Well, last week was the tipping point. The car has now spent more time in garages than in my possession since I owned it. It's a shameful record, considering the stellar reliability of the car that preceded it. I don't feel like I actually own the car. It feels like I'm the mug that's responsible for taking it to get fixed.
I spoke to Chester Transmissions yesterday and they seem to have got the wrong message about the repair. They are confident the mechanics of the gearbox and mechatronic unit are sound and working properly, which leaves the ECU. They can't repair that in-house but they have someone locally they use. That guy's machine has broken down and is awaiting repair with no expected date of return. They thought I was going to take it to Audi anyway, so I could get the ECU re-flashed there. I explained that I don't trust Audi to do anything other than want to replace it and I didn't want to take it all the way down to London to then have to return it to Chester to finish. They spoke to a local Audi dealer who had a 2.5 week lead time for booking in. Finally, they said they're negotiating with ZF to become authorised repairers, which would give them the machine to do it but that could take four weeks. They are going to ask whether ZF could help with this one in the interim. In the meantime, I'm already up to a bill of £889+VAT and the problem is still there.
On top of the gearbox repair, it still needs to go back to Audi to finish off what they did wrong in the service (which I can barely remember now) and then go in for some paintwork thanks to my neighbour driving into it just after I washed it.
Honestly, it feels like there has been a dark cloud looming over me since the day I bought this car and I'm seriously considering waving goodbye to it. It's the best car I've ever owned in terms of spec and capability, but the worst ownership experience I've ever had.
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