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What 5 owners told NHTSA about the 2018 Audi S3
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 5 complaints match · Transmission & drivetrain · clear filters
Jun 8, 2022Transmission & drivetrain
The car was put in Drive "D". As I roll out into traffic and start to accelerate, the car "bang" out of gear like it's in neutral, the revs climb, but the car doesn't accelerate and the "D" display disappeared from the instrument panel. The gear selector display on the instrument panel is now blank (instead of "D" if it was in gear or "N" if it was out of gear). I have to pull to the side of the road and stop and the "D" reappeared and then all seems to be fine again. This has happened twice in the last two months. I had a local mechanic scan the vehicle for transmission fault, but found nothing was stored.
NHTSA ODI 11468314
Dec 27, 2018Transmission & drivetrain
CAR DOESN'T ENGAGE GEAR OR "JUMPS" WHEN REVERSE (R) IS SELECTED.
NHTSA ODI 11163696
Working with the data? Download all 5 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 S3 verdict →