A2 Problems

[thomas]

It seems to me like the amount of owners with problems with their new A2s is increasing daily. And the understanding and support from the dealers ( let alone from Audi) is little or none.

We have had our A2 since July and our problem still hasn't been fixed although it has been back to our dealer 8 times. ( next try is next week, after which it will have go back to Audi HQ in Ingolstadt).

Maybe we shoud all get together and send one (signed) complaint to Audi listing our problems and lack of support and indeed disappointment ( if not anger) at Audis lack of help???
The more signatures we get, and from different countries, the more affect it might have on Audi. After all they don't need any negative press.
Time to fight back, guys.[}]

Thomas Giblin

 

[FACtOR]

I doubt they are going to do a global recall, infact all i think that will happen is it will be waivered, remember we are about 50-60 strong or the likes (i'm talking about those of us who actively participate in teh forum) so our views wont go far, only way we can get anything sorted is by going to a consumer watchdog for cars they will get onto audis back, i'm afraid we are just to little to have any influence on audi. if we do get a response not too liely then all they will do is tell the dealers to look out for such and such a problem and if possible fix it, with the countless other faults with these cars still laying dormant until one day you start hearing bangs and squeaks and feel vibrations, but that wont be on audis hands they will of already addressed the faults you have found with their car so their response will be to shove off!. The car is a great car nice looking and has luxuries galore but it has way to many technical and upholstary (easy to scuff wear or damage and squaks sometimes too) faults to justify its price, i am glad i only payed £10k for my silver one s/h and £11.2k for my black s/h one becuase if i payed full price like you guys with brand new one i would be royally pissed.

i mean fair enough some of you lot have been problem free for sometime but remember with these cars the faults can be sudden, and very spontaneous, so dont rule out any faults on your A2 becuase there is some they just have not happened yet. i just done a test drive on my silver a2 and discover 2 more faults (steering wheel makes a clicking noise as your going through full rotation while stationary and moving[due to noise at speed you may not hear it]), strange noise when ESP comes into play almost like metal scraping against metal or the ground (possibly my faulty brakes) will these faults ever stop with these A2's i doubt it we need to get onto a consumer watchdog cos audi is not going do anything we are just too few and far apart.

1.4SE petrol 2001, Dark interior, Sat cloth, Brilliant Silver, 3 spoke Steering wheel, Rear electric windows and Panasonic MR555 stereo, Panasonic 8CD changer, 10 speakers (2 extra 13" 190 watt each.)

 

[Kaine]

Hi thomas,

Dont want to fuel your frustration at all, however I have had no problems with my A2 at all. Correction, one of my back seats wouldn't lock down, however that was corrected immediately. It seems to me that the A2 still has more problems then should be expected for a car of this age, however I also an a firm believer that the amount of people with problems on the forum doesn't give a fair representation of the actual market condition.
Saying that, I do believe your comment is valid with respect to dealers. From my time on the forum, I have found the main problem stems from the dealer responses.
I recently had the opportunity to have a face to face chat with a senior Fiat Group marketing exec. I had some very bad experiences with two Fiat dealers in the past, and wanted to know why the car manufacturers dont take control of 'bad' dealers and allow their cooporate image to be damaged.
In summary, he explained that historical, due to competition laws etc (not a lawyer, so wont try to explain), all OEM's were forced to give dealers a free hand in the management of their dealerships. This basically meant that the dealer could play god (so to speak) and act as if they were talking the coorporate line, while actually having no authority to do so. In parallel to this, the OEM's national offices, i.e. Fiat UK etc, took the opportunity to reduce its numbers for supporting the warranty claims, expecting the dealer to take responsibility.
He also explained that without investigation, actually Fiat were not aware of the poor service some dealers were giving until major surveys were published (i.e. JD Power) and that the actuall number of written complaints received from unsatisfied owners until this time was in fact very low. My interpretation of this is that they ignore all personal complaints and only recognise the majority opinion.
Todays condition is now quite different for the Fiat Group (his explanation, not mine). Fiat and Alfa will now splitting into separate dealers, and they are expanding their warranty team to allow Fiat UK reps to manage the problems face to face.

