Mr.47

I'm no stranger to German luxury cars in terms of performing maintenance/repairing/driving between Mercedes and BMW, however I never had an Audi before so this is a first for me.

Coming from 2011 BMW X5 35d i really like my X5 the fuel economy and utility is something that is on my list which my current car dose well however ride quality is equivalent riding at the back of a school bus bumpy, which given BMW's character of been sport orientated it tolerable on short trips but it gets jarring on long trips so it must go unfortunately.

So i just got back from test driving a 2013 Audi A8 3.0 tfsi and there was something that its hardly seen in a car today that is craftsmanship and attention to detail, from the fit and finish material quality to all the way down to the knurling of the every ****, especially the diamond quilted seats absolutely astonishing.

Im looking for any enlightenment on buying/owning/maintaining an A8 with 3.0 tfsi, (i know i could have use the SEARCH function) i'm not interested in 4.0t though its very intriguing, the engine though is short of an engineering nightmare IMO (no offence to S8 or 4.0t owners) im planning on keeping this car on the long term, ill be mostly performing services on my own as i did on all of my cars (an experienced grease monkey) so the 3.0 Tfsi fits the bill for me having a balances of good performance, economy and reliability (so far biased on my research).

the_duke

Regardless of engine choice the D4's are pretty reliable. Read through these forums and you'll get a pretty good idea of what problems you might see over the years.

Jack88

I've never heard of it referred to as a TFSI, only a 3.0t or 3.0 supercharged. On every other motor, the T seems to represent turbo, but given it's applied to the supercharged motor, does anyone know what it actually denotes? Or has Audi gone the way of Mercedes and lost all meaning in their alpha numeric naming system?

If you're set on the 3.0t, you should be good. I haven't heard any bad things about it from the long termers. Dynamically, the lighter nose means they handle slightly different, but I never noticed in day to day usage. Probably helps conserve brakes and tires. I had a naturally aspirated V8, but I can tell you these cars are all hard on the front suspension, particularly the sway bar links and control arm bushings. The mmi screen in prior generations had a tendency to strip gears long term but I haven't heard anything about the current generation having lots of this issue. All in all, you'll find it to be quite a reliable car, a couple people have had some weird issues with their V8's but most do quite well.

Mr.47

I when through the most of the post I didn't see a lot of major issues just some minor and gremlin issues.

TFSI means Turbo (or forced induction) Fuel Stratified Injection. (Stratified Injection mens Direct injection)

Hopefully with a lighter engine should have lesser impact on the control arms, but its something that i can do if need for replacement.

Mr.47

Anyone know if VSDS or Ross Tech works on the D4's? I yet to see clear verification on their webside on using it on a 2010+ MY A8, I do plan to get a diagnostic tool if i get an A8

Jack88

I did understand that the T in TFSI was meant to mean turbo normally, but given the 3.0 doesn't have a turbo, it seemed like the designation might mean something else. After much digging, you are correct that Audi has indeed switched to using 'T' to denote any car with forced induction, even if it's not a turbo. It seems stupid to me. Probably because they don't want to confuse the S cars with the rest. Oh, wait, they already did that with the S-line...Senseless, I tell ya. Am I correct to assume you are not located in North America? They don't refer to it as a 3.0TFSI here, only as a 3.0T.

Puzz1

I own a 3.0t and it's been trouble free. Just scheduled maintenance so far. I don't put a lot of miles on the car. Only 16,500 in almost 2 years. I usually find the power adequate but I'd be lying if I didn't long for a V8. This longing has me constantly searching for used S8, S6, S7 and even A8L 4.0's.

I also came from a 2008 X5 4.8i that became a nightmare after 60,000 miles. Good luck!

MP4.2+6.0

Yep, all true. But at least they don't engage in the pretty blatant misleading puffery of both BMW and Merc. that use "big" numbers to try to equate to some fiction about "equivalent" normally aspirated supposed comparables--the N.A.'s that hardly exist in the premium market place these days. As in, fuzzy math to basically hide that is a lot of cases they are selling $5-10K overpriced tuning chips on motors of much smaller actual displacement than the fantasy number on the trunk. And in turn a "4.0" on the back of an Audi is very different animal than a "40" on a prop mobile or a "400" on the starred one. And on the 3x nomenclature, the Audi's will be sixes while the others will be fours a la the 2.0T Audi variants of various potencies.

The confusing Audi technology issue will alos self correct since the supercharged 3.0"T" will be phasing out in coming years. Then back to all of them actually being true turbo's.

frybear

love my 2013 3.0SC but yes, sway bar links etc. are being replaced under CPO as I type this, and a new steering wheel, wasn't heating up properly. other than that, no real issues to complain of. And pretty good gas mileage as well.

SloopJohnB@mac.com

Schmucks are supposed to go through a multi-point inspection that includes that. One other issue that should have been covered under CPO is likely to be replacement of brake rotors unless specifically not covered. The problem is that Audi has a ridiculous 1mm per surface wear limit; in other words any car with over 10-15K miles will have worn rotors.