Long term reliability of an Audi

[cyclistca]

After working my ass off for the past little while I've decided to buy a new to me car. I'm currently looking to get a 2007-2008 Audi A4 with the S-Line trim package. Well that's what I’m searching for anyway. Since I want a manual there are slim pickings.

What should I look out for?

Are German cars expensive to maintain?

Any thing else I should consider?

What are some good Audi resources?

Thanks

 

[BassBomb]

After working my ass off for the past little while I've decided to buy a new to me car. I'm currently looking to get a 2007-2008 Audi A4 with the S-Line trim package. Well that's what I’m searching for anyway. Since I want a manual there are slim pickings.

What should I look out for?

Are German cars expensive to maintain?

Any thing else I should consider?

What are some good Audi resources?

Thanks

Yes, when out of warranty unless you can DIY.. parts are still pricey

 

[halik]

Great deal if you DIY. My twin turbo A6 has 140K on it

 

[Vette73]

Haha.... yea European cars are not as reliable as most American/Asian cars. Some have a great ride (I like firmer cars) and nice looks, but if its out of warranty either have a slush fund ready or learn how to DIY real fast.

My SiL has a A4. Seems like I am doing soemthing to it at least every other month. It hs less then 60k and all maintaince has been followed.

I would skip VW/Audi myself.

 

[PricklyPete]

You will get a lot of negative responses to this thread...primarily that a German car is money pit.

Fact: Parts can be more expensive. Some parts will be in line...but others will definitely be more expensive than say parts for an American car or some Japanese cars (although not all Japanese car parts are cheap either).

Fact: Dealerships in general are expensive...German ones are probably more expensive on average. DIY definitely makes German cars more accessible and there are a lot of resources out there on the internet to help you out with this if you are so inclined.

Audi's generally score average on reliability on major survey's, but often get thrown in with its parent company VW (since VW generally does worse in the surveys), so you will definitely hear that they are unreliable. People will argue all day about the validity of these surveys, but I'm sure there is some truth in them.

That being said, I love my wife's A4 (2010) and I REALLY love my M3 (2002). I am expecting to have to put a decent amount of money into parts on my M3...and we'll see how long we keep the A4 and its reliability. I am willing to put up with possible expensive repairs as I really enjoy the cars.

With regard to your car...the 2007-2008 A4 is definitely a better deal, but I would try test driving a 2009+. I really do feel like the cars dynamics were much improved with the new model...but to each their own...the B7 was a great car.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Parts are more expensive and they are difficult to work on. Take a look in the engine bay and think about doing work in there.

I wouldn't buy one and expect to work on it myself. If you have the spare time, a spacious shop and preferably a lift - go for it. Otherwise, I'd have a bunch of coin set aside for the dealer or an Audi specialist to do the work.

One anecdote is a buddy of mine had to replace the alternator on his early 00's A4. There's not enough space to pull the last bolt out to get the alternator out of its position in the lower part of the engine bay. He had to pull the damn bumper off to get the alternator. It was even more fun when he had to replace the turbo and up-pipe in that tiny engine bay.

 

[kornphlake]

Geez when I suggested a Passat is not a vehicle with a low cost of ownership I got my butt chewed, now this thread? AT Garage is so fickle.

 

[Painman]

Mmm, parts aren't necessarily that horrendous for an Audi. Depends on the part and how often they blow. Things like axles, control arms and timing kits aren't too bad, but a new cam chain tensioner is gonna be godawful expensive.

I'm biased, but trying not to be. I've owned nothing but VWs and Chevy/GMC trucks in the 25+ years I've been driving and wrenching. I dare to drive VWs/Audis in my current financial state because if they blow up, I can probably fix it myself and save hundreds, if not 4 digit sums of $ on the repairs. These cars DO require regular maintenance, as well as preventive maintenance.

If you've got lots of wrenching under your belt, go for it. If you want to get your knuckles bloody, go for it. If you're at a stage in life where you just want the car to work and can't deal with its issues, then buy/lease one new with a full warranty or put your money into something less fussy.

