aaarrrrggggghhh is our warranty really worth anything

[bhprs]

hi all,
took my 2010 a4 avant into dealer today for afew bits

1 clunk from 1st to second when cold / improves with a few miles on it (cant find it sir )

2 seat runner rocks on drivers side

3 noise from clutch when up and down on pedal (not pedal) sounds like a bearing (cant find it )
4 leather on drivers seat boulster wearing badly after only 10000 mls (it wear ,how you get in the seat ) everything bloody wears on a car ,perhaps i should just not use it.

5 dab radio forever cutting out and loosing station (why did i bother spending another 500 quid .

anyone else have these issues and if so did you get them ressolved .Who do i contact at audi to vent .

regards

[Ardy]

Only ones I can relate too are the seats and dab.

I also thought initially the DAB was pretty poor but now I kind of see the pattern of where reception is good and not and it turns out its always the same places I loose signal - so fair play its the coverage when in built up areas or in the middle of nowhere (excuses for everything:p).

But in general I think its pretty good and would miss it for sure. Presuming you have the radio set to DAB & FM then it should auto switch between the two. I have never had it completely drop for any more than a second when switching - often get the last few words repeated infact which can be annoying when popping in and out of signal:p. Anyway if its none of those then id agree its most likely a fault?

As for the seat - all i can say is I had a similar problem in an Alfa within the first year and about 8k i think and after contacting the equivalent of audi uk for alfa directly I managed to get the cover replaced. I would definitely agree that assuming you have not been getting in and out the car with back pockets full of screwdrivers then its should not be too bad by now - mine only has very light creases which im sure would come out with some attention and that's after 14k of mostly town driving so in and out the car all the time.

Anyhew thats my bit - good luck with all the niggles - sorry cant help on more. Keep on at them reg the seat if its that bad - maybe post a pic here and we can give a better opinion.

[SunnyBard]

leather on drivers seat boulster wearing badly after only 10000 mls

dab radio forever cutting out and loosing station (why did i bother spending another 500 quid .


I have the leather/alcantara nothing is wearing at all after the same mileage, there is one crease developing but with my ample girth I can't really object to that.

DAB is something I wouldn't buy again, the first few weeks I was really annoyed with it, then it somehow got better, I worked out that it's not always weak signal that causes it, DAB is likely to drop-outwhen you're passing another DAB transmitter i.e. not the one you're listening to, which accounts for two of my blackspots, but in general mobile coverage isn't good enough I feel. I did consider adding a roof mounted DAB aerial instead of the in-glass one, but ICBA now... seems to have been worse again since the nights have started drawing in.

[John140]

DAB is something I wouldn't buy again, the first few weeks I was really annoyed with it, then it somehow got better, I worked out that it's not always weak signal that causes it, DAB is likely to drop-outwhen you're passing another DAB transmitter i.e. not the one you're listening to, which accounts for two of my blackspots, but in general mobile coverage isn't good enough I feel. I did consider adding a roof mounted DAB aerial instead of the in-glass one, but ICBA now... seems to have been worse again since the nights have started drawing in.
I would'nt touch it in a car, I understand BMW were an early adopter of DAB radios, and they had loads of grief from owners.

[theskyfox]

Ok. First of all...I'd have to say the warranty is definately worth it. Ive only a few times had to use it, but each time Southend Audi have been very quick and non-fuss at sorting the issues out. They have never moaned about giving me a courtesy car either.

I can relate to you on the seats and dab too. I also had a bad squeak on my dash which they quickly fixed. If you can speak to a technician rather than a salesman you will actually get a decent real conversation (spoken through experience as of last week). Only advise I can really give is keep speaking to them if youve got issues, and insist on speaking to a tech.

As for the DAB radio..thats no fault of the car. DAB radio coverage is still pretty rubbish in the UK, which is why youll still notice the FM/AM modes on your radio. Whilst near a city or town you will still get good DAB reception though which is better quality than normal radio. When working for John lewis, we used to have to do a postcode check online for peoples houses to make sure they had coverage before they were allowed to purchase a DAB set. The coverage will get better over time as the broadcasting stations are upgraded, and itl put extra resale value on your car one day.

-Andrew

[SunnyBard]

As for the DAB radio..thats no fault of the car. The coverage will get better over time as the broadcasting stations are upgraded
The BBC are due to add 40 DAB transmitter sites during this year, they seem to have completed 23 of those so far, but after that they have no plans to extend the network any further ...

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/foi/classes/disclosure_logs/rfi20110266_dab_transmitter_launch_dates.pdf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/transmitters/radio/digital_radio.shtml