rsilvers129

Not good. 2017 Audi Q7 Pricing, Specs & Reviews | J.D. Power Cars

Below all the KIAs, and even below BMW.

I wonder if they had a chance to make small changes to the 2018s to address any of the issues.

PeteDin206

I believe JDPower about as much as I believe FoxNews for its "fair and balanced" reporting. Is the Q7 perfect? No... But most of the reviews of it have it top in its class or slightly behind the model X.

rsilvers129

They judge "quality" by some definition that probably relates to defects or variation. Not to style or niceness.

JT4

IMO the JD Powers Initial Quality surveys leave a lot to be desired and here is why. I think these surveys are more about the new owners lack of knowing how to properly use the infotainment system and other features of his or her new vehicle. So they complain about it as if the equipment is faulty and this is what is bringing a lot of the ratings down for not only the Q7, but all brands.

I am not talking about if an infotainment system blacks out, freezes. Or if your sunroof stops working or if your trans is hesitating etc..

What I mean is when a new owner get annoyed because they have to go through two or three sub menus to get to the heated seat control, or don't like a particular "mouse controller" and then complain about it in a survey.. IMO it's not fair and complaints like these should not be counted in these surveys.

After all, it's not the vehicles fault that the owner didn't do his or her due diligence before buying the vehicle, or in a lot of cases hasn't even read the owners manual yet..

Well on the flip side, Consumer Reports (April 2017) gave the Q7 one of it's highest ratings ever so go figure.

rsilvers129

Similar to that, the Ford touch has had terrible reviews, but I have had zero problems with my 2013. So I am not sure what people have trouble with. It love the car except I should have got a manual transmission.

gsobol

Model T would get a perfect score :-)

Can someone explain to me WHY initial quality is so important? I do get the initial 'feel', but most new things have a decent initial feel. Yes, some appear to be better made or put together, however that's no real judgement how well this something will perform over a period of time. And I do have to agree with JT4, the technology in Q7 can be overwhelming but eventually one does get a hang of it and learns to truly appreciate it.

drive4fun

I believe JD Power also does longer-term reliability studies that are probably more representative of what people think of as vehicle quality.

gsobol

Bingo....

But your used car is no longer 'news' worthy.

Meyecul

I think this is where it gets more involved for them. For example while the interior has been praised by most critics etc, when they do their more detailed poking and prodding and see how a lot of the interior and exterior trim / dash/ exterior pillar plastics creak and squeak when pushed on it's going to bring certain quality scores down a few ticks. Things like this may not affect the driving or ownership experience as a whole (at least not in the beginning of ownership). but will affect how they view initial quality on what can be an $80k+ vehicle.

AudiTK

I'll put in my 5 cents (we don't have pennies in canada anymore, so its the lowest coin we have).
This is my first Audi, and I have a 2012 BMW 5, and we moved from an Inifinti 2010 QX56 to the Q7.
I'm surprised that the Q7 only has a 1 year warranty on Squeaks and rattles. The dealer was really quick to point this out as a "benefit" of the warranty.

My BMW, age noted above, doesn't have any squeaks or rattles, nor is this excluded from the coverage. But the inside has held up really good.
The 2010 Infiniti was replaced in Feb 2017 with the Q7, it had some very minor things go wrong, all in the last 6 months of ownership. It had 190,000 km's on it.

My new Q7 has had two front bearing replaced and two fuel injectors within months of ownership. Doesn't sound typical based on what I read on this forum however.

Q56 took 4 years before first warranty issue.
BMW 550 was almost 4 years also before first warranty issue.

Initial thoughts on the JD powers survey is they are not that far off, based on my limited experience. I can see how Q7 initial quality can be perceived lower than the other brands.

Some of this might be that the price is actually a bit higher than the value you think you, so your expectations being higher will cause you to feel more disappointed when things go wrong or not how you expected. My dealership didn't know much about how some systems worked, and actually mis stated features - my proof I was right, they gave me a check for 2500$ after the sale closed for missing and wrong information on Q7's ability.

My local dealership experience plays a significant role in how I would also respond to a survey.

here is another example, when my Q7 went in for new bearings, the lead mechanic looks at my tires and goes on for 15 min about how I will need to replace them, they are defective. I wait until the very end of his rant. And then say, I just picked up the car a few weeks ago, and if the tires are in fact defective, then the warranty will have to cover them as I don't think I could have wrecked them within 1000km of ownership. They called me back while doing the bearings to tell me the tires were in fact not defective and didn't need replacement.

My second service visit for a service engine light, turned out to be two bad injectors. The dealership called to accuse me of having my brand new, under warranty Q7 serviced at a non authorized service center! The car had about 10k on it. Not sure why I would pay for services for a car with warranty and a maintenance package at a 3rd party garage.

My point to all this is that JD powers MIGHT be onto something. My Audi ownership so far is very different than my BMW ownership. The BMW service here in my home town is very different. I had a broken oil cooler on a M6 cab, and the oil leaked all over the garage. My car was in for service the a few days before this. When I called to ask about it (didn't know the oil cooler was in the bumper of that car! and I had it lowered with 25 series tires BTW), they sent out a guy to clean up the oil and a tow truck. They were not sure if they broke it or I did, and I may have actually and admitted as much, so I offered to pay for at least half. The service representative said that they would pay for the whole thing, and not let me pay for any of it.


I know I'm on a rant, but this has been my experience so far. largely focused on really poor dealership qualities that just intensify any of the car defects that come along.

But aside from the two true warranty claims (bearings and injectors) the Q7 so far is a really nice car to drive. The inside is really impressive (we have the prestige version I think its called). Love every aspect of the car inside and out. I just wish the local BMW dealership was selling and fixing the cars for Audi!

As another side note, my BMW has had 7 or 8 injector sets fail (defective Bosh issue that I think is on the 19th revision of the injector, last set seems to hold up - wondering if the Q7 uses Bosh ones also?) and poor engine design (running a twin turbo right next to engine electronics, plugs and ignition coils) has caused me nothing but repeated return trips to the dealership, who treat me very well. I was [smart] and purchased a 7 year 200k warranty (BMW = Buy More Warranty) so not a nickel out of my pocket. They treat me well enough that I would not be shy about getting another BMW with them, truly not worried about getting another BMW!).

Hopefully I don't need to go back to the Audi dealer and nothing else goes wrong with the Q7, I don't mind the occasional thing breaking, but don't like feeling like I'm being scammed when I go in to the dealership.... This sort of first 6 months for me is telling, and looking close at the JD powers summer of results, I would have rated it exactly the same as they have done.