My personally opinion is that all cars have problems. No car, no matter what the price, has some poor quality feature. (In fact, in most cases more expensive => low volume => hand made => human errors).
I believe that if a group of unsatisfied owners did join together to make a complaint to AUDI HQ, then the emphasis should be put on the poor/no responses received from the dealers.
We all expect some problems to occur from time to time, however we also expect recognition of the problem, and honesty regarding when/if it can be fixed - 'Sir, AUDI recognise this problem however at this moment have no 100% solution. We will/have replace/d the widget, which has cured the problem now, and we have informed AUDI HQ. If you have any further concerns we can follow up this matter on your behalf, blah, blah ..............'
OK, its not salesman talk, however you can get my point. Our response may be why they cant fix it, however we cant challenge an honest reply. We can only ask for futher investigation.

I also hoped and personally I have found AUDI to be very open and frank during my many informal chats, however as I said above, I haven't had any quality issues so I can't feel your frustration so much.

I dont expect what I have said will ease any frustration, however its jusy my humble opinion on the quality problem discussion.

Cheers

Kaine


A2 1.4Tdi SE | black | red leather | Concert | Open Sky | A2OC Stickers x2

 

[Kaine]

FACtOR,

Your problems are probably due to the previous owner doing hand brake turns

Kaine

A2 1.4Tdi SE | black | red leather | Concert | Open Sky | A2OC Stickers x2

 

[FACtOR]

Could be but ermmm that would probably only effect the steering wheel not the front roll bars or the wing mirrors, or the door pannels being loose, or the back seats not locking in, or the knocking noise coming from the back of the car (almost all A2's have had this propbalm at some point or other), or the extremely stiff clutch (I have come to the conclusion its not the gears that are dodgy its the clutch its very very stiff). fact remains these A2's are very problematic cars and at what 1 years old i mean come on what the hell is it going to be like in 3 years time is the car going to be going bang every 5 metres and fall apart like that advert on TV where the clown sold that guy the broken car. Cos at this rate with the faults found on them a car bought in 2000 will be running like s**t come 2003-4 its just not a good example audi is setting about its cars, yes we have the bottom of the barrel Audis but still you expect some form of refinement and skill going into putting these things together so in the first week we dont have to take the cars back to the dealers with faults found. I dont think to be honest there is a car in existance thats needs to go back to the dealer like a yoyo every few weeks like this A2, if i was to be frank this car is a pile of s**t and i feel just like that guy on the advert when the car fell to bits on him, and the clown (sorry the audi salesman) has gone off all merry with his big shoes and stupid red nose. mind you i bought it now so i am going to have to put up with it for at least another year or 2, god help us all.

1.4SE petrol 2001, Dark interior, Sat cloth, Brilliant Silver, 3 spoke Steering wheel, Rear electric windows and Panasonic MR555 stereo, Panasonic 8CD changer, 10 speakers (2 extra 13" 190 watt each.)

 

[Kaine]

FACtOR,

quote:. I dont think to be honest there is a car in existance thats needs to go back to the dealer like a yoyo every few weeks like this A2

I'm not sure how many cars you have owned, however it seems the A2 has been the worst for quality in your case. However, believe me when I say the A2 is not the worst. I think it comes down to your expectation.
For example, a friend of mine bought a used Vectra a few years ago. When he bought the car, I mentioned regarding a few quality issues I had heard about, that proposed he should get checked out before buying. His reply was 'it doesn't matter, its a car - I expect to have some problems - as long as the engine doesn't pack up'
I was quite suprised with his comments, however recognised that for him, squeeks / rattles / clunks dont matter.
Of course in our case (speaking for the majority of members I think), we expect the A2 to be very high quality, and benchmark it against its other stable mates (A3/A4/A6 quality). With this in mind, even a small squeek is a huge annoyance.

