2017 Audi A4
This year drew an ordinary 81 complaints for a Audi A4 — the model's median is 71. What they were about is the unusual part: 18.5% of them mention seat, against 3.5% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 81 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 71 |
| Involving a crash | 4 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 27 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- seat — 18.5% of this year's complaints, against 3.5% across the model's other years (5.3×).
- out car — 25.9% of this year's complaints, against 9.9% across the model's other years (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: out car, felt, reason, car started.
- california — 6.2% of this year's complaints, against 0% across the model's other years (30.9×). Owners wrote it as: california, fletcher, jones, fletcher jones.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
WHEN I GOT THE CAR IN MAY. AFTER A WEEK, WE WENT WITH FRIENDS OUT. WHEN I BRAKED THE CAR BEGAN TO MOVE INTO THE PASSENGER FRONT SEAT TO THE ADVANCE AND INCLINES UP TO A MAXIMUM FRONT OF THE DASHBOARD. SO IN CASE OF A CAR ACCIDENT, HE WOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD. AUDI…
NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBER: 16V955000 (AIR BAGS, SEAT BELT) HOWEVER, THE PARTS TO DO THE REPAIR WAS UNAVAILABLE. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE [VIN] EXCEEDED A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME FOR THE RECALL REPAIR. THE [VIN] WAS NOT NOTIFIED OF THE ISSUE. VIN TOOL CONFIRMS…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V874000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Audi A4 was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2017 Audi A4? What happened to yours?
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