smartdude24

Here are some facts about my situation:
- 2011 A3 Quattro with Sport package
- 9 months old with 11,000kms (about 6,800 miles) on the odometer

Now 4 months ago my car was side-swiped (100% NOT my fault) at relatively low speed - the other driver turned into my lane as I was driving past him and he pushed in my driver door, scraped the rear door and scuffed up the rear quarter and rear rim. The accident pushed the car sideways a good foot or two.

I must say I had quite a bad experience with my dealership as the car was in and out of their shop 4 times and they had it for a total of over a month (counting the number of days in their shop) due to the fact that they kept handing the car back with the same damage (didn't fix the rim on the first few visits, did a poor bondo job, etc.).

So finally the car is cosmetically acceptable. HOWEVER, it does not drive like it used to anymore. I have confirmed this by driving a new A3 on their lot as well as several other cars to confirm this. My car has a distinct shudder in the steering wheel, even over relatively smooth road, and there is a lot of extra play in the wheel and it is very loose. The car is also pulling to the right very badly. If I release my hands, within seconds it is completely in the next lane.

Now the service manager and practically everyone at my dealership (apparently) has tested it thoroughly and have claimed this is normal operating of my car. I even drove my car with the service manager and he tried to say it was the roads we were driving on, so we took a new A3 out and it drove straight as an arrow for blocks and the steering was very tight... after that, he didn't have much to say - he wouldn't admit to me that my car was obviously driving poorly.

They are refusing to fix my car by saying there is nothing wrong with it and I just don't know what to do short of getting rid of this car. Both my insurance company and the dealership have said that the accident it was in was not bad enough for it to cause the car to not drive properly; therefore, shouldn't it be a warranty issue?

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? My salesman said that he could arrange an engineer from Audi to test my car but that could take some time.

I will try to post a video of my steering wheel this weekend as well as showing how badly it pulls. I just really want this issue resolved as I loved my A3 and am paying good money for what was a performance car!