According to this article The emergence of Martin Winterkorn as the new head of Volkswagen marks the end of a long-standing feud between two of the most powerful personalities in the European car industry. Martin Winterkorn: Regarded as a perfectionist, it is largely down to him that the Audi A3 has had far fewer quality control problems than other models in the VW fleet.

Do you think the Audi A3 reliabilty has been excellent?

In a another November magazine review with a A3 with 12K miles they found zero problems, but commented that the brakes were a bit touchy and some road noise that disappeared when you cranked the Bose system.

 

15k with virtually no problems. I'm loving the car and for a VAG product, I'd say the reliability has been very good.

Cheers!

 

Encouraging comments. I had a 2000 Golf that was rock solid, while a friend with an '01 Jetta had tons of problems. Seems like it was 50/50 with VW for a while, then things got worse. I expect better from Audi, hence my recent purchase.