Bert Wolfe Ford/Audi Poor Diagnostic and Repair Service Charleston, West Virginia

I purchased an Audi A4 Turbo Quattro in September of 2004.  I take this car to many places travelling to dog shows and needed dependable transportation.  After the original factory warranty ran out, the car has been nothing but a pain. 

The first thing that happened was the ignition coils going out.  On the first one, I took the car in and told them what was happening but they could not find a problem.  On driving it home, it started choking out and nearly stopping on me in traffic.  I turned right around and took it back to the dealership service department and they found a bad ignition coil. 

Two weeks later, the 2nd coil went out

Two months after the first two went out, I was traveling to SC and it happened again but this time, the car would not run.  I had to have it towed back to the dealership at a cost of $600.00 to me.  The last 2 ignition coils had gone bad. 

There was finally a recall on the ignition coils of these models and I had to take the car back and have them changed out once again. 

During the time I have had the car, every light bulb has gone out at least 2 times.  Each time, they replaced the bulbs but after I complained that this should not be happening, they finally checked and found corrosion in the fixtures.  They cleaned this and I did not have any more bulbs go out for about a year.  Now, it appears to be happening again.  Each time I get the car back from routing servicing, a light bulb goes out.  Additionally, the glove box in the car broke off of the hinge.  It cost me $400 to get this fixed - nothing is cheap on an Audi!!

Last year, my heater quit working.  When I took the car in, they told me there was nothing wrong with it and that I needed to give it time to heat up.  I explained that driving 50 miles to the dealership seemed to me to be enough time for a car to heat up.  They did a better check and diagnosed that my heater coil had gone bad in the car.  I had to have this and my radiator replaced to the tune of more than $1000. 

Last week, my car heater would not work once again.  It was blowing lukewarm and I took it back in.  After waiting several hours, they found some sort of restriction in the heating system and asked me to bring the car back in today (Monday).  I did and they have now called me and told me the heater core is bad once again and the cost of repair will be something over $600.00. 

My problem with all of this is that I have owned cars all my life and NEVER had a problem with a heater core - this car has not been involved in any wrecks and all of the normal servicing work has been handled by the dealership I purchased the car from.  I cannot believe that it is going to cost me an additional 600 to 700 to get a problem fixed that was fixed exactly one year ago. 

I am not sure if the problem is the car or the service department but can tell you that I am very unhappy with both areas.