I really have been thinking this whole line is just an excuse to soften the blow of his immediate sentence afterwards: they will be cutting staff at VW and providing early retirement benefits. It’s something to point at instead of the slowing EV market and new car sales in general. Bad fed decisions and high interest rates mixed with poor dealer pricing means slower sales.
Mechanically speaking there have been literally zero issues. Even the thermostat issues don’t seem to exist anymore.
And just like the MK7 factory in Mexico it produced the lowest quality version of that car. The difference in fit and finish between my Mexican made MK7 GTI and German made R were night and day. Mexican made Q5 have some QC issues and so do the engines (EA211 for the Jetta) made in Mexico.
Why is Audi always higher than VW? Feel like it’s more about brand image than fact. Audi and VW share parts and drivetrain on over half their lineup. (Q3, Q5, A3, A4, A5, Jetta GLI, GTI/R, Tiguan, Atlas, Arteon all share the same engine and several parts). It’s the larger drivetrains on the Audis that have more issues like the new 3.0T destroying engines because of knock and sky high repair prices. I guess the new Jetta/Taos 1.5L has some fueling issues but nothing widespread.