Re: Put yourself in their position... (archive)

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: : In this instance, I believe voluntary means that the US government (NHTSA ?) hasn't required Audi of NA to recall the vehicles. The lawyers probably did their job and Audi avoids the additional embarassment of being forced to take action.

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: Agreed. The lawyers at Audi USA are doing their job by recommending the recall before it becomes mandatory.

: Now put yourself in Audi's shoes: There's a limited number of the upgrade kits available, and a limited rate at which you can do the upgrades (i.e. x cars per day per dealer). You've got to fight a fire, and you're gonna fight it where it burns the hottest first.

: How much publicity have you seen about the TT problems in the US media? I haven't seen any. In Germany, this is all over the news, and I don't mean just the car mags. This is mainstream, Time/Newsweek-level news, i.e. my grandmother has probably read about it in the daily newspaper... Audi is under "Zugzwang" (pressure to do something) in Germany, and do something fast.

: Also, how many TT's have been sold in the US? I don't think it's that many. In Germany, I know it's quite a lot, as the car has been out in the public's hands for almost a year over there.

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: : My big question is, Why the delay between the Euro recall and the NA recall? I don't buy the argument about Americans not driving fast enough to make it worth while. Based on what I've read on these bimmer pages and what I've personally seen and done, Americans ocassionally drive more than fast enough to make it worth while for Audi to fix the problem.

: I think it's a matter of resources and fire fighting. Let's hope for Audi that no US customer wraps their TT around a tree before they do the recall here in the US...

Thanks for the response. You make a valid point, however, the fact/possibility that parts are limited should not have made a significant difference in when Audi verbally made positive comment on this issue. You don't have to have the parts in hand to say you're going to do something. In fact, the comment that they've made to date implies that the parts aren't available anyway.

I don't pay much attention to what's happening to the TT. However, as an M3 driver, I would be highly disappointed at BMW if they gave me the initial impression that the US matters less. If Audi is set up like BMW, then I believe the real responsiblity for this response rested with Audi of NA, not AUDI. I suspect that an enthusiast is more sensitive to these issues than the public at large. As you pointed out, Germany is the real hot spot, not NA. I'm sure Audi doesn't want the equivalent "sudden acceleration" thing to happen again.

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