2018 Audi A4
This year drew an ordinary 51 complaints for a Audi A4 — the model's median is 74. What they were about is the unusual part: 31.4% of them mention being, against 5.4% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 51 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 74 |
| Involving a crash | 4 |
| Recalls | 1 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 27 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- being — 31.4% of this year's complaints, against 5.4% across the model's other years (5.8×).
- safety — 41.2% of this year's complaints, against 15% across the model's other years (2.7×).
- because — 35.3% of this year's complaints, against 9.7% across the model's other years (3.6×).
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
The rear view camera does not activate when using the parking assist or when reversing. The sensors are still functioning as intended. This can cause unintentional accidents or injuries to pedestrians. This issue was brought up with the dealer back in January…
While driving there was an internal failure of the front differential which caused debris to fly out and the debris then punctured the transmission according to the diagnosis on an Audi dealership. The car jerked to a stop and would not move. If this happens a…
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 2018 Audi A4? What happened to yours?
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