Audi Q7 - front wheel arm broke at 130km/h

[LeMansX5]

Account of somebody driving Audi Q7 and front wheel arm broke at 130km/h.

"To all those who have an Audi Q7 or dream about having one

Before getting possession of your new Q7 or stepping once again in your Q7, I would like to invite you to take a look at the photos on this blog, illustrating an accident occurred on July 1st, 2006 with our new Audi Q7 (ordered in December 2005, produced in Germany in May 2006, delivered to us in Belgium on May 18th, 2006 and totally destroyed not even 6 weeks later, in France).

While driving on the highway in France (at approximately 130 km/h), the front wheel on the right side got loss (absolutely no obstacle on the way), stayed for a while under the car while the car went in one move to the right (the wheel pushed the interior side of the car inside breaking the leg of my daughter). The right wheel also got deformed, while the car was sliding to the right. The car flew into the outside landscape then hit (almost) frontally the land hill, obviously first with the right front side and immediately afterwards also with the left front side.

It went then up to an angle of approximately 45 degrees, then fell back on the ground and hit it first with its right corner at its bottom, then fell completely on its right side.

It is a model TDI 3.0 l (233 HP), 7 seats. It has a weight of approximately 2.5 ton.

The frontal airbags didn’t work (neither because of the frontal choke, nor because of the seat belts), the lateral ones neither, when the car (2.5 ton) fell on its side. The car was equipped with all possible airbags proposed by the constructor.

As if this was not enough, the central internal mirror also got loss at the moment of the choke and hit the head of my wife, who was driving the car.

I’m very happy that my wife and my daughter survived to this very severe accident (the car has been very normally declared as a total loss), these two members of my family being relatively lightly injured (broken sternum for my wife and hit on her head and broken leg for my daughter).

There are witnesses of this accident who can confirm what they saw.

Just to give you an idea about the attitude of Audi towards this accident (which could reveal some very serious technical problems with this car, problems that could endanger the life of people buying such a car), they didn’t do any technical expertise at all until now, even if the car is back in Belgium since July 11th, 2006.

I’m at your disposal for any additional information,

Aurel GAVRILOAIA
Managing Director"

More info and pics

Another incident where a parked Audi Q7 in Croatia suddenly started to burn

[Ishniknork]

Oooo... Not good.

Glad the family was, ahem, OK, sorta....

[Technomage]

scary my dad was thinking of getting one too.

[Bavarian]

One such accident means nothing - this could have happened to any car or SUV.

If we see one or two more such incidents, then let's talk.

Anyone making a conclusion about the vehicle as a whole based on this one incident is obviously very "short" sighted.

[drex]

i wouldn't be so quick to dismiss this......

remember the spontaneous fire debacles of our own BMW X5s back in '01-02???

may have been a bad part, or a series of parts... could be a design flaw in the part itself....

just like our beloved K1200S BMW motorcycle launch causing the IMMEDIATE RECALL AND RETURN TO PORT OF ORIGIN of some 2000+ motorcycles delivered worldwide with bad crankshafts.... and a delay of 3 months when starting the new BMW model 2 years ago.......

[AzNMpower32]

I'm more alarmed that none of the airbags deployed.

[nupe10123]

Ouch, I'm glad your family is alive. I hope that Audi takes time to evaluate this accident and see if it's just a one in a million 'fluke' or a design issue that needs to be rectified before other's get hurt.

Thanks for the info and please update us if Audi provides you any kind of 'response' or explanation in the future.