I have a well maintained 1998 1.8T A4 Quattro. The timing belt just broke on the I95 in North Carolina and the car was towed to the dealer in Greenville NC who had to replace the Cylinder head, valves etc. etc . etc. at a cost to me of $3,600.00 I spoke with Audi Customer Service and requested they open a file because the Audi advisory to dealers is to replace this belt at 90K PLUS miles and I was well well short of this. Now this advisory has to have a significant comfort margin for Audi, because a timing belt failure (as my costs show) is a very dramatic event just about trashing 1/2 the engine.
At first Audi Service followed up and researched the issue in an effort to decide whether Audi should offer in 100% of a percentage of the cost of this major repair. After telling me a decision would be reached within another day they suddenly went quiet on me for a week (despite having ALL my contact numbers). I rang them this morning and they told me that they feel NO responsibility, because the car is out of the warranty period (I guess 50K miles). Hmm I countered that the strict warranty was NOT the issue. The issue was that I maintained my car well (mostly at Audi dealers) and I follwed their own advisories strictly and was 20% in miles under the mileage for such a change.
Well to cut it short Audi Customer Service just repeated NO. I asked for a Supervisor to return my call. A "Brad Marshall", who said he was the max level I culd speak to at Customer Service, called me and reiterate the party line. No repsonsibility out of warranty. He also REFUSED to give me any name of any person higher up the corporate ladder. Hmmm
So in summary even if you strictly follow Audi dealer advisory maintenance schedules and have a major failure (and a timing chanin is a major failure because it has NO fall back safety precautions to limit damage like some other cars) Audi fells it is not at all concerned for the owner and feels not even a tiny bit of responsibility. Not even 10-25%. NOTHING.
Q: Has anyone else had similar experience?
What is concerning me here is that I am now getting unofficial feedback now that some dealers tell A4 owners to change timing belts between 60-70K Miles, so there has to be a history of failures here, which Corporate Audi has chosen to ignore. Probably because they would have to offer compensation in cases like mine.
Well my feelings are that I would NEVER buy another Audi after this experience.