Audi Dealerships Lied To Customers About Five Star Safety Ratings

The BBC Watchdog programme has discovered that Audi salesmen have been telling customers that the R8, A5, A7 and A8 models have five star NCAP safety ratings, despite the fact they have never been officially tested.

Watchdog was contacted by Daniel Jenkins, the owner of a supercar rental company, after his father was nearly killed in his R8. After crashing into a tree at 45mph, the car split in half, leaving his father in a coma for three and a half weeks.

Jenkins noted that one of the reasons he bought the R8 was its impressive safety rating, however after the accident he looked into the official NCAP results and discovered that the R8 had never been tested. Although the tests are not compulsory, they are considered the top test in the industry.

After he contacted 50 dealerships, a staggering 48 of them repeated the misinformation. A further investigation by Watchdog discovered eight out of 10 dealerships asked misinformed them regarding the A5.

Audi was contacted by Jenkins and informed of his findings five months ago, but it appears nothing was ever done about it.

Audi has since apologised, stating that its staff were in the wrong and that there was no deliberate intent to mislead customers. A spokesman said:

"Significant and sustained investment in active and passive safety technology across the Audi range has resulted in safety standards that do not call for embellishment or exaggeration by our customer-facing teams. "Audi vehicles are engineered to exceed international motor vehicle safety standards. The company fully supports Euro NCAP’s efforts to improve vehicle safety. "Audi UK accepts that this investigation has brought to light a shortfall in its communication procedures where the NCAP safety ratings of its range are concerned. We also acknowledge that we did not adequately address this shortfall when it was brought to our attention by Mr Jenkins, and on both counts we apologise unreservedly."