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What 44 owners told NHTSA about the 2018 Audi A3
These are the actual owner complaints behind this car’s reliability verdict, filed with the federal government, unedited. They’re unverified reports, not confirmed defects: read them as leads for your pre-purchase inspection, not a diagnosis.
2 of 44 complaints match · crash/fire/injury only · clear filters
Apr 12, 2024Electrical systemBackup camera & sensorsDriver assistance1 injury
The vehicle pre-sense stopped the vehicle due to the detection of an object however, there was no object. This happened going forward and in reverse multiple times, causing the car to come to a sudden, abrupt stop even at speeds in excess of 30mph. This resulting in my teen daughter having bruising from the seat belt. The car was taken to the dealership and the dealership recalibrated the control unit. The vehicle continues to unnecessarily activate pre-sense when in reverse, and causes the car to come to an abrupt halt despite there being no object. The system may be responding to shadows. Numerous returns to the service department continue to yield “no codes”. The PODS system was recalled and this is a related system.
NHTSA ODI 11582606
Sep 19, 2021AirbagsCrash1 injury
My wife was impacted on the drivers side very hard by another vehicle, enough to total the car, and the side airbags did not deploy
NHTSA ODI 11433490
Working with the data? Download all 44 complaints as CSV · fetched from NHTSA July 20, 2026
How to use these: a complaint is one owner’s report, filed voluntarily and published unverified. Patterns matter more than any single story. If several owners describe the same failure at similar mileage, put that system at the top of your
pre-purchase inspection list. Back to the
full 2018 Audi A3 verdict →