im a college student, thinking about getting a mid to late 90's audi, but my dad told me he doesnt want me waisting his or my money on one of the most unreliable cars on the market, i was under the opposite impression, i searched the web and found nothing supporting his claim, and i searched the forum a little bit as well, but couldnt find much about over all reliability, im looking at a 6 cylinder A4.

I would appreciate some feedback, with some reliability history, and maybe where my father could have gotten this ideah, he actually is pretty knowledgeabel about cars.?
Thnx

 

He probably read the latest issue of Business Week magazine, March 16 issue.

The bad news is, they rank 22nd in long term reliability.

However, your dad might consider that Mercedes ranks 28th.

In initial quality, Audi ranks11th, 1 place above BMW and 1 place below Mercedes, of 37 models.

Being an old guy myself, probably way older than your dad, I'd guess that he thinks both Mercedes and BMW are the epitome of the auto world. For Audi to be in that neighborhood should speak well for them.

By any chance, can you do your own repairs? You will pay an arm AND a leg for BMW/Merc repairs, and Audi will not be far behind, if at all.

They have had, and I think, continue to have, computer style troubles. So has everybody, as they keep embedding more chips in the damned things, to control things, maybe with more precision, than a strictly mechanical system can. Electronics fail, and maybe Audi electronics fail more than the competition's does.

Cheers,

George

Bye-the-bye, when my daughter drove an 85 Audi 5000 Turbo, I drove to Purdue one winter to haul it home to PA to re-build the tranny for her. Tranny shops wanted 1700 bucks to fix it. Uh-uh. Even with 4 WD truck, damn near lost it on the way home. Came home for my b'day to reclaim her car, foot of snow on the ground.

 

yeah, me and my dad would do most of the repairs ourselves, depending of course, We wont rebuild engines or trannys, or anything like that

thnx for the reply

 

Check the April 2005 Consumer Reports.

 

I haven't been buying CR.

Spare us the suspense, what do they say? I know they love Japanese cars, so do they treat the Audi well?

They did a fair critique of my 80 Audi 5000 diesel.

Cheers,

George

 

WWW.CONSUMERREPORTS.ORG

Click on Autos, New Cars , Recomended New Vehicles
Dimensions

 

Good bets in Used cars has 7 US models, no Euro models, all the rest Japanese.

Bad bets in Used cars, all US and Euro, not 1 Japanese car.

No, CR hasn't changed at all.

Doesn't bother me, but one reason I take their other opinions with a grain of salt.

Cheers,

George

 

Reliability weighs heavily. Style and fun do not count.

 

I just got a 98 A4 used. I haven't been very impressed by the reliability, especially with the electrical crap. Also, a lot of the vacuum lines under the hood were dry-rotted and cracked. I fixed some stuff myself, but the electrical gremlins have been frustrating. Bad new too is that my nearest Audi dealer is 70 miles away, so drop-off repairs aren't very convenient. I have to admit, by previous american cars were less frustrating. But, the Audi is much more smooth, better handling, quieter, full of feature content, and better looking than any of my other cars. Style or substance, what's your preference?