ajmilan

That's the movement I'm talking about - that Audi will now cover this repair for those outside of warranty, those whom are explicitly not covered as stated within the TSB. It IS a case of Audi now making it a point to cover outside-of-warranty vehicles. Perhaps I didn't state this clearly above.

AdamNJ

Sure it is a safety issue when the first "Electrical System Malfunction" message appears and within 20-30 minutes all the systems and engine shut down when you are in the middle of a highway. That's happened to a few on this forum based on the stories they posted.

https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem

MarkIndy

Dropped my 2019 Q8 at the dealer this morning for the 70K service plus the fuel pump recall. Added an alignment as it was needed. I asked if the alignment could affect gas mileage and they said yes. I noticed that my gas mileage was down a couple of miles per gallon for the last month or so. I asked how many Audi vehicles they had in for this electrical system failure. They said around 60 were waiting but that most of them were A6's. Those still covered had received loaners and those not were advised to keep their rental car receipts for possible reimbursement.

nlk10010

Appreciate the input, I just have two points: First, I would argue (in a friendly manner, or course) with your point "assuming that not all cars will fail". I think that unless Audi can tell which cars will fail logic demands that all cars will. At least I have not seen any description of factors that would distinguish a potentially failing car from one that won't. Second, I would argue most strenuously that it is a safety matter (I'm assuming that once the fault occurs you can't drive the car very far).

If it's a safety issue then a recall should be issued; this is done by manufacturers all the time and dealers manage the process. Of course, Audi will claim that this is a normal pattern of failures and does not rise to the level of being "recall worthy" (whatever the criteria are). I think the fact they issued a TSB coupled with the serious nature of the failure would cause most reasonable people to think Audi should at least direct dealers to upgrade the software. But that's just me.

ThomasWShea

The fact that they are not telling the dealers to update the software makes me think they at least have a decent educated guess that it will be cheaper to resolve case by case than to do anything wide spread. Being nuanced, I don't think we can say all cars WILL fail - there are environmental and use conditions and some cars my never hit the use case that triggers the failure, right? I believe audi has at least a couple ideas, but those are not being shared. But I do think all cars *could* fail. They have SOME data that would be hard for any dealer or us to know. They have a failure locations, dates and mileage. They probably know which lot numbers for the parts involved. They can make some decent guesses about climate by location. They know how many total cars are out there that are above the avg. mileage where the failure happens. It just seems like someone would have some theories at the very least. We just can't get to that someone, and if we could they probably aren't talking.

ThomasWShea

More sinister: There could be some internal tension or politics, or external government policy benefit where letting this ride benefits another overall goal that we are not plainly aware of. Audi has their long term all electric direction already set. I could see some people wanting combustion system failures kept UP, to leverage that goal. Say you wanted to argue "legacy" system failure rate against electrics...you'd want to benchmark that legacy failure rate as high as possible, which would make your electric target easier to achieve.

Steve Du

Quick update:

Called the AoA today. After a healthy 4 hours wait, I was able to speak with a rep. Explained to her my situation (awful towing to 2 months no update,) and asked about what my options are including a buy back.

AoA will perform a "good-will repair". Decision will be made at the dealership level. If that fails buyback can be explored but still no guarantee.

Better than nothing I guess. My poor Q8 has been in the shop for 2 months and counting.

ThomasWShea

Does AoA will perform a "good-will repair", followed by "Decision will be made at the dealership level" mean that good will repair is up to the dealer? or AoA? My prior understand on this is mixed. I think the truth is, either can do a good-will repair, if it is AoA, the dealer will get reimbursed from AoA, if the dealer opts to do it on their own, they don't get reimbursed from AoA?

Steve Du

"AoA will escalate this good will repair to the dealer and the dealer will make the decision. You will be informed via phone call in few days by the Service Manager at your local dealer. AoA does not make the decision regarding the good-will repair, the dealer does."

That's what they told me when I asked.

ThomasWShea

interesting. One time, my dealer told me they talked to AoA and they were able to get a good-will repair approved.