I just read the latest Consumer Reports Best & Worst for 2009. It says the A3 has "declining reliability", and rates it as "below average." Among the bad spots are minor transmission and brakes, among other things. I've had my A3 for about 11 months with 10K miles, no problems yet (cross fingers). Am I in for rough times ahead?

Any thoughts?

 

I've had my A3 for eighteen months and nothing, absolutely nothing has gone wrong with it. It runs like a top and everything functions as it should. It's even easy to service myself.

 

I've got 25K over 18 months with zero problems other than dealer caused ones. The car is very reliable.

 

07 with 31k in 18 months. Stock tires went(normal), stock brakes/pads are pretty much done(normal), AC is out(not normal!, perhaps the cross country drive in August had an effect), gotta take it in soon as I need AC in San Diego winter!

overall, I've been very pleased with the car

 

2007 S-line, besides tires and a front end alignment I have had ZERO problems!!! Knock on wood! Great car, averaging 29 MPG, fun and fast!

Greg

 

'07 25k and a failed A/C compressor. other than that, nothing.....yet.

 

CR's methodology to put it politely is "statistically questionable" as it relies totally on self reporters who happen to belong to CR. That skews their data in some pretty peculiar ways. Even they admit that a car can score 20% below average and still be average in reliability. Not to mention that even "well below average" means a score of well above 90% NOT having any issues.

There is a concept in statistics called significance, "measureable, but not meaningful". Lets say your self-reporters number 1000, and 980 have had no problems with car A - it's average. If your car B sells fewer copies and averages 97 flawless out of 100 vehciles you have 1 more problem. That's 10 out of a thousand - 1% of the cars, right? And Car C has 9900 flawless vehicles out of 10,000 reporting. But CR would tell you that you in Car B has 50% lower reliability, and is well below average, even though only 3 cars had a problem while Car C, with 100 reported problems, is 50% better than car A with it's 20 issues.

Look at it this way: Car B at 97 has a 1:100 greater chance of having a problem than the Car A in the average 98 reliability. and a 1:50 chance of having more problems than the "above average" guy with a 99. That's well within the error of the sample size between a problem and sheer chance - in other words, not very meaningful, statistical noise. Measureable, but not really significant.

BTW, the same holds true for medical statistics, like the study that reported that certain drugs reduced heart attacks by 50% - from 3 per 10,000 to 2 per 10,000 over the life of the study. And that to have the desired impact all 10,000 would have to take the meds for years to prevent one heart attack. Oddly enough the study was sponsored by a drug company.

 

reliability has gone down i thing. 2004 a3 55,000 miles.
1. A/C compressor went
2. CD player dont play cds any more
3. Coolant Temperature Sensor
4. coolant leaking, leak cant be found. looks like its the head! 2004 audi needing a new head!! This day age shouldn't happen.
5. New rear Shock Absorbers
6. sound like i need new front Wheel Bearing

 

Did they say WHICH transmission causes trouble? What do they say about the VW GTI? Same basic drivetrain as the 2.0T 6-speed.

 

Actually, Dana, I think the problems you are experience prove the opposite: quality at Audi is going up.
Clearly, newer model years are suffering far few problems. It also depends on the car. My 2007 A3 TDI had a few annoying problems, but my 2008 has not had a single issue other than a factory mandated recall for wind noise. (a noise that I have never heard, but will see if it is better after the fix!)