An Audi owner in the U.K. said he was in disbelief at a repair bill he got from a dealership following a service that could be a warning to other would-be supercar buyers.
The owner, Jim Street, bought his 2017 Audi R8 Spyder Quattro V10 from a third-party dealership in 2021 for £87,000 ($115,017 at current exchange rates), reports Nottinghamshire Live. He took it in for an initial service at his local Audi dealership and got new tires and a few repairs done for £4,500 ($5,949 USD).
Shortly thereafter, though, he noticed a disconcerting noise coming from the car that got louder the faster he went. He took it back to the dealership to have a look at it. Two weeks later, he was issued a repair bill for £31,289.50 ($41,366.06).
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Street said he was in disbelief at the bill, which he is calling “extortionate.” The total was arrived at after considering repair work and a new gearbox, which alone cost £29,000 ($38,339 USD).
“I’m in disbelief, I’ve never had an experience quite like it,” Street told Nottinghamshire Live. “That’s enough for a deposit on a house, who has that kind of money to give out and say here you go, crack on?”
The owner said he was expecting a bill of somewhere between £5,000 and £10,000 ($6,610-$13,220 USD) but couldn’t have prepared himself for the amount he ended up seeing. He said that he was so stressed he ended up canceling some engagements .
More galling, Street’s bill had a section at the bottom suggesting that the dealership could buy cars for cash and settle any financing issues, causing him to accuse the shop of behaving inappropriately.
The dealership, for its part, said that the bill was so large because the vehicle had been modified. Street says he wasn’t told of any modifications to the car and didn’t make any, but Audi U.K. supports the dealership’s finding.
The dealership is now in contact with Street on a resolution but this is yet another warning to people looking to buy supercars off-warranty: just because it looks affordable at first blush it doesn’t mean it actually is.
