Enough is enough!

[dragon]

I recently purchased my 11th Audi (A3 Sportback Black Edition 8Y). I’ve had Audis for the last 25 years but am falling out of love with the brand. Everything is now built around the Audi App. I need a smartphone to use some of the features and I even need to book my own car in for a service at the Dealers and pay extra for the use of a courtesy car. Ok I can live with that, but wait, if I want to access existing features such as dynamic cruise control or high beam assist then I’m told that’s a subscription only feature sir which costs extra!! The hardware and kit is already part of the car!. That Audi, is a step too far and if you continue on this path then I’m out. BMW tried it and there was enough customer pressure that they backed down. It’s time Audi customers also made a stand. What do you all think?

 

[NHN]

Personally as a retrofitter, it was a natural evolution tbh, takes work of us, however I'm understanding of how changes affect other industries, but tbh I do agreed it's a blatant **** take.

It's amazing how a car from Audi can be 90k & still require subscriptions, but a Chinese car with ridiculous tech is included, less than half the price & tbh on initial adverts looks damn impressive, vag need to change their thought processes or they will soon find themselves out of business.

 

[JKP]

I'm not actually disagreeing, but I must say there are many cheaper end cars that have loads of tech - theoretically. Some of it works so lousily it would be almost better to not have them at all. Especially some of the new "safety" features like lane keeping assistant.

But it is indeed ridiculous how the more the car costs the more you have to add options to get it on the same level as some more "basic" brands, and those options really cost. VW Golf for example has got 2/3 of the Audi A3 tech options list as a standard.

But as an owner of a newish Audi, I'm whole lot more ****** about the drop in build quality than the options policy. Just did my third seasonal tyre change, and now with the harder summer tyres back on, new rattles came up. Like there weren't enough to begin with, goddamit. I had a 8P A3 before, it was 6 years old when I got it, not a single rattle. I think I'd still drive it, if it hadn't had that one major electrical breakdown per year... might still had been worth fixing them, it was the best car I've ever owned, especially when compared to what the others were like back then.

I don't see the app as a problem. I find very useful how I can use it to remotely unlock the car or set the heater on. I can still book the services by phone, there's nothing I'm forced to do using the app if I don't want to. Ticked the adaptive cruise on the order though. Flipside of the coin, if the original buyer didn't feel the need to have it and left it out you can now buy it online if you want it. I think BMW went too far while trying to make Android Auto and Apple CarPlay into subscriptions.

 

[NHN]

Ironically I just fitted a new Dashcam u3000 front rear radar (£500, actually working on my own car for once) it has every single adas system included & the previous q800 had the same & tbh it was pretty damn good, however my A5 has all those too, in fairness I did buy this cam setup before the A5 otherwise I'd have opted for something else.