New Car Breakdowns?

Volvoboy

Driving home today and i was driving behind a AA Truck and on the back was a '08 D Audi A5.

Kinda supprised me being a new car with not much wear on the car being towed bay a On call mecanic and not being able to fix it by the road side kinda made me wonder has there been many new car breakdowns?


It was a 2.7TDi if that makes a diffrence.


To crack open the aul chestnut ''They dont make them like they used to'':pac:

omb0wyn5ehpij9

I can't recal seeing any at all :pac:

Steve

Happened to my mates A4 1.8T (07)
It just died on the motorway. Turned out to be a loose connector on the ECU.
I'm surprised you saw AA towing it - don't Audi have their own call-out mechanics as part of the warranty on a new car?

-Chris-

There's AudiAssist on all new Audis for 2 years, but they will subcontract the work to whoever's best to get to you quickly.

New cars break down, they're complicated machines and sometimes things go wrong. It's the nature of the beast.

Bogger77

AudiChris wrote: »

New cars break down, they're complicated machines and sometimes things go wrong. It's the nature of the beast.

But it's how the garage deals with the issue thats more important, tbh.

mikedragon32

Bogger77 wrote: »

But it's how the garage deals with the issue thats more important, tbh.

And getting the car towed back to a dealership is probably the best course of action imho.

-Chris-

Bogger77 wrote: »

But it's how the garage deals with the issue thats more important, tbh.

+1,000,000

Guy:Incognito

Bogger77 wrote: »

But it's how the garage deals with the issue thats more important, tbh.

Not to a lot of people. Some like to deal with pure figures to have a good moan.

Personnally I wouldnt even mention an issue after its resolved assumeing its done so quickly and properly (drop the car, pick up courtesy car and do reverse when its done, no hassle). Which again just boils down to the dealers more than the car.

BrianD3

I drive over 30k miles a year on mainly N roads and I see very few newish cars broken down on the side of the road, very little evidence of cars broken down, very few undamaged cars being towed etc.

Yet reading the pessimism in this forum you'd swear that it's like a wasteland out there with broken down new cars (particularly certain makes :rolleyes:) littering the place.

Now I do see plenty of 12-15 year old bangers abandoned and/or broken down at the side of the road, probably a combination of abuse and normal wear and tear.

As for "they don't make 'em liek they used to" well people must have short memories. It's not so long ago that you'd be lucky to get a car with power steering, service intervals were 5k, passive safety was sh1t, diesel engine technology was laughable, engines were often worn out by 100k miles etc. And some cars still had serious rust issues up till the mid nineties - I'm thinking of the Mk3 Fiesta here which was introduced in 1989.

Leprechaun77

I know two guys with 2007 VW Passats who had problems....four of us were stuck at Christmas time (car wouldn't start) and had to wait for roadside assistance, who in fairness arrived within 60 mins. Unfortunately, they could not fix the problem and towed it to the garage for the following morning. Car was two and a half weeks in for repair. The other guy bought an '07 from a Main Dealer (used), and the car caused problems after about a week or two. Towed to garage and needed some major engine work I believe....the guy was incensed and gave them a piece of his mind...he got a courtesy car (Jetta)for several weeks until the problem was fixed. My company have a fleet of lease cars and apart from these incidents above there hasn't been anything of MAJOR note in the last 7-8 years.....Believe it or not, the most reliable car on our fleet seems to be the Opel Astra, which some of the younger guys drive....:eek:

maidhc

My experience of cars and machines in general is that most things that go wrong tend to go wrong in the first 12-18 mths.

Táck

you wont see any new japanese cars on the back of a tow truck

pburns

AudiChris wrote: »

There's AudiAssist on all new Audis for 2 years, but they will subcontract the work to whoever's best to get to you quickly.

New cars break down, they're complicated machines and sometimes things go wrong. It's the nature of the beast.

Sorry Chris, but that just ain't good enough in 2008. Fair enough, niggly things go wrong especially in first few months. But for a brand new car to actually BREAK DOWN and leave you waiting for a tow-truck? It defeats the whole purpose of all the technology if it's not tested to the nTH degree before being let near a showroom. The Japs are very good at this. The French aren't. Some others are somewhere in between:rolleyes:

And dare I point it out but all the problems I see listed on this thread so far refer to VAG cars?

I also witnessed a customer having a hissy fit one Saturday when he called into a very well known VW/Audi dealership about a recurring problem with his van. The saleslady shrugged & told him to contact the workshop on Monday, didn't bother her ass even taking his name.

