if u can afford s4 dont bother with an a4

 

I just bought a 1999.5 1.8t and I'm loving it. As far as problems go, I think I've got all the common ones, like the airbag light, worn clutch, and display module glitches. Everyone is right in saying, though, that these are minor problems that are easily fixed. One major problem to look out for is the oil sludge build up that plague's this car, but I haven't run into that yet.

One thing you must get is the Quattro! It's fun to drive! I can't wait to get my chip in too, but deciding between GIAC or APR. Gotta replace my clutch first though.

 

I loved the car at first but lets be honest. How many $26,000 modern cars have as many issues as the a4. ABS is crap, tie rod ends crap, timing belt megga crap, various sensors/lights crap, digital display crap, just to name a few. These are not problems on high mileage A4's. My car has only 64,000 miles on it and these aren't quick cheap fixes. If the dealer would have told me oh by the way you need to come in at 60,000 miles and let us put on a new timing belt for $500 I would have went straight to the Infinity dealership. Now I can't wait to get rid of it if I can.

 

boosted, its gonna be a hell of a lot more than 500 bucks for the tb change at a dealership.....sounds like you really should have gone with the nissan...i mean infiniti

 

You just made my point. I expect to get flamed over my comments but I am so disgusted with the lack of build quality and raping I going to get on repair bills. I have owned 2 nissan's, first was an Altima never had the first problem. Put over 100,000 on it and a Exterra. The only issue I had with it was the poor gas mileage. So much for upgrading to a Audi.

 

Sounds like you got a car that was abused. Mine has 98k and all that I've had to replace is a MAF for a couple hundie. I'm sure there are countless ppl on here that will disagree w/ you.

 

Who in their right mind buys a German car for its reliability? Thats what the Japanese are for

But seriously, just because you had a bad experience with an Audi (and a used one at that, correct? For all you know it was treated like hell mechanically by the previous owner(s))

My cousin's first 3 cars were Nissans...she has yet to have a good experience with them. She gave up when her last one caught fire due to an electrical problem

The tranny in my mom's 2003 Toyota Matrix needed to be replaced at 35k miles. Does that make Toyota an unreliable car company?

Everybody told me my Jetta would need a new tranny at about 120k miles. I traded it in with over 140k miles and the tranny was still going strong with no problems at all.

Simply put, until you own and write a long term review on the majority of all Audi's (and new ones, not used), you cant say an Audi is crap. In your case, the previous owner could have been some "backyard mechanic" who really had no clue what he was doing, but thought he did because he worked on a Ford when he was a kid and took shop class.

 

My piece of crap was a one owner and had all the maintenance documents in the glove box and all where Audi dealer performed. I think it was a lease car. Anyway it was a (certified preowned) car that was supposed to be good as new. I have put 13,000 miles on it and in that time a tie rod end has gone bad, a wheelbearing, the ABS is inop, it started puffing white smoke out the exhaust, the timimg belt slipped which bye the way looked brand new, the digital readout looks like ****, and you can't keep those damn driving lights from getting cracked. Those are expensive as hell. And Slugg, who the hell has had to worry about that since 60's and 70's, oh but if you only use $7 a quart oil in your Audi you might not have to worry about that. I guess the A4 is a great car for the first 60,000. My A4 gets a A+ in looks and handling but a D- in engineering. I'm just giving this thread an honest account of the other side. To every one that has never had any problems with their A4 count your blessings and I wish I had all the money you spend on preventive maintenace. Damn I knew I should have replaced that timing belt and ABS controller after 10,000 miles