AUDI A5 IS AWFUL it's official

[boom boom]

Well the news we have all been dreading

In the Which Car Survey 2009 the Audi A5 came a poor 121st out of 121 cars tested for reliability due to electrical problems. This is not good news for all us owners, even the ford fiesta out done the A5 in 5th place

Time to either sell or get the windows tinted and wear a mask

[Cosmicblue]

Not good reading:
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bargain..._id=53949&ct=5

Were the 1st generation vehicles that bad?

[audilad]

Had mine for 23 months now,never had any reliability/leccy probs

[boom boom]

+1 I have had mine just over a year done about 20k and have had no problems, but it's not good to read about these things

[RGBArgee]

Where do they get this rubbish from. I have never been let down by an Audi.

Cheers

RG

[boom boom]

Mind you mine is still at the dealers but not for anything serious, just getting used to the triptronic gearbox again in the BMW

[nikenike]

Proof, if ever it was needed, that audi A5s are reliable. 3 people have never had a problem. What complete " rubbish " the survey must be !

[UberS5]

Originally Posted by RGBArgee

Where do they get this rubbish from. I have never been let down by an Audi.

Cheers

RG

+1

[mactrack]

Originally Posted by RGBArgee

Where do they get this rubbish from.

That will be the people who drive them.

[ShadyJC]

Everybody who posted that you have no problems, you have completely jinxed yourself.

[doubledoom]

Had mine nearly two years and in the first year it had about 5 faults. All niggly faults that took about 8 dealer visits. Many of those faults have occured on other A/S5s.

So, it doesnt surprise me to see if fair so badly. My wife's A3 cab has had two visits back to the dealer. Audi's famed reliability has not been obvious to me.

[nocarder]

A single case , like yours, does not set the overall level of reliability....but why did you buy a second AUDI if your first one had problems...???

[doubledoom]

Originally Posted by nocarder

A single case , like yours, does not set the overall level of reliability....but why did you buy a second AUDI if your first one had problems...???

Mine is not a single case. The faults I had were the same faults that many others posted on this board.

I bought a second one as I thought the A3 being a more mature model would not have any issues. It was also on order before it was available and some of the S5 issues had not occurred by then.

I will not be buying another Audi though in the near future.

[Quickag]

...but not for me. I am extremely happy with my A5. I had my 15,000 mile service performed at 13,500. The only complaint I had was a very slight steering wheel shake at about 68 mph. The dealership kept the car overnight and after a number of investigations they tried some tests I had never heard of, which revealed an imbalance under weighted pressures. They installed four new tires at no charge. I then went on a 4,000 mile trip without any problems. Previous to the A5, I had an Audi Coupe, and an A6--no complaints with those, either. I hope I am in the majority.

[JohnG]

Originally Posted by RGBArgee

Where do they get this rubbish from. I have never been let down by an Audi.

Cheers

RG

Well, not from JD Power. A quick look shows the A5 holding it's own with MB and BMW. And the 2008 and 09.

[Mack Buffet]

Nice to see it in print, mine's been a nightmare.

Two of my colleagues ordered them, now one is having troubles after 1200 miles.

Lovely car when something isn't going wrong, unfortunately for me at least, it's not very often something isn't going wrong, so I'm not surprised to the see the article. In fact it makes me feel less alone !

[RGBArgee]

Are the problems cited engine or model specific? I've had no real ongoing problems with Audi for years.

[shelltell]

Well in the eleven months of having the car(1.8 t) until as you know some scum bag stole it, it had to have a new oil pump after 3 weeks from picking it up from the dealers.

Apart from that, we didn't have any further faults at all.

Counting down the days now until the new 2.0 arrives.

[Mulski]

I've never had any problems with my A4 and current A6 (apart from front tyres) and am due to pick up my A5 Sline Cab on 1 Sept - this info is starting to make me nervous - hope I don't have any probs.

[RGBArgee]

Originally Posted by shelltell

Well in the eleven months of having the car(1.8 t) until as you know some scum bag stole it, it had to have a new oil pump after 3 weeks from picking it up from the dealers.

Apart from that, we didn't have any further faults at all.

Counting down the days now until the new 2.0 arrives.

Good luck... whens the 3.0 or 4.2 coming??

