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AudiQ7 · 04-21-2008, 12:23 PM

Hi All,

I had one of the early S-line Q7's back in Nov 06 and the first set of front tyres lasted about 6,000 miles before Audi after some haggling agreed to refund the replacement price. To be fair I think this was more about being one of the first to report the issue and so they were more on user error!!! or should I say 'driving style' until various other reports started to flood in....

Being low mileage the car is only now coming up to around 13,000; and guess what the front tyres need replacing again. So before I went back to Audi I thought I would have a chat with Goodyear. They have looked at this very very closely and here are the facts they have found which makes interesting reading...

Firstly Goodyear Eagle F1's of various profiles are used on a number of similar weight and sized vehicles to the Q7 and all of these deliver very good mileage to their customers.

It turns out on the Q7, Audi have fiddled with the alignment and geometry and gone for a setup that you see on some high end sports cars where the wheels are angled to improve handling/cornering.

So the official line is that the "tyres are wearing as they are presented to the road". Obviously Goodyear have to be careful what they say as Audi are an important customer.

So Audi could decide to change the reccomended factory wheel alignment and geometry settings, but would have to give up a little on the handling of the car, obviously there are many other things they could do to compensate for this. My personal opinion is that would be more likely to happen on a subtle updated version of the car. For brand new cars that is not uncommon and I guess as early buyers of a completely brand new car there is always a risk of that happening. Whether any of those tweaks could be done via service etc to the older model is a mute point.

What I will say is that 6 - 10 K is completely unacceptable on this type of car compared to its direct competion and so Audi are going to have to do something very quickly before their reputation goes down the preverbal toilet. Range Rover, Mecedes and BMW etc etc must be having hysterics. Paying to replace tyres isn't sustainable, so something on the car is going to have to change... Unless they went for some rock hard tyres that could take the punishment, but they would give loads of other problems like road noise etc etc....

So dont give in and demand they pay for your tyres at least until you have done a good 20k+.

04-21-2008, 12:23 PM	#76 (permalink)
AudiQ7 Newbie Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 5 Gallery: (0)	Goodyear's View Hi All, I had one of the early S-line Q7's back in Nov 06 and the first set of front tyres lasted about 6,000 miles before Audi after some haggling agreed to refund the replacement price. To be fair I think this was more about being one of the first to report the issue and so they were more on user error!!! or should I say 'driving style' until various other reports started to flood in.... Being low mileage the car is only now coming up to around 13,000; and guess what the front tyres need replacing again. So before I went back to Audi I thought I would have a chat with Goodyear. They have looked at this very very closely and here are the facts they have found which makes interesting reading... Firstly Goodyear Eagle F1's of various profiles are used on a number of similar weight and sized vehicles to the Q7 and all of these deliver very good mileage to their customers. It turns out on the Q7, Audi have fiddled with the alignment and geometry and gone for a setup that you see on some high end sports cars where the wheels are angled to improve handling/cornering. So the official line is that the "tyres are wearing as they are presented to the road". Obviously Goodyear have to be careful what they say as Audi are an important customer. So Audi could decide to change the reccomended factory wheel alignment and geometry settings, but would have to give up a little on the handling of the car, obviously there are many other things they could do to compensate for this. My personal opinion is that would be more likely to happen on a subtle updated version of the car. For brand new cars that is not uncommon and I guess as early buyers of a completely brand new car there is always a risk of that happening. Whether any of those tweaks could be done via service etc to the older model is a mute point. What I will say is that 6 - 10 K is completely unacceptable on this type of car compared to its direct competion and so Audi are going to have to do something very quickly before their reputation goes down the preverbal toilet. Range Rover, Mecedes and BMW etc etc must be having hysterics. Paying to replace tyres isn't sustainable, so something on the car is going to have to change... Unless they went for some rock hard tyres that could take the punishment, but they would give loads of other problems like road noise etc etc.... So dont give in and demand they pay for your tyres at least until you have done a good 20k+.