Kaine


A2 1.4Tdi SE | black | red leather | Concert | Open Sky | A2OC Stickers x2

 

[John Disdale]

Having regard that a fully loaded A2 can cost £20,000 we are talking about what I consider to be a lot of money for a small car. For those who then say “it’s a car you must expect problems” – then I can only respond that they are in a totally different financial situation than myself. Taking such a sum out of my bank account was for me a “major” step in my life, but for those that can do this without batting an eyelid I can understand that such people can afford to have a complacent attitude. Good luck to them – but sadly we are not all in this boat.

Regards
John Disdale

 

[FACtOR]

I am by no means benching it against any other car in the audi range, only the audi name (you charge big bucks for your cars they should run like big bucks cars), i am however comparing the A2 to a honda Jazz which i have indeed driven before and to be honest it does drive much mroe stable that the A2 the interior is somewhat retro looking but pleasant no solid edges and blandness, the cars look is somewhat advbenturous but its one of those shapes you like or dont mind same with A2, the steering wheel is nothing short of fun, it corners well and seems to have more oomph than the A2, the petrol A2 seems almost guttless unless your near redlining the damn thing, the only thing the A2 has over it is the name becuase the build quality is better if you ask me and it drive much more sharply, i think those who say its not as good as the A2 are just trying to justify the extra £5k they spent for errmm [8)] 4 hollow silver cirlces. for the price of one A2 your could get a Jazz with all the workings (sports version), and pocket at least £2k. the a-class is not really competition for the A2 becuase its interior reeks of Tack and it looks very ugly, not to mention that its slower of the mark with a 13second 0-60. althought its steering does feel a little more solid that the A2.

1.4SE petrol 2001, Dark interior, Sat cloth, Brilliant Silver, 3 spoke Steering wheel, Rear electric windows and Panasonic MR555 stereo, Panasonic 8CD changer, 10 speakers (2 extra 13" 190 watt each.)

 

[Kaine]

John,

I'm just being a realist. It doesn't how much you spend. Every type of car will have its own set of problems. I never expected that when I bought my A2, it would be perfect.
The more you pay, doesn't mean better quality. Cars are made by humans - humans make mistakes - Fact!

Also, if someone can spend 20k on a car without batting a eyelid, then I would imagine they have some italian exotica in their garage aswel.

Kaine


A2 1.4Tdi SE | black | red leather | Concert | Open Sky | A2OC Stickers x2

 

[Kaine]

FACtOR,

Never driven the Honda Jazz, however your comments are interesting.
I believe Honda/Toyota are actually unbeaten on most things apart from styling and handling. I actually bought an A2 based on its looks (there is nothing else like it) and fuel economy (claimed figures were unbeatable at the time)

Kaine

A2 1.4Tdi SE | black | red leather | Concert | Open Sky | A2OC Stickers x2

 

[FACtOR]

then we got our cars and realise that audi were somewhat optamistic with their figures [8)] and we really get about 10mls less than figures they quote.

1.4SE petrol 2001, Dark interior, Sat cloth, Brilliant Silver, 3 spoke Steering wheel, Rear electric windows and Panasonic MR555 stereo, Panasonic 8CD changer, 10 speakers (2 extra 13" 190 watt each.)

 

[runboy]

Thomas

Good on you for the fighting spirit. However, it's not always going to work. But please don't let any of us put you off and do post your letter and reply from Audi.

When I was suffering problems with my first A2, I wrongly assumed that Audi UK would want to know about my concerns and thoughts (I also tried to get some Audi representation on this forum). However, whilst they were sorry to hear about my problems, I was told all queries should be raised at dealer level in the first instance. I know other people on this forum have also tried to hold dialogue with Audi UK and to be honest you would be better of talking to yourself.

