Hi all, new guy here. My question is this: In a niche where most buyers increasinglyseem to be interested in lease and short term (4 years or less) ownership, how many of you are buying AudiS and RScars for keeps?

As a potential future owner, I am curiouswhether these road rockets are worthy/likely to sitting in a place of honor in my garage 10, 15, 20 or more years from now? Before I get yelled at, I mean worthy in a quality/reliability sense, not a seat-of-your-pants fun to drive sense (I already know they are ). I realize that maintenance and good service go a long way to making them reliable, but I don't want to pay for the car twice in maintenance costs. If that's the case, it's probably cheaper to buy a new one every 5 years.

Thanks in advance for your experience and opinions!

 

My parents have had Audi's since they had a 1994 Cabriolet. Then they had an 1998 A4 2.8 Avant and then an 2001 A6 2.7. All with minimal problems. All problems were promptly taken care of by the dealership at no charge. They were all leased.. Iown an 1992 Audi 100 cs quattro with190,000 miles that's still running strong and a 2001 S4 that I absolutely love. I also went to the Audi Academy so I have a fair amountof experience with the cars. They are, for the most part, very reliable. The bad thing is, when you do get a tier one brand car, ie Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Lexus,is that when something does go wrong that's not covered under warranty, it can get very expensive due to the quality and technology that is in it. So me personally, I think buying an Audi is the best thing to do if you want to mod it and do the occasional track event. After going to car school and learning about leases, I wouldn't do that. Dealerships make a lot more money off of you doing a lease.But it's pretty much what you're going to do with it and what you want vs. what you can afford. There's so much to consider, there's no right answer. Anyways, hope this was helpful a little. Good luck with everything.

 

Thanks for the input. I doubt that I would be interested in any performance modifications, and would probably never track the car. It's not that I'm unable to afford maintenance, but rather that I am philosophically opposed to paying large amounts of money just to keep any already expensive car running. For example, if I am buying a $50k car, but I have to spend another $50k over the first 10 years of the cars life just to keep it running, I would have a problem with that. That being said, an average of up to a few thousand per year to keep it running would be acceptable.

 

as a matter of fact i would like to see a couple of resoponses, as i will be obtaining a new audi soon, i hope!

 

When I said afford, I meant it more like you could lease an A6 the price of buying an A4. So you get more car for the around the same monthly payment. But if you're not going to mod you car and you don't think you're going to buy it out at the end of the lease, then maybe the lease is the way to go. You might want to check out the Audi Club of North America. They do track events around the nation a few times a year depending on where you live. It's$44 to join for a yearand the events are a couple days andlast time I went to oneat BIR it was something like$500. You get a day of instrustion and drills (that really help your everyday driving too), then a day of lapping at your own pace. It's pretty relaxed and you can just have a good time metting other Audi owners and driving. Honestly, most fun I've ever had. Just wish I had more time to do more.At least check it out.

http://www.audiclubna.org/

PS: I don't mean to sound like I work for ACNA. I just really think it's a great thing to do.

 

Actually, I would much rather keep than lease, and I guess I'm wonding if the audi's are what I'm looking for given that so many people seem to look for short term ownership even though audi seems to be making moves in the right direction.

I will definitely check out ACNA, thanks!