So the old lady and are are still mulling over cars to get at the end of the upcoming summer. She originally wanted a BMW e90--the newest models 06-to present, I wanted Audi A4. Anyways, I am reading up on them E90's last night at the bookstore and it looks like Bimmer says they are just ***** in terms of reliability--too much breakdown, too much costs involved. They went on to say the previous iteration, the E46 is a very solid car, save for the trans (due to poor fluid changes as per manual--mostly due to free maintainence.) If you can find one with lower miles or a replaced tranny, then you outta be able to get 250K fairly trouble free miles out that car.
Now I am wondering, if I should go the cheaper route and get Bimmer? We're just looking for a nice, sporty car with clean lines and a nice leather interior.
I am wondering if the B7 Audi's are in the same league with the E90's. We'll go CPO if we go Audi, so we'll have a few solid years--but I dont want to be sitting on a pile of ***** that aint worth much (as Bimmer claims the E90's will be very soon) after the warranty runs out or huge bills that just keep rolling in.

Anyone privy to knowledge about both the Audi and BMW world?

Cheers!

 

The B7 seems to be pretty reliable as long as you stay away from the CVT. It has a few issues you need to stay on top of (HPFP cam follower, PCV, DV), but nothing expensive.

 

What does CVT mean? I know this might be a basic question to most, but if you don't know then you don't know, right?

cheers

 

CVT is the Continuously Variable Transmission. Most people won't have a problem with it, but it is more failure prone than the other transmissions. And it's expensive if it fails.

 

A friend of mine lost the CVT on his A4 convertable. I think it was the control unit. His car was out of commission for a few days.