There's my VW/Audi $.02 worth.

Edit: Kornphlake, it depends on the Passat in question. A used 1.8T/4Motion is a can of worms; a used V6/5spd FWD is relatively bulletproof. Guess which one I bought.

 

[Gibson486]

Geez when I suggested a Passat is not a vehicle with a low cost of ownership I got my butt chewed, now this thread? AT Garage is so fickle.

I learned to take people's advice here with caution. You are not the only one who has noticed such things.

 

[Vette73]

Geez when I suggested a Passat is not a vehicle with a low cost of ownership I got my butt chewed, now this thread? AT Garage is so fickle.

That would be the fanboys. Same ones that will put $1000 in a car in a couple months but then call it "maintaince" or "part of ownership" and not a major repair.

I like european cars, in fact the next 4 door car we get might be a MB/BMW, but I also know they have not and are not on average anywhere near as reliable as most Asian/American cars.

 

[StageLeft]

I've read many anecdotes about audi/VW being expensive.

If you pick up consumer reports used car buying guide (magazine rack) it fvcking tears apart the brand like it just absolutely ruins it without lube, untold number of black circles (the bad ones) on virtually everything for Audi/VW. I do not want.

A guy at work is on his fourth, currently a newish GTI with 40k and has had no issues, so they are not all bad. I also know a guy with two 1990ish Audi Quattros that he likes and even he said his wife's ~2006 passat was the biggest piece of sh*t he ever owned.

 

[halik]

I've read many anecdotes about audi/VW being expensive.

If you pick up consumer reports used car buying guide (magazine rack) it fvcking tears apart the brand like it just absolutely ruins it without lube, untold number of black circles (the bad ones) on virtually everything for Audi/VW. I do not want.

A guy at work is on his fourth, currently a newish GTI with 40k and has had no issues, so they are not all bad. I also know a guy with two 1990ish Audi Quattros that he likes and even he said his wife's ~2006 passat was the biggest piece of sh*t he ever owned.

I have heard bad things about early 2000s VWs - something about electrical issues.

 

[coxmaster]

Y

Fact: Dealerships in general are expensive...German ones are probably more expensive on average. DIY definitely makes German cars more accessible and there are a lot of resources out there on the internet to help you out with this if you are so inclined.

Strangely enough, this isnt true everywhere. Labor is cheaper at my local VW dealer than the Ford, Chevy, and Toyota dealers here. The VW dealer is about 25$ less per hour for labor

 

[PricklyPete]

Strangely enough, this isnt true everywhere. Labor is cheaper at my local VW dealer than the Ford, Chevy, and Toyota dealers here. The VW dealer is about 25$ less per hour for labor

Very interesting...that has not been true in my limited experience, but I'm sure that is true elsewhere as well.

 

[Vette73]

Very interesting...that has not been true in my limited experience, but I'm sure that is true elsewhere as well.

Yea here I think Toyota is like $115, Chevy $90, and Audi was $140.

But rates depend on the shop and also how busy they are. The Chevy place I think use to be more but they have mroe used cars then Chevys now. Crappy dealer so I don;t think they will be around long.

 

[KMc]

I have an 08 A4 (B7) Avant. It's really been a great car. Other than scheduled maintenance (free), the only thing I've done is replace a few bulbs and wiper blades, and just put on new tires. I've got about 36,000 miles on it now.

The only comment I have on the previous suggestion to look at the 09 (B8) is that I personally don't recommend buying an all-new model in its first year of production.

 

[PricklyPete]

The only comment I have on the previous suggestion to look at the 09 (B8) is that I personally don't recommend buying an all-new model in its first year of production.

Agreed this is pretty sage advice...although it was out a full year in Europe before it was here in 2009...so technically it was not the first year building the car.

 

[kornphlake]

I learned to take people's advice here with caution. You are not the only one who has noticed such things.

