Audi Australia confirms recall plan for ‘dieselgate’ vehicles – 16,085 vehicles affected
Audi Australia has today reaffirmed its intention to undertake a voluntary recall of 16,085 vehicles affected by the global Volkswagen Group diesel emissions issue.
The company said that after consultation with government authorities, it has decided to initiate a recall that will begin once a technical solution is made available by parent company Volkswagen AG in Germany.
Although the recall will not begin immediately, Audi Australia has confirmed that it will begin writing to affected owners from today to advise “of its next steps”.
The company reiterated that despite this issue, affected vehicles “remain safe to drive” and that owners do not need to take action.
"We are committed to supporting our customers and ensuring all affected vehicles are rectified as soon as possible. In the meantime, affected vehicles remain safe to drive," Audi Australia managing director Andrew Doyle said.
"Understandably, our customers are concerned, and we apologise for this. Our customers remain our highest priority and our goal is to act as quickly as we are able, once the solution is made available, to rectify vehicles and restore trust."
The news follows comments from Audi Australia communications manager, Anna Burgdorf, who told CarAdvice last week that all affected vehicles would likely be addressed in the near future.
“Our customers are our highest priority at this time and we will be contacting them directly once we have an accurate list of potentially affected vehicles, along with an understanding of the full software affect and at that time we will confirm our next steps to remove the software from those vehicles,” she said.
Earlier this week, the company revealed that 16,085 customer vehicles were confirmed to be equipped with the so-called ‘defeat device’ software designed to fool diesel emissions tests in certain markets.
Affected vehicles include variants of the Audi A1 (8X), A3 (8P), A4 (8K), A5 (8T), A5 Cabriolet (8F), A6 (4F/4G), Q3 (8U), Q5 (8R) and TT (8J) vehicles, fitted with an EA189 Diesel Engine manufactured within a specific period.
At that time, the company made an online tool available to customers that would allow owners to check if their vehicle is among those affected.
Although Audi is part of the Volkswagen group globally, the premium brand is managed as a stand-apart company in Australia, separate to Volkswagen Group Australia (VGA).
For its part, VGA has also announced today that it will recall affected vehicles in the Volkswagen and Skoda ranges. Read about that here.
2024 Toyota BZ4X FWD review
0
