NHTSA Complaint #11422837 — 2018 AUDI Q5

The 2nd generation Audi Q5 (roughly 2017-2021+) has a major susceptibility to immediate, catastrophic failure as evidenced from my own experience and dozens of episodes reported online. This failure typically causes a $2000-$3000 repair bill that Audi will not cover and will claim is the fault of the owner. My wife was driving the vehicle with our 5-year-old daughter in the car In the middle of the rear seat. The daughter spilled part of a 500 ml water bottle onto the seat next to her. Within 20 seconds of this happening, the car began alerting about steering malfunctions, braking malfunctions, and the windows began seizing up and down repeatedly. The car was completely inoperable. We are lucky this was on a slow city street and not on the interstate or tollway! Once stopped, we no buttons generated any actions from the vehicle. we couldn't power it on, put it into neutral to be towed away, raise the windows, or perform ANY other function at all. The car was a useless brick. We were charged $125 for the towing service and another $2200 from Audi Plano in Texas. After countless conversations, even debates, with David (director Audi Plano) and even Audi USA customer experience team, they REFUSED to admit any fault in a poor design and help cover any of the costs whatsoever, and we are even still in warranty. The part that was damaged is DIRECTLY below the cupholders and has no effective liquid protections - what did they think would happen! Here are other examples from online: https://www.audiworld.com/forums/q5-sq5-mkii-discussion-218/water-bottle-leak-%241800-damage-3009540/ https://www.audiworld.com/forums/q5-sq5-mkii-discussion-218/control-module-ruined-moisture-corrosion-3001605/page5/ https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/shopping/3641294-Audi-Q5-taken-out-by-DD-water-spill-in-rear-seat https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls?nhtsaId=11350209