NHTSA Complaint #11421907 — 2014 AUDI Q5

I am writing about an incident that happened to my wife while she was driving my car from Los Angeles, CA to Phoenix, AZ on June 16, 2021. My wife was driving the Audi Q5 at approximately 75mph and 125 miles west of Phoenix (near the CA/AZ border) when the car suddenly loss power. She stepped on the gas and noticed the speed gradually dropping. Fortunately, she had the presence of mind and barely had enough time to pull over to the shoulder. It was at this point that she called to tell me that the car would no longer start and the “check engine” and “EPC” light indicators were illuminated. This occurred at approximately 12:30 noon during a severe heatwave where the outside temperature was 117 degrees. I asked her to wait for 10 minutes to try to restart the car; the car would not restart. She called AAA Towing and was told the wait would be over one hour because of the rural location (Quartzsite, AZ). She ended up waiting a little over 3 hours in her car, without air conditioning, in 117 degrees for a tow truck driver to arrive. The car was towed to her sister’s house in Goodyear, AZ at a cost of $673. The next day, she had the car towed to the Audi Dealership in Peoria, AZ where it was diagnosed the car had suffered a fuel vapor lock due to the heat. The car has less than 28,000 miles on the odometer when the incident happened. Audi Peoria kept the car for a couple of days because the parts had to be ordered from Los Angeles. Ultimately, the repair bill from the dealership came to $1,983. I felt helpless and scared for my wife that I was not able to assist her as I was 3 hours away. What if my wife (or another driver) was unable to pull over to the side of the road? The chances of an accident are dramatically increased if the vehicle was stuck on the highway. As you can imagine, my wife has been traumatized by this incident and we are both fearful that this incident can happen again. Therefore, we request that NHTSA investigate this incident.