2014 Audi A4
This year drew an ordinary 75 complaints for a Audi A4 — the model's median is 71. What they were about is the unusual part: 36% of them mention steering, against 7% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 75 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 71 |
| Involving a crash | 1 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 26 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- steering — 36% of this year's complaints, against 7% across the model's other years (5.1×).
- audi driving — 22.7% of this year's complaints, against 5.9% across the model's other years (3.9×). Owners wrote it as: audi driving, test, mph steering, veered.
- stiff — 17.3% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the model's other years (6.3×). Owners wrote it as: stiff, impossible, difficult, description.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
WHILE DRIVING 50 MPH, THE STEERING BECAME STIFF AND DIFFICULT TO TURN. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO PAUL MILLER AUDI (179 US-46, PARSIPPANY, NJ 07054, (973) 575-7750) WHERE IT WAS DIAGNOSED THAT THE LOWER STEERING SHAFT NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. THE VEHICLE WAS REPAI…
WHILE DRIVING VARIOUS SPEEDS, THE POWER STEERING WOULD SUDDENLY FAIL. DURING THE FAILURE, THE MESSAGE "STEERING DEFECTIVE DO NOT DRIVE" WOULD DISPLAY. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC WHO WAS UNABLE TO DETERMINE THE CAUSE OF THE FAILURE. THE [V…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Audi A4 was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2014 Audi A4? What happened to yours?
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