Man Gets a Text from Audi Service Center About Overdue Maintenance. It's $17,000

• Audi

A man is questioning what it really means to drive a luxury car. Is it just higher maintenance costs—or should that luxury car experience mean something more?

Zach (@callmebyzach), who says he lives in Chicago, posted that while he loves his Audi, a recent trip to the dealership made him reconsider whether owning a “luxury” brand actually feels like one.

“What is luxury these days?” he asks in the text overlay of his clip. Some viewers said he might have too high expectations for a dealership visit, but others agreed that he had a point—maybe luxury doesn’t mean what it used to.

What Happened? 

Zach says he dropped his car off for service and “the whole experience has me questioning … exactly what luxury is.” As technology has gotten more advanced, he says, the experience feels less personal.

“At Audi, they do this thing where everything is really automated,” he says. After he dropped off the car, he received a text with a link listing “everything wrong with his car”—a list totaling $17,000.

“Some of it was legit,” he admits. “I do need a tire and new brakes.” Still, he says there was nothing luxurious about getting a massive repair quote by text with a single button to approve it.

The small details bothered him as well. He had to fill out his own intake form, and the waiting room offered coffee and oatmeal packets, which he joked didn’t exactly feel upscale.

Zach stresses that he still loves his car but said the experience left him questioning whether the “luxury” label is worth it when the service doesn’t match the price tag.

What’s Happening To Luxury Car Brands?

For a lot of drivers, luxury brands don’t feel all that luxurious anymore. The tech can be clunky, reliability has slipped, and interiors that once screamed craftsmanship now feel less expensive than they should. 

A big part of the problem is technology. Automakers continue to introduce complicated touchscreens and digital features that often glitch or overcomplicate basic tasks. Combine that with cost-cutting inside the cabin—more plastic, less premium finish—and it erodes what used to justify the price tag.

Mass-market cars now offer many of the same high-tech features, so the badge alone isn’t enough. After all, consumers want cars that are reliable, intuitive, and easy to live with.

Even big names like Audi have seen drops in initial quality ratings, which has hurt consumer confidence. Lower perceived quality also means lower resale value, making these cars seem like a less attractive investment.

Luxury isn’t dead yet, though. If anything, these brands seem to be swinging back toward simpler design and better materials—the kind of stuff people actually expect when they’re paying for something that’s supposed to feel special.

Viewers Question What ‘Luxury’ Means

Looks like Zach’s not the only one wondering what “luxury” even means anymore. Plenty of people said it’s not just car dealerships—service everywhere feels worse now that everything’s moving away from real, in-person interactions.

“Luxury is slowly becoming the least amount of real-life interactions possible, which, in my opinion, is the opposite of good service,” one man wrote.

“It’s all so that graph goes up on Wall Street,” another said of declining service quality. “MBAs and CPAs will squeeze every last penny out of everything in a business. I’m cancelling my Chase Sapphire card because they raised the price and the benefits got worse.”

“This is exactly what they do at Hyundai,” another woman added, backing up Zach’s point that driving a “luxury” car doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed a premium experience.

Zach even jumped into the comments. “I appreciate the service and speech, but I’m like, nothing about this feels ‘luxury,’” he wrote.

At least one viewer pressed him to define what “luxury” would look like in this context.

“How would you make the process of getting your car serviced luxurious?” one asked. “Prior to potential issues/quotes being listed online for you, they’d just call/text and update you. Getting your car serviced is the same for a $5k car and a $500k car.”

Zach responded that true luxury would mean someone picking up and dropping off his car at the very least. He added that complimentary detailing once a year, along with a personalized video explaining the $17,000 worth of recommended repairs, would go a long way.

And plenty of people were hung up on that $17,000 figure.

“I need to know what the hell was needed to warrant $17K?! At that point, is the car even running?” one person asked.

“Mind you, there ain’t a single light on my dash,” Zach replied. “‘There’s a scratch on your front camera’ recommended service replace front grill + camera system $5k I’M NOT EVEN KIDDING.”

Motor1 has reached out to Zach via a direct message on TikTok. We’ll update this if he responds.