Is it Legal ?

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TimR

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The tyre situation for 16" wheeled A2's is clearly ridiculus. How can Audi just wash their hands of customers, by saying the responsibility lies with the tyre manufacturer ? I've tried Audi Customer Services, and various Audi Dealers, all of them know that there are no factory fit tyres available for the car, and that there is a very spasmodic supply of what seems to be concidered an inferior Dunlop tyre.

My question is, should Audi actually be selling A2's on 16" wheels to the UK public if they know that no replacement tyres are available ? I wonder what trading standards would make of this practice ?

I had no idea that it was possible to get a free space saver option when I purchased my car, and have mentioned this to Audi Customer Service who say its my resposibility for not reading the sales brochure correctly !

I also asked if Audi customer services if they would offer some help in the cost of a spare wheel, but they said that on this occasion they did not see fit to support me.

When one of you, my fellow owners gets stuck with a puncture and is told, there are no tyres available you will probably feel as angry as I do now, I think its time to write some letters to the UK motoring press, what do you think ?

Regards, Tim.
 
I know I had some grief a couple of months back getting hold of a 16" Michelin Primacy but I didn't realise that other makes were as difficult to get hold of as well.

I agree that it is very infuriating if you have a puncture and have to replace just one tyre - usually to the same spec as the matching tyre, which in turn means a long wait for delivery or a lot of searching.. But I can see what their possible response would be - buy a pair of different brand which are availabe off the shelf if it bothers you that much.

With regard to the space saver, talk nicely to your local dealer. It worked in our case and we got a free tyre. Possibly the lone female driving at night tactic worked well.

Don't drink drive! Not only is it socially unaceptable, it also harms A2's.
Was a 1.4SE petrol. http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/uk14.htm http://www.audi-a2.co.uk/safety.htm
New A2 - Ebony Black, Red Leather, CC, Symphony + all the previous options we had.
 
Try mytyres.co.uk. They have a few makes of 185-50-16 tyres available.
 
You can't beat Audi customer services. For total indifference and useless replies that is. Probably a bigger turn off for prospective repeat customers than any other reason, it's certainly turned me off a repeat order.
 
The lack of replacement tyres is the very reason we sold a Peugeot 206CC - it was on 205/45ZR16 Goodyear GP1s and did not have a spare - all the 206 GTIs have them. "Can get you one in 2-3 days sir ! ! !". Peugeot dealer's response was "That must be a new size, we dont carry them" despite having had the car on the market for 3-4 years!!

I am sticking to cars with very common tyre sizes in future.

Ian

2002 1.4 Petrol SE, silver with climate control.
Why are NEARLY all the A2s in Lichfield are silver ? ? ?
 
The tyre size is one of the first things I check when looking at a new car. The brand new MK5 Golf has 195/65R15 tyres on some of the models. This size has an outside diameter of 634.5mm, which is over 7% bigger than the A2 size. Should be nice and comfy.

[24]
 
Thanks for your views, I wholey agree with the comments on Audi Customer Services, as a result I'm not going to replace my current A2 with a Tdi90 as I had planned, I'm going to put my Assistant General manager in a Nissan Z car insted of the TT she was about to order, and my Accountant is going to have an Impreza insted of an A4 he was about to order.

Between Audi customer services, and Guildford Audi, I feel completely turned off a potentially great product, I truely believe the A2 is an "undiscovered masterpiece", but maybe in truth Audi don't actually want to sell them because even at the high retail price they still lose money, and actually tell their dealers to try not to sell them !

I've been very lucky that in later life my as business took off that I've been able to have some really exciting company cars, Lotus, TVR, Porsche, Subaru, Mercedes Benz, but of all of them the A2 is the only one that now after two years of ownership is still as delightful and fun to drive as the first day I collected it. From my track day driving I've met and made friends with a fellow enthusiast who has a fleet of the most exotic cars imaginable, and we regularly drive these either on circuit or on the road, of course, practicing good "Road Craft",yet when I return one of his exotic, inefficient, clumbsy but wonderful toys to his cenral London underground car park, I always delight at seeing the A2 waiting to effortlessly and economically take me home, and to my eyes the A2 never looks out of place in a line up of Porshes, Ferrari's and othe
Audi you have lost an enthusiast for your products, and what had been a really good champion of your cause....I hope someone at Audi GmbH reads this page.

Regards,


Tim.
 
What's all the fuss about.

I have just bought 2 new top of the range Dunlop SP Sport 9000 tyres 185 50 R16 excellent tyres I might add certainly not inferior to any other brand. They are fitted to as standard to the new Mini Copper S. Next day delivery loads in stock. Job done.

Only cost £89 !

Am I missing something here....?

2002 A2 TDI SE - Silver - Open Sky System - Silver - 225 TT ,Bose,6 Play, Cruise
 
Well I have to agree, I had to get Dunlop's and I'm well impressed with the performance. They also have the added advantage of offering excellent protection to the rim.

Andrew - 2003 1.4 TDI Silver Climate
 
Trouble with the 9000 you get a lot of road noise in comparison to other tyres and they do tend to let quite quickly near the end of there life span.

I managed 9.5k out of the ones on the front of my mini but then again they put up with a battering after a couple of laps of the nurburg ring they werejust about in tact!!! So they should be very good on the A2

Did you go for the run flats like the mini or the normal ones?
 
Our front 9000's did 22,000 and still had tread left on them, but the tracking was out and they started to wear on one edge. re: road noice, always thought our A2 was extremely quiet in that department. They're the normal ones not the run flats..

2002 A2 TDI SE - Silver - Open Sky System - Silver - 225 TT ,Bose,6 Play, Cruise
 
Is the noise and life down to the runflat version? As I can't say I've noticed any increase in road noise I'm running P6000 on the front to scrub them off and the S9000 on the rear.

Andrew - 2003 1.4 TDI Silver Climate
 
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