2005 AUDI A8 reviews

Audi A8 3.0L TDI Quattro 2005

This has been a most disappointing experience. The look of the car is fine but te problems started from day one. The PDI was very poor and there was still remenents of the wax coating left on several parts of the bodywork making it feel quite rough to the touch and dulled the appearance in places. The car is almost 3 years old now and has done 6000 miles only. We have had to endure squeaks and rattles from the seats, dashboard and door panels and to date they have never been cured. I am told that this is a common fault. The only way to overcome the squeaks and rattles is to leave the radio on a music programme to relieve the torture. The power boot soon gave up and you had to use it manually for quite a while and was eventually cured I was told by a software update. Have had intermittent trouble with the emission control system and the car is quite heavy on fuel and if you leave the engine on whilst you go to get something out of the boot the smell of fumes is unpleasant. Metal strips on the dashboard have worked their way loose and various warning lights have shown up from time to time. The electric wing mirrors sometimes develop a mind of their own but after a minute or so return to normal. The parking brake system malfunctioned on a number of occassions with the warning light appearing on the instrument panal and sometimes you had the warning light flashing for the whole of your journey. It happened so often that you never knew if it was a brake fault or an electronic malfunction. The screen for the driver information occasionaly had a mind of it’s own. On two occassions when I had to call out the Audi emergency service it took between 3 and four hours to get there although I must admit that I had parked the car in London and then called them. Generally I also feel that the build quality is not as good as it should be for a flagship model. The dealer service is fine but Audi’s customer complaint department leaves a lot to be desired.