jlc

In case anyone out there is reading this thread and thinking of not getting an Audi b/c of the brake issue: yes, the squealing is atrocious and obnoxious. Should it happen? Of course not. And if you live in a place where the weather is fine, the roads are flat and straight, and everyone drives moderately and well: okay, don't buy the Audi b/c the brakes are noisy. It really won't matter. But if you care about handling and performance while driving under difficult conditions--take a few moments to weigh the embarrassment of squalling brakes against the value (of life, liberty, and happiness, and to your pocketbook) in being able to drive/get out of the way when things are going very very badly. I spend a small part of the year in a town where the hills are steep and the winter weather is abysmal; over the past 20+ years I've watched city buses slide downhill backwards towards me multiple times. Although the traffic is generally slow(ish), the ability to maintain traction in snow and ice is highly prized. The rest of the year I live in an area where the driving is often aggressive and (at times) extremely fast--and then throw in far too many drivers texting and weaving at 75 mph. While I generally have a negative view of Audi's NA dealer and service network, my husband and I will likely be buying/leasing Audis for a long time to come, b/c in our opinion, they give us the best chance of staying alive and relatively safe.

Also, I'm just going to be an a***** and remind the more exercised posters in this thread that squealing brakes (even ones as awful as these) are a relatively nice first-world problem to have. While ranting about some aspect of our $60k-$100k cars is a perfectly valid form of entertainment, I don't think it's a bad idea to remember mid-hysterics that the majority of Americans don't have $1k in cash to cover an unexpected bill. Generally speaking, we are a very privileged lot, even those of us who are severely lacking in social media ties.

JT4

IMO I don't think people in this thread are disgusted with Audi because the brakes make noise, it's more about Audi's lack of customer service or even caring in some cases.

As we know there are good dealers and bad regardless of the brand. So when a customer brings in their vehicle several times because of squealing brakes and a dealers response is "back it in your driveway or garage so when they're cold they won't make noise", joking or not it only adds to the owners frustration. It's as if they could care less and that's a problem.

For me, if my vehicle regardless of brand had an issue, and even if I had to have it serviced several times to get it right, I wouldn't necessarily stay away from the brand in the future. As long as the dealer and corporate (if I needed to get them involved) took care of me and didn't make me feel like a fool everytime I contacted them or brought it in for service..

Now if the dealer had a crappy attitude, and corporate didn't return calls or emails then I would never give them my business again..

ConservativeConsumer

This thread is going to last no matter what... Because annoying squealing of brakes is a subject permitting posting comments to anyone - with or without any knowledge of cars - with confidence. But I find it aggravating when this issue described as the end of this beautiful world.

manguyen

In the same boat. I've own an a4 and S5 with barely any issues but the recent Q5 and the Q7 has got me thinking about other brands. The Q5 had the oil consumption issue but since I was tuned audi would not do the second phase of the repair so I traded it in for the Q7. With the Q7, ive been in for a steering rack replacement, went in 7 times for the sunroof creak, a couple other times for interior panel fitment issues, and finally the loud brakes.

Taylor Collins

hammer458

Had 2 MDX's an '05 ( which runs beautifully), '16 MDX and a Loaded '14 TL. The '16 MDX has 9 speeds and very poor decsioning on which gear to into at 30MPH. Almost got nailed by a semi,. The Informant system was better in my '14TL. Friends who have the '17 MDX say the same . Brake fad is a common issue but nooooo squeaks

jlc

I'm sure that Audi NA's crappy (and frequently hapless and feckless) customer service is partly what enrages people, but also it's 'just' the fact that the brakes sound so awful. B/c really, it can sound horrendous--as you might have noticed, I've been whinging, too. It's the sort of thing you might expect from a Ford Pinto. (Though in the Pinto's case, I think squeaky brakes would be a far better problem to have, instead of exploding fuel tanks.) Truly, I'm not trying to minimize or whitewash how egregiously bad Audi customer service is capable of being.

What I am trying to do is challenge the idea that having obnoxiously loud brakes somehow overwhelms all the other benefits that Audi quattro offers. If Audi outright put out a statement that said, "Every Audi car will have loudly squealing brakes upon cold start-up. Take it or leave it.", I suspect a large portion of their customer base would leave it. And, IMO, that's a mistake. (Unless, of course, you live in a moderate climate where the driving is easy, flat, straight, and boring.) My instinct is that Audi is primarily focused on driving dynamics first, safety second (but simultaneously noting that they reasonably believe that good driving dynamics is an enormous component of safety)...and the rest is arguably just what's required to keep their market share high enough to maintain them as a viable company. And I can't argue with their choices: they've produced generations of cars that absolutely trash the competition when it comes to driving under difficult conditions.

JT4, IIRC you took your Q7 out in the snow recently, and was fairly impressed with its performance (in run-flat all-seasons?). Given that the Q7 is by no means the best-handling vehicle Audi has in its lineup (fwiw, my Q7 in run-flat all-seasons is the worst-handling Audi I've driven in the snow, but still better than any other non-Audi car I've driven in snow), would you really trade that performance in b/c the dealer and corporate were being d**** about noisy brakes?

jlc

I seriously tried to like the Atlas: the tilting middle-row seats are brilliant, the 3rd row is truly spacious, and the trunk is enormous. If we'd gotten one, we could have removed all the angst we have every time we pack for a trip, trying in vain to squash everything into the back of our Q7. Plus, the Atlas is relatively cheap, and the 6-year, 100k warranty is awesome. But the handling on the Atlas is definitely sub-par, designed for the American market segment that is used to driving boats. It's better than a minivan, of course, and you'll get on the highway reasonably well, but during your test-drive try putting it through some emergency maneuvers. It's clearly worse than the Q7, handling-wise, by a lot.

As for Volvo: check to see how heavy the lift-gate is, w/o the pneumatic struts holding it up. If it feels like it weighs a lot: step away, and look elsewhere for your next vehicle. We had a 2015 XC60, and a few months after taking delivery, both pneumatic struts holding the lift-gate up blew out while my husband was packing the car, and the lift-gate slammed shut. Luckily he pulled back in time: the door is more than heavy enough to break an adult forearm, or if one is unlucky, crush an adult neck, w/o the struts to slow it down. It could quite easily kill a young child, and my stomach curdles every time I think of how lucky we were that neither of our children were 'helping' my husband that day (as they had been wont to do). Had the gate slammed shut on them, severe injury would have been certain, and death a definite possibility. It wouldn't surprise me if Volvo (especially under Geely ownership) hasn't corrected this horrendous design flaw. As for less deadly problems: our XC60 had an impressive array of intermittent electrical bugs, many of which didn't appear until a year in. One involved a shrill alarm randomly going off in the car (part of the Volvo on-call system)--it woke the children up from their naps, and was so loud it freaked us out every time. But electrical gremlins are awfully hard to find, and Volvo never made any progress in finding the source. We were so happy to turn that thing in at the end of the lease....

JDub06002

Do NOT put your "first world problems" liberal guilt onto us. Are you freakin' kidding me? I worked my *** off for 20 years to get to the point where I could afford a luxury car and I'll be damned if I'm going to shut up about major quality issues just because I should feel bad about my "privilege" like you do - I earned my money -- who the hell are you to tell us not to complain? Tell you what, you feel so bad about your own wealth, sell YOUR luxury car and donate that money to charity and drive around in a 93 corrolla -- but leave your completely off-topic value judgements off this board. And by the way? Social media is how S*&t gets done these days, grandma. And finally... GO AWAY. If you don't have a problem with your car, why the hell are you trolling Audi boards?

JDub06002

Okay now I'm fairly sure you're an Audi dealer.