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Volkswagen Group of America Inc. has reached a settlement with drivers who allege that the company sold them Audis with defective gearshifts and left them to pick up the tab for transmission repairs.
Lead Plaintiff John Chess asked the California federal court to grant preliminary approval for settlement, which would end a 2017 class action lawsuit against VW. The settlement includes a warranty extension and replacements of the alleged faulty transmission.
According to the Audi defect class action lawsuit, VW manufactured and sold 2010-2014 model year Audi S4, S5, S6, S7 and RS5 vehicles with defective direct-shift gearbox transmissions that caused “sudden, rough, unexpected shaking and violent jerking” when drivers attempted to accelerate and shift the cars into second, third or fourth gear and attempted to decelerate. A later amended claim added 2015 models to the lawsuit.
In the Audi defect settlement request, Chess says that the settlement is “clearly fair, reasonable and adequate, providing significant, concrete and valuable benefits” to the drivers.
“The proposed Settlement provides for a percentage reimbursement to all Settlement Class Members that have paid out-of-pocket expenses for one Covered Repair (of a diagnosed condition of transmission shuddering, juddering, rough shifting or improperly entering into “limp mode”),” the document says.
The value of the VW Audi defect settlement has not been made public, but the documents state that VW will pay up to $1.05 million in attorney fees and up to $5,000 as an incentive award to the class representative.
VW will also pay back vehicle owners a portion of their transmission repair or replacement costs based on the mileage and age of the vehicle when the repair happened. Reimbursement ranges from 100 percent for vehicles that were up to four years old and under 50,000 miles, to 20 percent for vehicles that were between eight and nine years and between 80,001 and 90,000 miles.
For those who had their repairs done at a non-authorized Audi dealer, reimbursement for replacement of the mechatronic unit is capped at $5,000 and replacement of the transmission is capped at $12,000.
According to the Audi defect settlement document, VW denies all the allegations and maintains that the vehicles’ transmissions “are not defective, were properly designed, manufactured, marketed and sold, that no warranties were breached, that no applicable statutes or laws were violated, and no wrongdoing occurred with respect to the subject vehicles and their transmissions.”
Have you ever driven one of the affected Audis? Let us know if you noticed any issues with the transmission in the comments section!
Chess is represented by Daniel K. Bryson, Gregory F. Coleman, and Mitchell M. Breit of Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman PLLC; and Deborah R. Rosenthal of Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC.
VW is represented by Michael B. Gallub, Homer B. Ramsey, Brian T. Carr and Craig L. Winterman of Herzfeld & Rubin PC.
The Audi Faulty Transmission Class Action Lawsuit is Chess v. Volkswagen Group of America Inc., Case No. 4:17-cv-07287, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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47 thoughts onVW Reaches Settlement With Drivers After Allegedly Selling Defective Audis
2014 Audi S4. I’ve had 3 mechatronics control unit replacements within 3 years, 2 within the last 12 months. The Audi dealership has had my car since March 2022. This go around, the first part came in broken and just last week 9/23/22 the Audi Dealership informed me the the new unit didn’t solve the problem- I still don’t have reverse and that I need a new transmission. I had an extended warranty that expired 9/15/21 that would have covered this. So far my car has been at the dealership 3/20 for a month, 8/21-11/21 and 3/22 til present (9/22) I can’t believe this can just be brushed off with all of the issues. Isn’t there some sort of lemon law that can be filed?
Also just wanted to put this tidbit of information out there: Volkswagen recalled 679,000 US vehicle sold since 2011 that could roll away due to the same exact issue! Audi does not care about the safety of its customers!
I have a 2015 Audi A3 which had same problem and I have been fighting w AudiUsa for over a year for reimbursement!
Can anyone suggest options or if there’s a class action suit? Ty
Hi guys. Same problem!! I have a 2011 S4 and had to replace the mechatronic unit at 86,695 miles. Dealership quote was right around $6,000- $6,500… Noticed the super hard JERK when my car would downshift into first gear when coming to a stop… My shop specializes in all European cars, especially Audi, and didn’t notice anything after I took it there with the complaint. Then the giant green light popped on. You know this!! Gearbox Malfunction. Limited gears available… The cheaper control board will not fix the problem!! Mechatronic failure= replacement of the unit. Why doesn’t Audi think this is a problem and why are they trying to dismiss it??
I exhausted every avenue with Audi back in 16 for my 2010 S5. They said there is no defect, and refused to help, even though the car only had 34k on it. It ended up costing 4095 to replace the mechatronic unit. I even tried to start a class action lawsuit but the attorney said there weren’t enough instances of the problem. In sum, I am so glad someone took this case forward . The cars are unsafe, and Audi KNOWS it is a problem.
My 2010 s4 with 84000 is jerking foward when coming to a complete stop. It’s starting to click into third as well.
Have a 2014 RS5, have same problem. Audi dealer quoted me $12,000 to replace full transmission.
I have a 2013 audi s5 and paid for a new mechatronic unit for my car and still don’t work and audi could not do a basic setting cost from them $500,repair shops $ 4,000
Paid for new mechatronics unit last year. 2014 Audi RS5.
How do I get reimbursed? I have 2013 S6 and my car is in the shop now with all the same problems. I’ve been Quoted 4100 for a full mechatronics replacement. There are currently none to purchase and apparently we are waiting for a remanufactured redesigned unit to be released by Audi.