2009 Audi S5: Parts Counter Experience

Is anybody surprised? Fantastic German engineering requires the use of a 20 freaking dollar light bulb.....and then they have to special order it????? Superior engineering until it craps out then long waits for parts and crazy prices to fix it. That describes my best friends BMW ownership experience. I will let him know he is not alone. He has asked me several times when I have picked him up at his BMW dealer (first name basis with the service advisors after 3 auto trannies in 35,000 miles and 4 power window motors) about how many times my old Dodge has been in the shop. He hates it when I say "just last week for a $20 oil change" It has never let me stranded like his superior German engineered car.

Excuse me, Inside line, have you never heard of auto parts stores? They might not have the lamp, but they would probably have a set of front mats for a hundred bucks less.

Oh, wait, would that invaiidate the warranty?

@bodyblue-

Why do you get so angry about any car that dares not to be a Chrysler product? The vitriol and hyperbole tend to diminish any point you might be trying to make...

...they're just cars. It seems to be much worse here lately with so many people taking every tiny critique of a car as a personal attack on them... relax a bit; nobody wants this to turn into a site full of crazy people like other sites have become.

yes bodyblue, ze german bulbs are superior to american bulbs.

anyhow, i just put HID fogs on my s5. the fogs on this car are useless. i bought HID fog with ballast (w/o adjusting any aiming screws) and now the fogs actually do something.

This is why I no longer considered an Audi for my next car after my ownership experience with a 1997 A4. Audi/Volkswagen dealer services have been a big disappointment - which is a pity because Audi has one of the best and classiest interiors in the business and VWs are fun and practical - until you have to bring them in for service or repairs.

after a VW and an Audi it's back to Japanese manufacturers for me. reliability, quality, service costs - all trouble areas for the German's. the VW was much better than the Audi. Audi's styling is so good it almost made me overlook the problems when replacing my A4. in the end my wallet had the last say.

This is way I buy most if not all of my parts from non dealer sources.

A lot of this has to do with location and dealer competence. For example, Santa Monica BMW charges $1105 to perform an Inspection II and a brake fluid flush on a 2004 X3. My local dealer(Swope BMW in Louisville) charged me $374 for the identical service. Swope usually has anything I need in stock or else they can get it in 3 days or less, yet I hear of dealers who tell customers that it takes 7-10 days to obtain a part.

I would have tried Napa or the like for the bulb. Take out the blown one, go into the store, find a suitable replacement. You guys are suckas.

I would only buy an OEM bulb, NEVER an aftermarket but $20 is pretty ridiculous. I'm sure you could find it online for cheaper than the parts counter's retail + markup pricing.

The nerve of a light bulb going out. What a huge pile of crap. You guys should just sell this thing right now.

Im being sarcastic by the way.

But i would like to know why this bulb isnt covered under warranty through audi? My "piece of crap" chevrolet (people on here call all gm cars POS's but they are incorrect) has its bulbs replaced under warranty for free. If a bulb went out under warranty they were always replaced for free. I am not sure if this a GM policy or just the dealerships i go to.

Isn't this an advantage to buying used cars, in that the aftermarket catches up and everything is more readily available and cheaper? Plus, the irritating glitches are pretty well known and documented a couple years into a model.

"Why do you get so angry about any car that dares not to be a Chrysler product? "

I am not angry at all....I am laughing at the fact that my friends BMW has been such a pile and my old Dodge has been great. I defend no car company but all of my Fords and my one Dodge have been good to me. For years I have heard people talking about how superior European cars are but reliabity ratings rarely show that fact. I would only buy an Asian or American car.

"I'm sure you could find it online for cheaper than the parts counter's retail + markup pricing."

But you should not have to do that for a fair price. BMW dealers (and the company itself) know that their customers really cant or wont go to other shops so they just continue to screw over their customers. That is where the superiority of Asian dealerships show themselves....My buddy loves his BMW bit will never buy another one because of problems he has had and the cost of fixing it. Just because somebody has a few extra bucks does not mean they want or deserve to get screwed over. Being frugal and smart is how they get those few extra bucks.

The parts counter at the Audi dealer already explained to Mike this is an S type bulb. It is specially crafted in Ingolstadt with ultra-purified Silica inside an inversion-reactive negative pressure chamber. Not only that, but the filament is made of virgin tungsten - not recycled tungsten like the Japanese use in their bulbs.

Hence, the light that comes out of the S type Audi bulb is not only much FASTER than regular Audi bulbs, it is also phase-synchronized and considerably faster and brighter than the Japanese bulbs.

So $20 per bulb is not a big deal at all in my opinion: you get what you pay for! and the light from our turn signals are better then anyone else's light out there!

You could have purchased the same mats online for around $100.00. As far as the bulbs go, yeah they're a rip off. Been there done that,

You people who are complaining about dealer prices obviously don't know how to shop around. Do you research online and look for the lowest possible price before going to the dealer. I either order parts from out of state or just ask my local dealer to match the price. Often times I found that if you just ask for a price on a certain part, it will vary greatly from dealer to dealer. Example: I bought a set of front brake rotors for an 06 Honda Civic from a local dealer. When I was shopping around, I found out that the retail price was about $106/each+tax. And the lowest dealer price online was $75/each+shipping. Now that's a difference of $30 for each rotor. Other local dealers quoted me even higher than retail, but I negotiated one of them to sell the parts to me for ~$160(with tax). A saving of more than $50!

$20??
Outrageous!!!

One week delay?
Sucks.

Both are dealer`s fault I guess?

Wow $20.00 for a light bulb, really! And you guys are going to pay that price. If the bulb was that good it wouldn't have burned out to begin with this is a brand new car!! I would insist that they replace this under warranty. My old 10 year old Honda Accord was traded in with its original tail, brake, and signal lights. Changed the headlights because they were getting dimmer but they never burned out.

Yeah that should be covered under warranty. Did you ask and were denied or did you just decide to pay for it yourself?

Buahahaha. We have an Audi. It had a 4 year "free" maintenance contract. It was worthless. Nothing was ever covered by it.

My 3 BMWs and Cooper S - anything and everything but tires were covered. If I said "this seems a bit off..." it was replaced. Never an issue. Trim peeling on a 3 year old car...fixed. Light bulb out - fixed in minutes.

With our Audi, everything that's gone out - from bulbs to trim to gaskets to buttons to rubber coating was denied. Every time. Every time we were told the broken/bubbled/split/dettached parts were "normal wear and tear."

Audi has so far to go to ever be a legit luxury player...

The Porsche mats for my Boxster are $60-$70 depending on what kind you want (carpeted or rubber) from the cheapest mail order dealer in the country. You probably could have done better from a different Audi dealer.

The Porsche mats for my Boxster are $60-$70 depending on what kind you want (carpeted or rubber) from the cheapest mail order dealer in the country. You probably could have done better from a different Audi dealer.

OEM bulb...are you serious? LMAO

IF the specs are the same, the bulb is the same. Audi doesn't make bulbs.