Hi, I leased an Audi Q5 last month in north California. I signed with Audi care. I am wondering whether it worth to keep the Audi Care considering it’s a new car and only a 36-month lease. If I cancel Audi care, where can I have my car served and Audi will accept the service performed by 3rd party auto service? Please share your experience. Thanks.
AFAIK Audi Care cannot be cancelled and is non-refundable.
When your lease includes Audi Care you also got a 1% RV bump which cuts the cost in half (more or less).
Otherwise if you could cancel it then everyone would just lease with it for the RV bump then cancel it as soon as the lease funds.
Look at the bottom under details:
https://www.audiusa.com/us/web/en/service/audi-care/2020-models.html
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Thanks for the link. At the bottom of the link, California is an exception. What I learn from other sources is in California you have 30 days to cancel and get the full refund.
I heard that for the first few years especially the car is in low maintenance mode, having the maintenance outside is much cheaper. But I cannot find any list of Audi certified maintenance shops that I can bring my car there. Or any auto services chains shop is okay as long as I keep my maintenance records.
“Audi Certified” means zero for maintenance (as opposed to warranty work).
Go to a good indy shop that specializes in german cars and keep your receipts.
Given the limited cost with the residual bump it’s probably worth the convenience of going to the dealership for service. The higher the MSRP the better deal audicare is.
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Then if it is cancellable in CA you just need to do some hard math on what maintenance will be required and how much you might save vs. the cost of Audi Care and whether it’s really worth it.
The first thing I would do is contact the dealer to see if/how your lease contract needs to be revised to reflect its removal.
Back when I leased my SQ5 Audi Care was only $999, so with the RV bump the actual cost to me was in the $500-600 range, split over 36 payments it was like an extra $17 per month.
Could I have found an independent shop to do all the maintenance for $300-400? Probably.
Was it worth my time to worry with independent shops and no loaners to save $200 over 3 years? Absolutely not.
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how available were the loaners at your dealer? They wouldn’t schedule me for at least a month out due to no loaners being available.
Why go through the headache of dealing with 3rd party auto service?
Honestly how much are you going to save, maybe couple hundred dollars over 36 months?
for first few years you probably just need oil change
I never really had an issue that I remember but I’m sure that varies from dealer to dealer. I really only had it in for 2 scheduled maintenances and both times it wasn’t a problem to schedule something within about 2 weeks.
Oil change/filter, and cabin filter at 10k, 20k, 30k. Brake fluid change is every 2 years per Audi maintenance(regardless of mileage). Odds are around 30k dealer will want to change at least front brake pads. I guess you could penny pinch and try to say some cash with 3rd party service. But it is also convenient when your vehicle is in service, have dealer address any warranty items or recalls. It just doesn’t seem worth it, unless you are really hard up for cash.
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…and then maybe not driving a more expensive car if that is the issue on literally a few hundred bucks over 3 years.
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There is no such thing.
An auto company can only demand that you use their dealer for service if the service is free, e.g. BMW.
Anybody else can use any licensed shop (or even performance the maintenance themselves). But I wouldn’t recommend just going to a random chain. Go to a mom & pop shop where you can always talk to the owner if necessary.
Always surprises me that people get a lease as terrible as recent Audi leases and then try to nickel and dime the rest of their experience
Interesting. Does it state anything about changing the terms of the RV as well? For an electric car on a shorter lease, seems worth it to “buy” Audicare and then cancel it after getting the car in CA since there’s no real maintenance in the first 2 years.
That’s the entire document I received.
The RV can’t change after the fact.
Presumably they credit your lease account for the amount of the refund (vs. mailing a check), but that’s an assumption.
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This is what I did with my 24 month etron lease back in 2020. I canceled Audicare within a month as I knew I would not hit close to 15k miles by end of term. Lease terms did not change. I think I received a check in the mail for the $1k.
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Thanks for the data point!
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