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What 3 owners told NHTSA about the 2021 Audi SQ8

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.

All (3)Transmission & drivetrain (2)Electrical system (1)Suspension (1)

Newest first · 3 complaints

Feb 17, 2022Transmission & drivetrainElectrical system

MMI system stops working all of a sudden. This has happened multiple times and especially when it takes updates on its own. When called customer service they referred to the dealer stating they cannot do anything. Right after my call with them the car starts functioning back to normal. When I took it to the dealer for service and the problem, Dealer mentioned Audi has received complaints about the new models being affected and is aware of the problem but there is no software patch released yet. Its dangerous to drive as all functions are are turned off including cameras, Bluetooth, collision warning, blind spot, lane departure, music and more (except the engine running). Another issue is with its auto engine stop function, is when you are at a red light with a complete stop and when the light turns green and you are ready to move, the car takes a second or two to get the engine started and pulls back a little. Also the transmission pulls rough at that time of start. Am not sure why this is happening. The car pulls back even when the auto engine stop function is turned off.

NHTSA ODI 11452516

Aug 27, 2021Transmission & drivetrain

This 2021 Audi SQ8 vehicle was purchased new. The vehicle features an automatic engine stop/start feature which is intended to enhance vehicle fuel economy. The incident(s) include: (1) multiple instances when slowing to a stop and the stop/start feature turned off the vehicle engine before the vehicle has come to a stop, leaving the vehicle to "coast" to a complete stop but without the aid of power steering, full braking capacity and ordinary functionality of a running engine; (2) one instance when parking and the /start feature turned off the vehicle engine, in a drive aisle of a busy plaza parking lot, after I stopped and moved the transmission to reverse in order to back into a parking space; and (3) multiple failures to quickly start and permit required fast acceleration when the start/stop feature would not turn on the engine on demand to permit quick acceleration needed to safely cross a 2 lane roadway in front of approaching traffic from the opposite direction.

NHTSA ODI 11430803

Jun 30, 2021Suspension

The contact owns a 2021 Audi SQ8. The contact received a recall notification for NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V295000 (Suspension) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was notified of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect.

NHTSA ODI 11422997

Working with the data? Download all 3 complaints as CSV · fetched from NHTSA July 12, 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 2021 Audi SQ8 verdict →