The garage in particular is prone to group think, I read and comment mostly for enjoyment. If I want real advice on vehicles I'll go to an owners forum. Tundrasolutions.com, saturnfans.com and blazerforum.com have saved me a lot of headache with my vehicles.

 

[coxmaster]

Yea here I think Toyota is like $115, Chevy $90, and Audi was $140.

It used to be similar to that, but everybody changed their rates here recently.

IIRC Audi was $135, VW was $115, Toyota was $140, and Ford was $135.


Absolutely ridiculous either way

 

[basslover1]

The garage in particular is prone to group think, I read and comment mostly for enjoyment. If I want real advice on vehicles I'll go to an owners forum. Tundrasolutions.com, saturnfans.com and blazerforum.com have saved me a lot of headache with my vehicles.

Agreed. I'd like to see the number of people that actually own/owned a recent VW/Audi, say MY 98-Present on this forum. And not just basing their opinions of anecdotal evidence from a cousin's best friend.

I've had my 98 Passat for almost 6 years now and I've put about 62k miles on it. I can count on one hand the number of repairs I've made that WEREN'T basic upkeep. Parts are cheap if you know where to look. If a window switch breaks, for the love of god don't use the dealer or even your normal online parts supplier. Ebay has hundreds of used parts dealers, I always look there first for something simple like that.

For example last summer a little plastic bit broke on the AC fan switch. Dealer was 150ish, normal online spot was 75, ebay had it for 25. Or, the knee bolster under the dash wore out and wouldn't hold in place. Dealer was 225, ebay was 50 bucks.

I will say, if you're buying an out of warranty German car, you pretty much either have to have some cash in reserve, or be willing to get dirty. The online resources for VW/Audi vehicles are top notch. Find a proper owner's forum and you'll find a walkthrough/guide with pictures or someone else thats had the same issue and can lend a helping hand, or text, whichever.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Go into Halik's S4 thread...


...now imagine paying someone $100/hr.

 

[Arkaign]

I think Audi (and to a certain extent : BMW/Mercedes) makes the absolute most sense to two types of buyers :

(1)- The type of buyer/leaser that just gets a new car every 2-3 years. It's going to be all warranty covered during this period, and outside of fairly rare defects/early failures, you shouldn't have all that much trouble with almost any model.

(2)- The type of person who knows how to do most or all common maintenance/labor themselves, and who can be prepared to shell out the $ when it comes time to replace wear items and problems as they pop up long term.

 

[blckgrffn]

Geez when I suggested a Passat is not a vehicle with a low cost of ownership I got my butt chewed, now this thread? AT Garage is so fickle.

As and owner of a 2007 Passat I would have defended you - love the car, but it is probably been 3x more expensive to maintain than the wifes AWD CR-V just in general maintenance. And that included a fluid swap in the rear axle for that guy.

From my research, quality went way up for Passats in 2007 vs 2006, so make sure you know even the year of the car might dictate future relieability.

Evidently, VW/Audi dealerships can get on you about whether or not you performed scheduled maintenance when warranty work needs to be done. So do it.

And yes, when the certified pre-owned warranty is up in another 2.5 years, I am going to think hard about flipping it. The VW (and presumably Audi?) cerftified pre-owned warranty extensions can be quite worth it IMHO. I love working on cars, but not my daily driver. That one just needs to work so I can work.

 

[StageLeft]

I've had my 98 Passat for almost 6 years now and I've put about 62k miles on it. I can count on one hand the number of repairs I've made that WEREN'T basic upkeep.

That isn't impressive at all, say a repair every year on a car with that low miles?

Anyway, that's why above I referred to Consumer Reports, so no anecdotes there. It does rip the VWs to shreds, even the new ones.

 

[basslover1]

That isn't impressive at all, say a repair every year on a car with that low miles?

Anyway, that's why above I referred to Consumer Reports, so no anecdotes there. It does rip the VWs to shreds, even the new ones.

Sorry, what I typed didn't quite make sense. I've put 62k miles on it in the time I've owned it, it has 118k in total.