matt-in-boston

Hi,
I'm about to purchase a A4 1.8TQA w/ sport wheel. I want the sport wheel, but I'll have to wait 2-3 months to get a car with it. Otherwise, the car I've found has what I want. I've had multiple dealers do a locate to try and find a car, but no luck. So, my question is, what would be involved in having the dealer swap the wheel with one on a car in their stock? Has anyone had this done? My dealer's telling me that it would cost ~$2000!!!

Thanks in advance.

-- Matt

Adam S

If you are ordering an A4 with Tip and it does not already have the sport steering wheel, forget about try to retrofit a Tip sport steering wheel. I've been through this with a build error on my 99.5 Avant 1.8tq-tip. It came with sport steering wheel (manual version, no tip controls) and Audi wouldn't swap out the wheel (even though it was a build error!) because a wiring harness for the Tip controls was missing and they didn't want to pay for the labor to rewire the dash - at least, that's the story I got from my dealer.

In fact, the dealer was ready to do the work, had the tip sport wheel in place but could not locate the elusive wiring harness. The dealer was apologetic and asked the regional Audi rep. to get involved. AOA put the brakes on the whole thing without offering any compensation. Yes, I like the sport steering wheel, but it would have been nice to have the Tip controls.

You can do a sport steering wheel without tip controls, if you really want one. They will need to order it with the proper airbag. It's unlikely that they'll swap from one in stock.

Good luck!