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Audi A4 2004 and earlier

6042 messages,  Last post on Sep 20, 2011 at 4:33 PM

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What is this discussion about? Audi A4, Sedan

Messages Page 603 of 605

#6016 of 6042 Audi lease termination - what a fiasco by turbofun

Jan 16, 2008 (12:37 am)

I want to share my Audi A4 lease termination experience so others can learn from my mistake. Having had a positive experience with an A6 lease via Seattle’s University Audi, I decided to lease my second Audi in 2004, this time, an A4.
 
One month before the end of the lease, I went through the lease termination inspection. Got dinged for $1300 items: a door ding for $125, two scratched wheels at $276 each, and a couple other things I wouldn’t challenge. I live in the city and to me, scratched rims and door dings are normal wear and tear. However, this is not Audi’s position, thus there was no negotiation. It was not a positive experience dealing with Audi Finance. I found them arrogant and ambivalent. I thought that customer retention would matter to them. My misunderstanding.
 
My car had low miles (27K for 4 y/o car) and was in good condition; no problems to date. It also had a low residual, so I thought that if I were going to have to pay an additional $1,300 to relieve myself of the car, perhaps I should consider purchasing it or at least have someone I know purchase it. It was a good car; good price; made sense.
 
Very close to the end of the contract, I took the car in for a service inspection to make sure there was nothing glaringly wrong with it before purchase. When I checked in with the service department that day, I was told it was going to be $200 for the inspection. Huh? Then the service rep told me the car was out of warranty. What? The lease isn’t up yet. Yep, the warranty had expired three days prior. Steaming, I told them to go ahead and do the inspection.
 
Turns out the power steering rack was going out (as well as a couple of less major things) and it was going to be about $2,500 to repair it. Well, clearly, Audi isn’t going to want this car back with such a serious problem. A conversation with the district warranty manager should give us clearance to repair it under warranty. Nope, they wouldn’t do it. That decision was completely illogical to me, regardless of you'd run the numbers. They’d rather take it back, ship it off to auction and drop the car “as is” on some unsuspecting buyer. Again, a warranty department that has no interest in customer retention either.
 
(So, head’s up if you are a recent purchaser of a dark blue Audi A4 VIN WAULT68E94A011017)
 
And my sales guy, who I’ve bought two Audis from, was no where to be seen through this process, although I know he was aware of what was happening. He too was completely uninterested in retaining me as a customer. In fact, my comment to the Sales Manager (Ivan Velkov) at University Audi was “across the Audi corporation there is universal disinterest in keeping me as a customer.”
 
I could provide more details to this story that would better reflect the how silly it all was, but for brevity’s sake, I won’t. Suffice it to say, Audis are selling well these days. Don’t be surprised if you don’t matter to them. I have been a European car owner for over 30 years. They’re great cars. I still have one. However, I did just purchase my first Japanese car. It’s a blast.

#6017 of 6042 Re: Audi lease termination - what a fiasco [turbofun] by andys120

Jan 23, 2008 (7:14 am)

Replying to: turbofun (Jan 16, 2008 12:37 am)
I've learned two things from your post-
 
-First it's a bad idea to lease unless you're prepared to pay thru the nose for normal wear and tear at the end of the lease.
 
-Audi could use a more Customer-oriented dealer network. Actually I knew that from my prior experience as an Audi owner. I would urge owners to seek out an independent shop for all non-warranty maintainence and repair work as I did, it's much cheaper. Independent VW specialists can handle most work on Audis as well.
 
Great cars, so-so dealers.
 
Turbofan should have been aware that the warranty period is normally determined
by age and mileage, not the length of the lease.