Guy:Incognito

pburns wrote: »

Sorry Chris, but that just ain't good enough in 2008. .

I dont get that attitude. A new feature thats just been created in 2008 is as new and untried as something we now take for granted was 20 years ago. Things are much more complictaed nowadays.

If we are to take the "this is 2008" attitude then notign should ever break and we should only have to buy somethign once to do us for the rest of our lives.

maidhc

Stekelly wrote: »

I dont get that attitude. A new feature thats just been created in 2008 is as new and untried as something we now take for granted was 20 years ago. Things are much more complictaed nowadays.

Indeed, and this is always the case. I don't think it is possible for a manufacturer to test anything in the way real life does.

Invariably every design has weak points, and generally it is only when a vehicle is out for a few years that quality control issues sort themselves out.

And let no one talk about Jap cars, we all know about Toyotas VVTi debacle.

Bogger77

I suppose firstly, the OP is being a little premature in saying the car's broken down. My current car, bought from new was delivered to my house from the garage, as I was working the other side of the country and couldn't collect it. The plates were put on it as it was being tied down to the recovery truck. This car may have been transfered from one dealer to another as part of a swap between garages, customer wants x colour, dealer hasn't got one, but swaps the one he has with anothe dealer, so customer doesn't have to wait for shippment from factory. Dealer makes sale, everyone happy. Lots of the AA, RAC etc guys are indies, so are available for hire.

Car's do break down, and since not all car's are tested to destruction at the factory, before shipping , it's possible that any new car could be the 1 in 10,000 that fails etc.
As I said above, it's how the dealer resolves the issue that counts, some are better than others, some "brands" better than others.
I drive a toyota, my previous car was a toyota, both bought from the same dealer. My previous car was totalled in a crash, (not my fault), but when I popped into the dealers to cancel a booked service for it, the sales guy, who knew my name, offered me a loaner car for a month while I was sorting out insurance etc, he even said, that it didn't matter if I wasn't considering a toyota, or even buying from him, but I was a customer once, that's all that counted. I was one the VVTi people who required a new ECU, they called me to tell me that I should get it done, arranged a time, and had a loaner car sitting outside for me the day I dropped in. I've alwas been offered a loaner car while my car's been in for a service, even just a quick brake shoe replacement (squeeky brakes).
Certain dealers seem to feel that it's privillage for you to buy from them. While I was between cars, see above, I called into several garages to look at what was available. I was driving a brand new rental car, about 6 weeks old, that the insurance company supplied, I was working in Galway, so popped into Hogans, Windsor and Western Motors on the same day. In Hogan's and Windsor, I was given brochures, tour of car, offered test drive, asked about trade-in/financing/delivery dates and given the sales rep's business card, with their mobile number. All pretty much what you'd expect. Popped into Western motors, as I always fancied a Golf but hadn't test driven one. Walked into the nice shiny building in Ballybrit, receptionst pointed me in the direction of the VW section of the showroom, and called the sales rep on the phone to let him know there was a customer, the sales dude didn't even bother coming over to me. The car's weren't open, so had to try peer in through windows. Eventually, I went over to distrub the sales guy, in the totally empty of customers showroom, his attitude amazed me, it was as if the guy thought that I, a potential customer, was taking him away from more important things, like solitaire. From my 30 minutes in the place, I learnt nothing about the car I'd asked to see. I got the pleasure of sitting in a stationary car, parked in the lot. I left with no brochures, no prices, and no sales reps number or business card. I also left with the firm intention not spend the extra cash on the prestige Golf. I was shocked at how badly treated I was, most places a guy drives in with a rental car, looking to buy, would be surrounded by sales people, as they know if you've got no trade-in and are in a rush.

pburns

maidhc wrote: »

And let no one talk about Jap cars, we all know about Toyotas VVTi debacle.

Yeah, I had one. But Toyota had the new block replaced within a week.

My local mechanic/trader (from whom I bought the car) assured me if it had been many other makes (including some Japs I'd wager) there would be all sorts of red tape and side-stepping...

Stekelly wrote: »

I dont get that attitude. A new feature thats just been created in 2008 is as new and untried as something we now take for granted was 20 years ago. Things are much more complictaed nowadays.

If we are to take the "this is 2008" attitude then notign should ever break and we should only have to buy somethign once to do us for the rest of our lives.

O yeah, just throw on a heap of 'new features' without any sort of adeqete stress-testing during R&D. Sure why bother paying development drivers or testing around the Nurburgring - won't the first fifty-thousand customers finish off the R&D work for us?