MurrayA4

Bob thanks for the info.As to Allied Bendix being unproven, sadly they have been well proven to be sadly subpar.I think fondly back to making lots of $$ replacing rear calipers on GM pickups.I hear they make good aviation brakes ! Who knows maybe Audi have whipped them into shape - hah !

Bob Petruska

Murray, what is scary, especially for 2018+, A3/A4/A6/etc. owners in the US is that they own European produced vehicles, with European made parts.

When a part on their vehicle that is "common" to 2018+ Q5 goes bad do they get a European made part like the one that their vehicle came with, or do they get a Mexico made one.

I just did a quick check on the 2018, A4, euro made 2.0T cylinder head and the part number is the same for the 2018 Mexico made, 2.0T cylinder head!

This is going to be very interesting going forward.........................

canon_mutant

Yeah, when our illustrious leaders decided to outsource our data storage products to Mexico and Indonesia, it took 4 years to get our quality even close to where it was. I imagine some of this is hype but also expect it to take them a while to get things where they need to be?

motoguy128

Always, always avoid first year production runs. I don't care what brand. 2016 and early 2017 Honda Civic had a lot of issues that had to be worked out. We traded in our 2017 CR-V in part because of the poor ECU software refinement and some other minor issue sand a growing concern about fuel contamination in the oil. We should have kept our mostly rebuilt Audi Q5. Had dumped a couple grand in it replacing engine mounts, brakes, transmission flush, timing chain, engine was rebuilt under warranty... and so on. But we love our TDI

MP4.2+6.0

FWIW, same issue top to bottom as it were, and back into the suppliers. Thus, if I get the latest sway bar links for my prior 2006 Audi A8, they are actually Lemfoerder as the OES. But as of several years ago, they now were marked for country of origin (required in all USA sales) as China. Ditto on my 2012 Mk 6 Golf R, which is pretty much the only Golf coming in to USA that is assembled in the Vaterland. But go to the dealer and I now get the Mexico sourced battery. Order various parts with VW (or Audi) numbering on them and I sometimes get Germany or other likely EU supplier countries and sometimes get China.

IF it is legit Audi/VW or legit Euro Tier 1 supplier, I don't sweat it so much these days. But I do watch for counterfeits ever more carefully, especially anything outside of dealer parts channels. As Apple and a variety of other successful high volume players with deep brand reputations have found, you still get the quality if you have rigorous and enforced quality control and associated specs. The one real worry I do have is whether--or rather to what extent--VW and Audi may have cut back on supplier qualification rigor, QC and the like given the $30 BB + hit they had to absorb on the whole TDI fraud and debacle.

Agreed meantime w/ the other sentiment about avoiding first years in general. Having owned Audis back to C1, it has really always been true for them as with car models generally. Best ones often seem to be after the mid life facelift, IF core drivetrain is not also new at that mid life change point. I took a dice roll on the Hybrid in late 2013, but felt very comfortable with the general Q5 model shakedown by then.

MurrayA4

I've long felt some respect for the metallurgical knowledge of the Europeans, acquired over centuries of experience.I also believe that they've done a pretty solid job of getting their parts suppliers to build to their spec.If the Germans expect me to pay a premium for their product they bloody well better not let this side of the business slide !