CheersRG

[shelltell]

cheers r.g

the insurance would only stretch to a 2.0L!!!! HOPEFULLY 1st sept delevery

[Mack Buffet]

Originally Posted by RGBArgee

Are the problems cited engine or model specific? I've had no real ongoing problems with Audi for years.

The 1.8 and 2.0 manual gearboxes. Clutches display varying degrees of 'crunchiness' and 'squeeking' when hot. Mine's (1.8) had a new gearbox/clutch at @ 10,000mls and is doing it again from 14000mls. My colleague's (2.0 211PS) is starting to do it at 1200mls.

Another colleague's (2.0 180PS) with 1000mls on it did it for a day then got better. I fully expect a call from him soon..

Dealer confirmed boxes are the same. Got to be a design fault. I would not buy another FWD A5

[RGBArgee]

Having 'lived' with a FWD TT in 2008 for 6 months, I would not have a FWD car of any sort again. First car was an old Mini (Modified!) and that was great, have had varios FWD over the years, Golf GTis of all types (except the 5+) but having had Quattros since 2002 am well hooked.

Cheres

RG

[Giom]

Mmmm got mine on July 21s (grins). B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L!

No electrical problem per se yet. But the AMI (btw I do have the nice little drawer in the glove box, plus the pocket in the glove box's door) behaved strange yesterday playing from my iPod as I started the car. It did all sorts of interference for a while (I checked the connector and it was properly put so I dont know what happened).

Also the 1st gear is actually very very tough to engage...

I also notice some funny stuff going on when the car is cold, accelerating in 2nd gear... as though it stops accelerating for a short while. Weird.

Will go to the dealer next week to pick up my winter wheels and tires and will report the above.

I've had two A3's before which suffered no single faults.

[a5dude]

Originally Posted by Giom

Mmmm got mine on July 21s (grins). B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L!

No electrical problem per se yet. But the AMI (btw I do have the nice little drawer in the glove box, plus the pocket in the glove box's door) behaved strange yesterday playing from my iPod as I started the car. It did all sorts of interference for a while (I checked the connector and it was properly put so I dont know what happened).

Also the 1st gear is actually very very tough to engage...

I also notice some funny stuff going on when the car is cold, accelerating in 2nd gear... as though it stops accelerating for a short while. Weird.

Will go to the dealer next week to pick up my winter wheels and tires and will report the above.

I've had two A3's before which suffered no single faults.

wow its only end of july and you are getting your winter wheels already over there?

[www.WothRline.com]

It's really hard to tell what kind of problems you people have had by just reading this thread.

One have to consider that any survey asking customer what they think about their car can be very missleading when it's concluded.
We Audi owners are in general a bit more demanding compared to owners of other brands. I would think that someone spending as little as possible on a new Skoda or Kia is less picky than someone who just bought a new A5/S5.
The technology level in a Skoda or cheap Asian car is also on a different level. If there are no electrical features in the car, of course there is less to go wrong.

Toyota is one of the best cars in the world any survey, but what's included in the package - not much!
Option list and extra features are scares and people who buy Toyota accept that they don't get all the toys and gadgets, we Audi owners don't.

I've been working inside Volvo development for 20 years and any brand with high tech features will suffer from quality problems from time to time. Since most Premium brands share lots of technology like engine management systsem, infotainment system etc many problems found in Audi can and will most likely turn up in other brands as well.
Bosch, Denso, Mitsubishi, Siemens, Hella... the list just goes on are selling their products to any brand who want their products. Some brands demands some special features for their vehicles, but the core is still the same.

I had problems with ignition coils in my 2006 A4 2.0TS Quattro several times before someone told me that the engine couldn't be cleaned with running water. A wet cloth and nothing more inside the engine room!

Clutch had to be replaced because it didn't released properly, fuel gauge showed wrong volume and the tank had to be replaced... is this specific Audi problems?
Of course not, I had similar problems in my S60 T5.

We spend a lot of money on our cars and we spend lots of time and love on them and of course we shall deman high quality, but trusting a survey including all other than Premium brands is not reliable enough to say that A5/S5 are rubbish!

[MeteorSilver]

I have a repeat problem with the memory seats. Seats still work but intermittenly lose the memory setting and passenger seat adjustment. Dealer hasn't fixed it yet... Apart from that, 47k miles and going well.

