Should I keep or trade my 2016 A4 at 90k miles?
 

I’m trying to decide if I should keep my A4 a couple of more years or it’s time to trade it in. The car has about 90k, mostly highway miles and I bought it new in 2016. The rear shocks is showing signs of minor leakage, there’s also minor oil leak around the timing chain cover and gasket. It’s not at the point that’s dripping oil or anything but it may get there. Right now I’m topping off between 1 to 2 qrt every 10k miles. If I keep this car a couple of more year what other expenses should I expect? I haven’t replaced the breaks yet that I believe is another 2-3K.

I was offered between 8-9K for trade and I can get a certified 2023 A4 with around 10K miles with 4 years warranty around 35k.

should I trade and buy a new car or it’s safe to push the current one 2 more years without expecting any major costs?

10K miles is way too long to be changing the oil in any engine but especially this one............

Some random thoughts:

Do you really want a $30K+ car loan? Throw away $4K on interest, another 2-3 grand on taxes and title? Increased insurance, etc. If you go this route, you're headed for an endless cycles of car payments.

It also seems like you might be using your dealer to benchmark your maintenance and repair costs. Consider VW/Audi indy shop.

If it's the upper timing cover leaking that's fairly cheap/easy. Lower is a little more work. Any car can have unexpected repair costs out of warranty. The concerning thing here is the 10K oil changes, which wears down your timing chain, so that could be on the horizon. And you could be burning oil if you don't have a measurable leak. That could mean a piston ring job down the road.

You'll probably need a water pump soon (if not replaced in that 90K miles), and there's a lot of other little things that could chip away at repair costs. But if you're just trying to stretch to more years, you could probably defer a lot of things, and come out at about 2-3 grand in repairs within that 2 years. Maintenance costs probably not a lot there in two years, depending on condiiton tires which can easily knock out another grand.

if its not an oil burner id check the timing chain wear and keep it.. invest a couple of car payments in it and keep on trucking another 2 years.

But yeah shorten up those oil changes... its a turbo and they are hard on oil .. 5 K i would say. i do mine every 3k , but i figure oil is cheap.

I would keep it. My 2014 has 130K miles on it and there's no reason this car can't do very high mileage if you are dialed into maintenance. Def short OCIs and I agree with Icy oil is cheap compared to engine work

If you have the cash and you want it, you could buy it. If that cash is more than 5% of your net-worth, I would save and invest longer. Cars go down in value too fast.
Keeping it longer is a great idea because you have forum support. You many need to do some maintenance yourself so I guess it depends how much you can/like brake work, etc.

I ended up trading the car for a 2023 A4. My car needed new tires, breaks, water pump, serpentine belt, rear socks and timing chain soon. I feel the cost would add up soon.
now the 2023 comes with summer tires so I didn’t save much there. Should I do the oil change at 5k instead of 10k this time?

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...26d8d143d.jpeg
For some reasons I like the body style of the 2016 more. The front grill look nice on the back optic but from the side reminds me of Toyota Camry from 1990s. Maybe if I tint the windows it’d look better.

do you use suction for oil change? I could do the oil change myself every 3k mile and take it in every 10k for regular maintenance

You could do the Earl changes and the other maintenance yourself, depending on what it is. You might have to step outside your comfort zone occasionally but we’re here to answer questions.

I was on Bimmerforums for almost 20 years. In time, you can do a lot, if you care to. I only suggest DIY because car pros are really charging a lot and they little skin in the game. It’s not their car.