Audi A3 Mechantronic Failure

Last Monday, while travelling on Central Tunnel Expressway (CTE), my Audi A3 suddenly had a 'pop' sound and there was immediately lost of power. The engine/motor was still running as I could see the tachometer was not at zero revolution. The lost of drive was extremely dangerous while the car was on an expressway, in the middle of the road with heavy traffic. If I was not careful, there would be accident.

Fortunately, I was able to maneuver the 'dead' car slowly to the side of the expressway. I tried to restart the car and it managed to restart but there was no gear engaged. There was an transmission error message on the display gauge. The car had to be towed to Audi service centre.

It was discovered that the gear controller had failed. The gear controller is also known as the mechatronic. It is part of the infamous DSG (Direkt-Schalt-Getriebe) on VW and Audi cars (S-tronic). The cost of replacing the gear controller amounts to approximately S$4000. What an exorbitant amount! The car was driven only for about 3 years and 9 months with mileage at less than 46,000 km.

I am not happy with Audi because:-

(1) Car should have certain reasonable quality and durability in its parts. Technology without quality is as good as beauty without substance.  My previous Honda Stream did not have any gear transmission issue when the car was driven for 9 years with more than 100,000 km mileage.

(2) VW / Audi should not continue to use this gear controller or DSG given its quality issue. Before I bought the A3, I had asked the salesperson whether Audi had resolved the issue on its gears. I was assured by the salesperson that it had as Audi product was superior than its VW counterpart. He was wrong and I had to pay for his misrepresentation.

(3) When the gear controller had failed, there was no power from its engine/motor. This is an extremely dangerous failure that can lead to accident and even death. How could Audi / VW put in their cars mechanism that has no back up factor of safety and gave consumers cars that could lead to potential accidents?

I am extremely disappointed by German cars in specifically Audi.