Are Audi going to get another Watchdog bashing?

[anonymous-user]

Saw the summary in the Tv guide about a suspension system that breaks after a few years, the only likely suspect I know is the DRC system used on the RS cars.

Anyone else like to offer their candidates..

[anonymous-user]

Got that wrong as it is Citroën who are getting the treatment this week

[Riley Blue]

Ford springs breaking after a couple of years?

[Blakewater]

Probably a couple of people have spent two or three years hitting speed humps at 90mph and have decided to write a letter to the drunk lady at the BBC complaining about how terrible the car maker is rather than taking responsibility for their own actions.

[Pit Pony]

Blakewater said:

Probably a couple of people have spent two or three years hitting speed humps at 90mph and have decided to write a letter to the drunk lady at the BBC complaining about how terrible the car maker is rather than taking responsibility for their own mess.

I saw it, and PAS are going to cover 80% of the cost on cars up to 10 years and 120 K miles. If there are a few 'rogue' customers who cause the faults by using the car in such a way that it wears out early, then it makes sense that this will cost them almost nothing, compared to the sales that they stood to loose by saying there was no issue.

Clever, because we all know that the actual cost is normally 10% of the retail price, so they'll just about breakeven on those they actually fix and "pay" 80% of the cost. Then they'll pass that cost onto the supplier, anyway.

Like a mate who had PSA's "Goodwill" pay the cost of parts because a crankshaft seal on a 20K car out of warranty had started leaking. £300 of free parts and £450 of labour.

Yeah £30 of free parts actually/probably.

[GoTea]

Yes, AUDI were in trouble again on Watchdog.

It was their claim that all their models are rated to 5* on NCAP where in reality many of the top end models (including R8) did not meet 5*.

Various recorded calls to AUDI HQ and undercover filming of sales guys saying they all have 5* NCAP, etc.

[Rich_W]

GoTea said:

Yes, AUDI were in trouble again on Watchdog.

It was their claim that all their models are rated to 5* on NCAP where in reality many of the top end models (including R8) did not meet 5*.

Various recorded calls to AUDI HQ and undercover filming of sales guys saying they all have 5* NCAP, etc.

That was on a while ago. And IIRC Audi said they'd do something about it for the future. Fair enough. The whole thing was bks anyway. The BBC kept saying "lied" when in fairness to the car sales people. They were just wrong. Not like they knew the truth and told a lie anyway. And would anyone actually think a Audi or BM or VW or even Skoda was unsafe?

The whole story was fishy anyway. The guy that started it all had properly destroyed his R8 in an alleged "45mph accident" But seemed to be trying to shift that blame to Audi for selling him a car that wasn't NCAP 5 star rated??? The ACTUAL crash testing for cars to get Type approval is probably beyond NCAP anyway. NCAP is just a marketing thing. Like the JD Power surveys. No legal reason to do it, but great for marketing.


If Watchdog are just replaying the old footage and implying Audi have ignored them. Then surely Audi UK should be looking at the BBC legally for false representation? I can't imagine it makes any difference though. The BBC get to "win" against that nasty horrible car company And Audi continue to shift thousands of cars every year regardless

Edited by Rich_W on Wednesday 2nd July 22:24

[GoTea]

It was the last in the series and they may have been discussing their previous campaigns.

I wasn't really watching to be honest - I was on Mumsnet

[Impasse]

The NCAP stuff is a pinch of salt thing anyway. Renault have just been docked a whole star on the new Clio because a warning message wasn't repeated in enough languages.