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Audi lifts “stop delivery” notice on A3, A4, A5, Q2, Q5, Q7, TT and R8

Audi dealers in Australia were temporarily banned from selling thousands of new and used examples of its current line-up due to a software glitch with the infotainment system. But the ban has been lifted after just a few days.


Anyone buying a new or used Audi this week may be relieved to learn the company lifted overnight a “stop delivery” notice that affected thousands of vehicles in dealer stock, including current generation A3, A4, A5, Q2, Q5, Q7, TT and R8 models.

A bulletin instructing Audi dealers to stop the sale of all new and used examples of the affected vehicles was issued on Saturday 29 June 2019 warning of a software glitch with the infotainment system.

An electronic bug inadvertently displays text messages on the infotainment screen when connected to an Android device, instead of showing only that a text message has been received. 

Audi cars with Apple phones and Apple CarPlay are not affected, the company says.

Given that displaying text messages is a safety issue, Audi issued an urgent “stop delivery” notice to dealers on Saturday.

The ban was lifted Tuesday night Australian time, 2 July 2019, after a fix was approved by Audi head office in Germany. Dealers across Australia were due to be notified first thing today (3 July 2019).

The lifting of the vehicle delivery ban means all affected Audi models will have their infotainment software updated free of charge – even if the cars are outside their three-year warranty period.

Audi is yet to calculate how many cars are affected but based on sales data the tally is likely close to or even in excess of 100,000 vehicles.

All affected Audis are current models; the oldest car involved is the current-generation A3 released locally in 2013. 

Current or recent Audi models that are not affected by the stop delivery notice include the A1, A6, A7, A8 and Q8.

A statement from Audi Australia said: “Customer satisfaction is of paramount importance and the temporary suspension (of deliveries) was a cautionary step pending Audi’s assessment of a potential quality issue.”

In the meantime, Audi owners with Android phones are reminded not to access text messages via the infotainment system while the car is in motion.

Stop delivery notices are a common tool used by the car industry as an urgent measure to pause sales if a potential technical fault surfaces.

In most cases they are cleared within days with no further action to be taken. However, this is the second stop delivery notice made public in the past fortnight.

Toyota recently issued a stop delivery notice on certain hybrid models across the Toyota and Lexus ranges – and it was still in place as this article was published.

A statement from Toyota Australia on 3 July 2019 said: "We are continuing to carry out pre-delivery vehicle inspections as a precautionary measure. We will provide further details on expected completion timing and subsequent lifting of the sales stop as soon as possible."

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Joshua Dowling

Joshua Dowling has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years, spending most of that time working for The Sydney Morning Herald (as motoring editor and one of the early members of the Drive team) and News Corp Australia. He joined CarAdvice / Drive in 2018, and has been a World Car of the Year judge for more than 10 years.

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