Today's Audi

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Yesterday I went to a local VW dealer to look at a GTI and this dealer is also an Audi dealer. After looking at a VW the Salesman showed me an Audi A3 nice car with several models with different price points. Now what worries me!

Back in the 80's I had a friend who had a small shop and worked on all Europen makes and I recall there were always plenty of Audi's in the shop with plenty of them with serious issues. I recall asking the shop owner what is his opinion of Audi? He replied "Over engineered junk!"

So have things changed? How are today's Audi? Are they as reliable as most other brands?
 
Honestly... If a shop has trouble with an 80's Audi I wouldn't trust them with much else. Just because he had never heard of an FSM or dwell meter isn't Audi's fault.
wink.gif
Bosch Jetronic is the enemy of parts changers the world over.

With regards to the newer stuff: If you do the maintenance on time, you're not going to have much trouble out of any car made in the last 10+ years. People buy old neglected cars or neglect their new cars and cry junk from the tallest towers of the internet when they (expectedly) fail.

If you want a new car to neglect, buy Japanese.
 
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
Honestly... If a shop has trouble with an 80's Audi I wouldn't trust them with much else. Just because he had never heard of an FSM or dwell meter isn't Audi's fault.
wink.gif
Bosch Jetronic is the enemy of parts changers the world over.

With regards to the newer stuff: If you do the maintenance on time, you're not going to have much trouble out of any car made in the last 10+ years. People buy old neglected cars or neglect their new cars and cry junk from the tallest towers of the internet when they (expectedly) fail.

If you want a new car to neglect, buy Japanese.


Exactly.
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Why are you looking at VW’s if Audi’s quality concerns you?


They probably share a LOT of the same engineering, tooling, assembly, etc etc
 
Originally Posted By: MCompact
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
Honestly... If a shop has trouble with an 80's Audi I wouldn't trust them with much else. Just because he had never heard of an FSM or dwell meter isn't Audi's fault.
wink.gif
Bosch Jetronic is the enemy of parts changers the world over.

With regards to the newer stuff: If you do the maintenance on time, you're not going to have much trouble out of any car made in the last 10+ years. People buy old neglected cars or neglect their new cars and cry junk from the tallest towers of the internet when they (expectedly) fail.

If you want a new car to neglect, buy Japanese.


Exactly.

+2

My '01 A4 was pretty reliable. Wife's '15 Q5 has so far been reliable as well, alas, it's only 3 years old, so I don't want to draw long term conclusions.

I'm looking into a CPO A6 right now.
 
Audis don't have much of a market share in the U.S. to begin with, but even taking that into account, there aren't many old Audis out on the road. They're complex, maintenance-intensive, and appeal to a demographic that tends to burn through cars. If you're a 3-5 year car guy, they're probably OK as a new car purchase if you're prepared to suck up a big depreciation hit. No one, other than a 1st-car teenager, should seriously consider buying a 6+yr old Audi, and that computation should factor into a decision to buy a new one.
 
My wife's boss had an A4 a few years ago that was a maintenance nightmare, every little sensor would go out right after warranty was up. Traded it in for a GLI and it has been rock solid for 150k. The car isn't very old, he drives a ton. Go Audi if you want the recognition, if not get a loaded VW.
 
Audis are so baller and impressive. I saw a new S5 parked on the street yesterday and it looked awesome. My uncle has a newer A5 and the heated flat bottom steering wheel in addition to the pop out stereo screen blew me away but that was in 2013 or something.

I am biased because I love VWs but new Audis always make my head turn when I see them. VWs and Audis are sweet but there are a lot of cheap idiots who own them
 
Originally Posted By: maxdustington
Audis are sweet but there are a lot of cheap idiots who own them


Therein lies the problem, Audi, BMW and MB are set for european maintenance schedule which is a LOT more frequent than ours. Their marketing department adjusts this frequency to suit north american habits which very seldom reflect preventive maintenance. This is further aggravated by the great number of leased cars which are maintained at the min level, how many leased cars that require premium are instead given a diet of regular gas? etc so if you buy one of these leased cars you may expect problems and because parts & labour are expensive the bill gets astronomical rather quickly.
 
The modern era of Audi essentially began in the 1960s when Auto Union was acquired by Volkswagen from Daimler-Benz.[9] After relaunching the Audi brand with the 1965 introduction of the Audi F103 series, Volkswagen merged Auto Union with NSU Motorenwerke in 1969, thus creating the present day form of the company. Wikipedia

Got a 2014 Audi and it's build is excellent.
 
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Why are you looking at VW’s if Audi’s quality concerns you?


VW is likely to have fewer doodads that will cause early reliability issues.

My family is on it's third VW (all golf/GTIs) between drivers and all have been totally reliable.
 
The A3 is a glorified GTI anyway, so if you like the bells and whistles, nicer trim, softer plastics, better feel then go for the audi. The maintenance is a little bit more as well, just for the audi name the brakes will cost more. They also want a DSG fluid change every 40k, if that goes out its a very pricey unit to replace. They arefun little cars, and they get great mileage if you go easy on them. A tune really wakes the car up also.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: dlundblad
Why are you looking at VW’s if Audi’s quality concerns you?


VW is likely to have fewer doodads that will cause early reliability issues.

My family is on it's third VW (all golf/GTIs) between drivers and all have been totally reliable.


Yeah, the more basic it is.... the less headaches down the road (no pun intended).

I liked your old 4 door Rabbit.
 
Today's euros cars are 10 times better then 90's cars.

The asian and domestic cars... thats to be argued. But clearly the euros have gotten better.



I'm shopping GTI myself and going the more base model angle. Like many have mentioned, they have a different maintenance schedule. To me the GTI has great offers VS the comparable Focus ST and Civic SI.
 
Originally Posted By: bowlofturtle
I'm shopping GTI myself and going the more base model angle. Like many have mentioned, they have a different maintenance schedule. To me the GTI has great offers VS the comparable Focus ST and Civic SI.


The GTI base is far from feeling like it IMO. Mine is the S (base) model, but has the features of a nicely equipped Asian/Domestic vehicle.
 
Quote:
Audi, BMW and MB are set for European maintenance schedule which is a LOT more frequent than ours


Can you give examples as to what components are supposed to be replaced as scheduled maintenance at say 75K miles?

Window motors, door latches, trunk release etc?

Or are we talking about plastic components such as water pump, intake manifold, thermostat housing, coolant tank?

Or are we talking about all the rubber components on the engine?
 
The base model golf is really nice. Everything i need nothing i dont. The poor mans Audi Avant they say. I say i just have more money left over
 
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