#6018 of 6042 Re: Audi lease termination - what a fiasco [turbofun] by niner1

Jan 23, 2008 (9:01 pm)

Replying to: turbofun (Jan 16, 2008 12:37 am)
Experiencing similar customer retention issues with my low mileage 03 A4 3.0Q. I got tired of turning in cars on Audi's terms and getting hit up for normal wear and tear so I decided to buy this one. For the past two years I have been plagued with inexplicable dead batteries, or failures to start because the key sensor wouldn't recognize my key. I never got an argument from the service department in regard to replacing defective lock cylinders under warranty (or covering repeats of the same repairs after warranty), but the service department refused to look deeper and ask the question as to why the recurring problem, nor did they care that I was repeatedly inconvenienced. The details of my story are a case study for Audi customer care, and I won't bore you with the play by play, but I too found they could care less about my customer experience. I raised my issue with Audi North America Customer Advocates... they suggested that I should talk to the sales manager to see if I could negotiate a deal on a new car. I drove my Audi loaner to the Infiniti dealer tonight.. I'm negotiating a deal on a new car, but its a G35X. I wanted to make it work with Audi, but it became evident that loyalty is a one way street with them.

#6019 of 6042 P reg Audi a4 2.6 v6 by newcombe

Jun 08, 2008 (4:16 pm)

Hello, Please bear with me as am not really any good at these forums. They really are new to me, No excuse. Please could someone tell me if their are any modifications available at all for my Audi? I know the engine is getting on a bit now? but i really love the car.I have read in other places that its not worth attepting any air flow mods, And i know this first hand, as racing filters actually decrease power.Can the engine be mapped? is it to old. is there any good exhaust systems available??Is their any turbos i might be able to add(+coolant system!)
My naive brain would have thought i might have been able to squeeze close to 200bhp
out of her instead of the current 150,although am under no illusions a few horses will have escaped over the years. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

#6020 of 6042 Re: P reg Audi a4 2.6 v6 [newcombe] by andys120

Jun 13, 2008 (10:14 am)

Replying to: newcombe (Jun 08, 2008 4:16 pm)
You haven't recieved any replies because most of us are Yanks and AFAIK Audi has never offerred a 2.6 for North America. IIRC there was a 170hp 2.7 in the Audi 90 (an underrated car) and the 193hp 2.8 that was in my A4/B5s.
 
Very little in the way of performance mods was offered for the 2.8. Be aware that any mods, with the possible exception of a free-flowing exhaust system will adversely affect your gas mileage as I understand UK petrol prices are horrendous.
 
You might try www.audiworld.com, best of luck.

#6021 of 6042 Re: P reg Audi a4 2.6 v6 [andys120] by newcombe

Jun 18, 2008 (1:26 am)

Replying to: andys120 (Jun 13, 2008 10:14 am)
You are correct. Petrol is now £1.25 per liter.Thank you for the advise it is sincerely appreciated.

#6022 of 6042 getting a professional opinion before buying a 2001 audi by rb6p

Jul 11, 2008 (8:44 pm)

sorry to have to post such a neophyte question, but I don't know where else to look.
 
After lots of searching, I found an excellent deal on a 2001 a4 for relatively low mileage. I'm pretty clueless about cars, and aside from obvious issues during a test drive I'll most likely overlook significant red flags.
 
How does one go about arranging an evaluation by an audi service center? And how much will it cost me?
 
Thanks in advance for any clarification.

#6023 of 6042 Re: getting a professional opinion before buying a 2001 audi [rb6p] by andys120

Jul 12, 2008 (4:29 am)

Replying to: rb6p (Jul 11, 2008 8:44 pm)
It should be as simple as calling the Service Dept. and making an appointment. It's about an hour's work, the going rate in most places is about $85-$100/hr.
 
An independent Audi/VW tech might do it for less, good luck..

#6024 of 6042 Synthetic by sarnman

Nov 25, 2008 (2:04 pm)

Does anyone know when Audi started using synthetic oil in their engines from the start? I just bought a 2004 A4 1.8t (34k miles) and am hoping to avoid the dreaded sludge problem. The salesmen told me it has always had synthetic but I'm not sure. Thanks.

#6025 of 6042 heated seats by richb1

Dec 11, 2008 (3:54 pm)

Anyone else having this issue? It appears that the driver's seat has developed a "hot spot" for lack of a better description. It's located under the right thigh area and gets uncomfortably hot, even at setting 3. I can imagine what Audi would charge for repair, and I suppose I can do without it, although I certainly will miss the warmth ! Any suggestions?

Messages Page 603 of 605

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