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2020 AUDI A6 ALLROAD — STRUCTURE:BODY

1 injured · 1955540 · 2024-01-05

Vehicle

Make
AUDI
Model
A6 ALLROAD
Year
2020
Manufacturer
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.
Component
STRUCTURE:BODY

Severity

Deaths
0
Injured
1
Fire
No
Crash
No
Police report
No
Medical attention
Yes
Vehicle towed
No

Narrative

This vehicle has an automatic opening/closure feature for the rear trunk/hatchback door. It's activated by putting one's foot under a sensor under the rear fender. This is fine for opening the door but it also closes the hatchback door with considerable force. The feature can be activated inadvertently e.g. when loading the car (and one's foot is under the rear fender) or when sitting on the edge of the luggage area and changing shoes. Both type of events have happened to me. I'm an bald and have had the door close on my head (which broke my scalp's skin) and have had it close when changing shoes many times. If this closed on a small child, I fear that a limb could be broken (or worse). One cannot disable this feature (ideally just to prevent it from closing) or just to simply disable it completely. I have taken the car to Audi dealerships to have the feature disabled on several occasions - but they are unable to do so. It is a safety hazard in my professional opinion - I'm a physician but not an engineer.

Source

Authoritative
NHTSA ODI Flat-File Downloads
ODI Number
11563718
Machine
JSON-LD · Markdown