So my wife's car didn't want to start yesterday, so someone gave her a jump and vehicle worked fine.
Today she called Audi and they came to pick it up. They said it needs a new battery for $600. The current battery warranty expired in November. Great! /s She told them to just do it since the battery is under the seat and looks like a pain in the ass to do. It comes with a 4 year/50k mile warranty.
On top of that they said they need to replace the front brakes/rotors for $811.00 and the rear brakes/rotors for $960 for a total of $1,771 + tax.
We said to hold off on the brakes and rotors, so they said that should be fine for a few thousand miles before the light comes on. They said they told us about this on this 45k service check, but they never did.
Either way we're going to do the brakes and rotors, but I'm getting all I can out of these before I spend $1,900 (with taxes).
I need to find a me a guru for this Q7, lol.
I will hedge my earlier comments somewhat, as living in a very large metropolitan area, it's probably easier to reliably locate a competent independent mechanic with the expertise to fix expensive European vehicles - I have one locally for brakes, tires, oil changes, etc. and for more sophisticated mechanical issues, have a former neighbor and buddy who has grown his Chicago North Shore shop from 2 bays to four and has likely serviced more high-end German iron than any mechanic outside of Munich. Also shout out to OH for his comment as to what you pay for when you go to the dealer. When we took the Q7 in for warranty work (limp mode caused by EGR issue), it was nice to get a new Q7 with 300 miles on it as a loaner, and my wife enjoyed working on her laptop in their waiting area which looks like a conference room cloned from a silk-stocking law firm. Plus the "free" car wash every time you just show up. The "bill" for the EGR work which was covered by the warranty was priced out at $1,550.
However, the same dealer let us know we needed tires (thanks I noticed that when we bought it - tried to get the seller to throw a new set in as part of the deal) and despite the car starting just fine when the temps in Chicago dipped to -22, that the battery is not long for this world. Bottom line - they offered to replace tires and battery for $2,400. Battery replacement alone would cost $600. And they also wanted $195 to program a second key (an Audi dealer 15 miles away is charging us $80).
So, I have a new set of Michelins coming in to my local guy from Tire Rack for just under $800 (plus $75 debit card rebate offer) and he will install them for $20 a wheel. A call to O'Reilly's auto parts confirms IF it needs a battery (see above that it started with no problem when it was -22) the battery with 4 year warranty costs $189. So including the debit card, tires will run me $800 installed. If I need a battery, I'm looking at an additional $200. $1k total for independent plus DIY on the battery as opposed to $2,400. So by not going to the dealer for these I will save $1,400, with no potential warranty issues. In some cases you get what you pay for; however, it's patently clear as respects the tires/battery, if I went to the dealer, it'd be others who got what I was paying for.
As far as the debate as to the dealer v. an independent for more complex mechanical repairs, not a hill to die on for me if others feel they need to patronize the dealer out of caution. However I trust my buddy on the North Shore more far more than any dealer. A poster on another thread had her Q7 TDI blow up 2 days after the dealer was messing with it for 2 weeks. Not saying it's related to anything they did, but my poorly-educated take on that, is if the dealer didn't cause the catastrophic failure, they missed whatever caused it. Not pointing fingers at the dealer as this may have been undetectable, just pointing out that there are no absolute guarantees and we all need to make the best decisions we can with the information available.
As for U-Haul hitches - I have had them on every car I own with no issues. When Mercedes quoted me $1,000 to install a hitch on my ML350, I assumed that was an MB factory hitch; on inquiry, that was for labor only; they DIDN'T KNOW where they would source the hitch. My North Shore mechanic buddy recommends U-Haul to all his customers looking for hitches for their MBs, Lexuses etc. Maybe some have had bad experiences with U-Haul; much may depend on the particular shop. My U-Haul shop has always done quality work with no issues. Regardless, when the ML350 threw a rod through the oil pan, I'm pretty sure the hitch installation had nothing to do with it.
Bottom line - caveat emptor. If I won the lottery, I *might* start taking my car to the dealer for everything. But I doubt it.