Help with soft wheel claim in NZ PLEASE !!

[James997]

Hi Chaps ,
My local Audi dealer in Christchurch notified me when my car was in for service/cambelt etc that one of my original soft alloys was out of true but not showing any signs with vibration through the wheel etc. The service manager contacted European Motor Distributors ( the NZ importer of Audi )to see about a claim.

I him sent the link through of the sticky thread on the soft wheels to try and help his case !

Please see below the reply !

Dear James,

I have followed up your concerns regarding RS4 rims with European Motor
Distributors, the NZ importer for the Audi marque.

Following checking and appraising them of the condition of the rims even
though no complaint of vibration has been made, we have been advised
that effectively it is a wear and tear issue and based on the age and
mileage of this vehicle no claim can be made.

Whilst there has been an issue in the early days with rim deformation
causing a vibration through the body, this vehicle is still on the
original type wheels at 7 years of age and 128,000 km travelled. Given
that use, any vehicle with alloy wheels of similar dimension will
potentially have some slight run-out without compromising safety or
introducing a vibration into the vehicle.

It is also worth noting Audi have different strategies in different
markets, so the way Audi UK addressed any customer concerns with RS4
rims is not how European Motor Distributors in conjunction with Audi AG
addressed similar concerns in the New Zealand market.

You are welcome to contact European Motor Distributors directly if you
require any further clarification.
The contact there is the Mr O Yule, National Service Manager.

Has anybody else in NZ had wheel issues that have been sorted as I cannot believe Audi have different strategies in different markets. A fault is fault wherever you are in the world !! I'm not the only one whose car has done 80,000 miles and is 7 years old !! I would appreciate any hard evidence from any NZ owners !!

Thanks
James

[pause1]

Hi James.
Spoke to a Auckland RS4 owner who had all his rims replaced by Giltrap. His car had under 50 000k on it though. When I bought my car from Giltrap I brought up the issue of the rims, and they said all the RS4's should of had their rims replaced with harder type earlier on. My car has 2 soft and 2 hard. History shows they only had 2 hard in stock when previous owner took my car in to swop out rims, and I think that was in Christchurch. Don't know what I will do when I get to finalising this issue with Audi????
Any info you get, please share.
Cheers

[James997]

Hi,
Interesting. Reading through the posts from the chaps in the UK , they appear to have had their rims replaced even now . I won't reply to my dealer until I have hopefully received more info from this post from other NZ owners . Will keep in touch !
Cheers for now
James