty lucky in the past with cars and not really having major issues, so this has me a little worried/concerned. For the car to have such a big issue so early in ownership seems kind of odd. I mean the car didn't even have 200 miles on it yet. Has anyone had any similar experiences, be it with this car or others in the past?

To the dealership's credit, they have been amazing as far as getting me into a loaner and making sure I was accommodated. I know it's not their fault that the car is so new and parts are so hard to get. But it's definitely been very frustrating and really taken the joy out of the new car experience. Now I just hope I'm not going to continue having issues.

It's a new model and there are bound to be glitches in the first model year. 3 weeks in the shop is kind of surprising - you'd think they could get the parts from Germany quicker than that. Did it take them a while to diagnose the problem to that harness?

Wow did not realize California had such clear Lemon Laws. Unfortunately that is definitely not the case here in Texas. Thanks for your responses and help though i definitely appreciate it.

As for why it's taking so long, I believe they just have a shortage on the part due to the car being so new. They had the issue diagnosed by the next day and the part on order. This entire time the part has been on order....

A common wisdom that still applies is to not buy the first model year of a German car or any car. Things like this can happen. Anecdotal evidence might suggest that it is happening more frequently as car manufacturers are cutting cost to invest into the development of EV cars and in case of VAG pay for the diesel scandal. The build quality is the first to be affected by these efforts. The other reason for thinking twice about a first model year foreign car is what you are experiencing in terms of having to wait for parts. At this stage, the parts supply chain is simply not filled. Most parts go towards building new cars. They all work on the Just-In-Time principal. The part you are waiting for probably hasn't even been produced yet, hence the long wait time. As Audi is ramping up production of the Q8 and the production of the parts, they won't have enough parts in stock yet to fix known issues. The known issues have to first reveal themselves and the first owners experiencing them generally will face long wait times for the parts. Going lemon law is perhaps a bit extreme. While it seems that in some states the law is on the consumer side, it's still a hassle. Since you are leasing, you are in a better position, assuming you haven't put down any money. For those who buy or in states where you have to pay sales taxes up front when leasing, you still lose the taxes you paid at a minimum. I assume they gave you a loaner, hopefully somewhat equivalent to your Q8. I would suggest that once the issue is resolved, you pursue AoA to refund your lease payments for the time you didn't have your car. I've done that in the past and generally works.

Cars.com lists 165 used 2019 BMW X5's also, one with as little as 5 miles, so I wouldn't read too much into that.

https://www.cars.com/for-sale/search...Vehicles=false

I'm willing to bet something with that low of mileage was probably bought by someone at the dealership to boost sales. It's technically used since its been titled, but has fewer miles on it than many of the "new" cars on the lot.