Any defect can screw the profits on any manufacturing process. I suspect that if you had an actuary or analyst comparing the costs of hardware/vs/software and factoring in, properly, the odds of needing a system replacement...they'd still go for the hardware.

I suspect they will have fewer complaints, from owners who make long high speed runs in extreme climates, than the number of repairs they would have had from socketed chips. And that even with a few repairs, they'll still come out ahead this way. By example, my dealer said I'm only the second customer who has had this complaint, and it took me 18 months to run into it. According to him, you can count on your fingers the entire number of dealerships that have contacted Audi about this problem, so...

Not too many systems are going to get this fix. A TSB may be issued, a recall won't.

Companies like Benelli (a thousand year old family business, literally) and LLBean factor in the cost of customer satisfaction. Audi? Oh, right, the dealer has free coffee. (Uh, no, that won't compensate my day. Although, if they sent someone to pick my car up and bring it back, nice and shiny and detailed, I'd call that worth the inconvenience for the day.)

You are making a good point that the problem doesn't seem that common, so Audi can just afford to replace the whole Hw.

It actually gets far more complicated for them. If the problem is found to be a latent defect (manufacturing or design) that no one was aware of...once Audi becomes aware of it, if they fail to notify the customers and fail to issue a recall, liability and warranty laws (US federal laws) may kick in. Consumers may then have the normal full four-year warranty, regardless of vehicle age, on those parts, starting from the date that they discover the now "concealed" defect.

But until and unless Audi pins down the real problem and a real solution to it, that's only a concern for their attorneys. Or are there stockholders?(G)