The Which car reports have always wound me up. I think there's an inherent fault as people are always more likely to respond to their questionnaires if they have something to complain about - unless they're keen to self-justify buying a Korean or Japanese car.

We should do our own survey. Does anyone know how to set up a poll on this thread?

[SDS5]

[quote=www.WothRline.com;88523]It's really hard to tell what kind of problems you people have had by just reading this thread.

Since most Premium brands share lots of technology like engine management systsem, infotainment system etc many problems found in Audi can and will most likely turn up in other brands as well.
Bosch, Denso, Mitsubishi, Siemens, Hella... the list just goes on are selling their products to any brand who want their products. Some brands demands some special features for their vehicles, but the core is still the same.

Hi Worthrline,

I agree that very often its the component made by a third part fails, but aside from Design flaws, its the vehicle manufacturers responsibility to do an incoming Quality inspection on the parts and control their suppliers appropriately.

This is where I believe Audi/VW can improve things a lot. Take for example, the clutch issues that a number of cars have - defective throw out bearings, or the Vibration that some cars suffer from while others are perfect - traced to identical control arms - some are defective while others are not - presumably the rubber bushing material is out of spec. The list goes on and on, most of the faults can be traced to lack of good incoming quality control in my opinion.

There are a few design flaws but based upon your 20years of experience, could the difference in reliability between for example, Toyota vs Audi reliability simply stem from a stricter manufacturing process?

How does Volvo Quality process compare with brands like Toyota in your experience?

As for anecdotal experience with reliability, a colleague at work with an A5 had three control modules and a remote door sensor fail in the first few thousand miles. And others I know have had a mix of problems ranging from MMI's, Engine ECU, LED DRL, Lane assist, locking control modules, and seat-memory failures. I think the Which Car survey is on the mark.

I have no problems on my S5 by comparison (but at least one latent mechanical defect lurking)

[Giom]

Originally Posted by a5dude

wow its only end of july and you are getting your winter wheels already over there?

I'm not installing them yet, just getting them from the dealer to put them in storage

[www.WothRline.com]

My last assignment at VCC was as program manager for Infotainment Quality responsible for audio, navigation, Bluetooth, MOST, telematics etc and it was tough. All brands are pushed to get new models/options out on the market in shorter time in order not to miss any customer to a competitor and that means that testing and verification often are compromised. You just have to rely on the supplier and in some aspects take chances. Most often it will work, but suppliers are not telling everything and they too take chances... From the time a quality problem is discovered it's a race to find the cause, get acceptance from the management to get a task going with both money and manpower. The hardest part after that is to convince the supplier that there's a problem. Don't think that suppliers accept their responsibilities just like that and start working on a solution - No sir! It's quite common that you have to spend weeks and sometimes months before they understand the problem that your customers are experiencing and then there's a struggle with economists of how the solution shall be financed and now you might see some action to get a quality fix...

I will not mention companies here, but there are some major suppliers that are just terrible to work with in the aspect of quality task!
Some suppliers are too big and they will dictate conditions to their customers.

I would think that this is not much different between Volvo and Audi. What I do believe is that Audi has a better focus on quality all ready on the drawing board and in the concept phase. The general quality touch and feel in all details in Audi is way above what I'm used to from Volvo, both as customer and as a Volvo employee.
By this I don't say that we should accept quality problems, but I do think that the more perfect something is, the more likely you are to notice the little things that you would never seen in a cheaper vehicle with less features.

Next problem of today's modern vehicles is the complexity of all the new technology. If a cmpany have 500 people involvded in designing, developing and producing a system and you still find problems out on the field you can understand the problem when it's supposed to be solved at a dealer...
I don't know things are in other countries, but in Sweden the general employee in the workshop used to be someone who didn't want to go to school and didn't want to learn new things and computers.
The gap between the vehicle technology and the workshop is gigantic and without deep skills and/or network there's a huge risk that this will end up in more and new problems for the customer.
Don't get me wrong, there are some fantastic mechanics out there - the problem is to find them!

Many brands doesn't own their sales organisation any more and they sell cars to dealers and then the dealer is responsible for the customer.
This is a problem!