Associate
- Joined
- 9 Sep 2008
- Posts
- 20
I bought an Audi A3 2.0 FSI Sport (2004) around 15 months ago with 40,000 miles on the clock. Got it for £9,200.
Over the past 15 months it was back to the original dealer in the first three months (during the 3 month warranty I was given) several times due to an ongoing coolant leak. This was never properly resolved and cropped up again (after the warranty expired 5 months later) resulting in a new coolant pipe having to be fitted. I also needed to replace the cam belt and some other fixes which meant I had spent ~£1000 on the car in the first 12 months. I only do around 10,000 miles a year so I have not really been pushing it too hard.
However, that is nothing compared to what I have been hit with today. I have been experiencing problems with the car dashboard resetting recently and booked it in to get it looked at. On the journey to the garage this morning I also noticed a warning light on my dashboard and the engine started juddering. The car was barely accelerating and refused to exceed 60mph.
Audi have now come back today and told me I need to replace my dashboard ~£560 to fix the first problem. With regards to the second problem with the engine, they have said I will need to replace numerous cylinders, gaskets, catalytic converter and one or two other parts. They have quoted £1750 for this. So overall I am looking at a £2310 repair job.
This is an absolute nightmare scenario for me as I do not have huge sums of cash right now so I am potentially going to have to go into some debt to pay for this. I can only see a viable solution of paying for this (so that the car will be functional and I retain full equity) and then trading it in as I can no longer deal with this. The customer service I have received from Audi has been exceptionally poor given the money I have had to spend with them over the past 15 months also (no courtesy cars and no callbacks from staff despite continued calls from myself being the main gripes)
Apologies for a bit of a rant but I am incredibly frustrated with Audi and will never buy one ever again. The car is probably worth around £6000 at the moment. I am hoping to trade this in as soon as the work is completed so that I can buy another car which is much cheaper to maintain and more reliable. I am thinking at this stage of a Ford Focus (stretching to around £7k). Is this the best I should be shooting for - or are there any others people can suggest?
Cheers
Over the past 15 months it was back to the original dealer in the first three months (during the 3 month warranty I was given) several times due to an ongoing coolant leak. This was never properly resolved and cropped up again (after the warranty expired 5 months later) resulting in a new coolant pipe having to be fitted. I also needed to replace the cam belt and some other fixes which meant I had spent ~£1000 on the car in the first 12 months. I only do around 10,000 miles a year so I have not really been pushing it too hard.
However, that is nothing compared to what I have been hit with today. I have been experiencing problems with the car dashboard resetting recently and booked it in to get it looked at. On the journey to the garage this morning I also noticed a warning light on my dashboard and the engine started juddering. The car was barely accelerating and refused to exceed 60mph.
Audi have now come back today and told me I need to replace my dashboard ~£560 to fix the first problem. With regards to the second problem with the engine, they have said I will need to replace numerous cylinders, gaskets, catalytic converter and one or two other parts. They have quoted £1750 for this. So overall I am looking at a £2310 repair job.
This is an absolute nightmare scenario for me as I do not have huge sums of cash right now so I am potentially going to have to go into some debt to pay for this. I can only see a viable solution of paying for this (so that the car will be functional and I retain full equity) and then trading it in as I can no longer deal with this. The customer service I have received from Audi has been exceptionally poor given the money I have had to spend with them over the past 15 months also (no courtesy cars and no callbacks from staff despite continued calls from myself being the main gripes)
Apologies for a bit of a rant but I am incredibly frustrated with Audi and will never buy one ever again. The car is probably worth around £6000 at the moment. I am hoping to trade this in as soon as the work is completed so that I can buy another car which is much cheaper to maintain and more reliable. I am thinking at this stage of a Ford Focus (stretching to around £7k). Is this the best I should be shooting for - or are there any others people can suggest?
Cheers