This doesn't mean to say we shouldn't fight, but I would certainly stake my A2 on Audi coming back with "sorry you feel this way, but your dealer will be happy to help with any queries of problems you suffer with your car".

As Kaine has said, no car is fault free (as my dealer told me in one conversation of the A8's he has back time after time-very comforting) and in the past two weeks I have seen two broken down Jag X-types-new ones too.

But it is down to the dealer to show compassion and willingness to get these problems sorted. OK, some cars will be lemons and always fault ridden, but the majority of cars will be built with problems that can be missed in inspection and only become apparent after delivery to the customer. But as long as the dealer sorts these problems first time, with little inconvenience to the customer then generally the owner will be satisfied. However, if a dealer takes ages to books cars in, doesn't collect on time, doesn't fix the fault first time and expects the customer to keep coming back time after time without any form of compensation then that is going to cause ill-feeling amongst owners. As you will see on this forum.

A little thought goes a long way.

My A2 which was returned to me on Thursday with one out five current issues fixed. So it will have to go back again, putting me to inconvenience again for a car which is two months old. And has been going on since June when I picked up my first A2. But if I ask for any compensation I will be told "sorry, we gave you a replacement A2 due to the problems you were suffering, so the fact your new A2 is suffering faults is tough". And that is why I have an issue.

My next steps will be to ask the dealer exactly how many times have I been back to the dealership so I can pen a letter to the head of the VAG. I know it won't do anything, but it will make me feel a lot better. Surely you shouldn't be expected to return to a dealer 10 times or more in 5 months, with your car off the road for over a week in total and not expect some form of compensation?.

Steve - 2003 1.4SE petrol, Silver, black/black interior

 

[John Disdale]

Factor,

I keep meaning to pick up on your comments regarding your clutch. You mention that its stiff, and although I actually prefer a clutch with a hard spring the fact is that A2’s are not like that – so I contend something is wrong with your car.

In the three or four A2’s which I have driven I would describe the clutch as having no feel at all, and almost being an imaginary process when letting the clutch out, or depressing it. I imagine a 7 stone female wearing stiletto shoes might well find it very nice, but I never did.

I would strongly suggest that you return to your dealer and request a 15 minute drive in another A2, so that you can better compare the differences.

Regards
John Disdale

 

[martinw]

About 6 years ago I bought a 6 month old Vauxhall Omega. (new price around £18k, 6 months old around £14k).
For the first 2 monhts of ownership I visited the dealer at least once a week to have something fixed.
I had similar experiences with 2 fords.

The only cars I have owned which haven;t given me problems are a Nissan and 4 Hondas.
Audi's (3) have been better than most.
A lot does depend on your dealer, as well as the condition of the car.

MartinW

 

[FACtOR]

Will do next time I go there (this tuesday), I will also be getting the salesperson who sold me the car to test drive the car himself so he can see the faults as I did, I dont trust that head technician he seems rather shifty [}]. Plus I will be getting another courtesy car so I can test that one to see the difference.

1.4SE petrol 2001, Dark interior, Sat cloth, Brilliant Silver, 3 spoke Steering wheel, Rear electric windows and Panasonic MR555 stereo, Panasonic 8CD changer, 10 speakers (2 extra 13" 190 watt each.)

1.4TDi 2002, Biege interior, Brilliant Black, Concert II.

 

[Chris Humphreys]

I have to say that of the 10 or so cars my wife and I have had over the last 7 years the only one where I have come to know my dealer like a family friend is Audi.

Even my Land Rover Freelander only went in once. None of my BMW's have, certainly none of my Fiats(!) and my Peugeot only had one minor glitch.

 

[maersk]

Well it just goes to show you. My |BMs were (far from dogs) but spent a considerable amount of time with the dealer. An incompetent significant motor franchisee who sponsors Sunderland Football Club and whose surname starts with a letter very close to the end of the alphabet. Second only to the similar gentleman whose name is close to the start of the alphabet who moved into public transport to show his (companys) incompetence.
Allegedly