Why is our factory-fitted Audi A5's satnav system not capable of recognising UK postcodes?

I bought an Audi A5 in May for my wife's special birthday. I paid £1600 extra for the Sat Nav system. She needed to use the Sat Nav a few months later and found she could only input five digits of the postcode, then had to enter the address. I queried this with the distributor who supplied it, who said that it was correct as they did not use 7-digit postcodes in Germany. I assured him that I would not have bought the system if I had known this and I would like him to recompense me for his error. This fell on deaf ears, so I wrote to Audi service who tell me that they are now rectifying this problem on all future models, but still would not give me any recompense. Is there anything that can be done for false selling? Any advice would be appreciated.

Asked on 18 February 2012 by RE, via email

Answered by Honest John
Small Claims Track of the County Court. This has been going on for years because the UK is the only country in the world with 7-digit postcodes. But there is now no excuse. If a £150 Tom Tom can take 7-digit UK postcodes, then a £1600 factory-fitted Audi satnav that cannot is obviously "not of satisfactory quality" for sale in the UK. Cheaper Mercedes-Benz systems only take five digits. The more expensive ‘Command’ systems can be programmed to take seven digits. The case is different if the satnav is fitted as standard specification or part of a package, because then it is difficult to separate the actual cost of it.
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