arf1410

I'm with you on this... though Tesla as a whole concerns me a bit. Though we typically keep cars for 10+ years... thinking about an CPO Audi ~5k miles (~$10-15k less than new), keep it 4-5 years, then get rid of it before ~75k miles ... and then go electric or plug-in hybrid... Lots of stuff in the pipeline over the next few years...

Acuransx

Having come to Audi from a succession of Acuras (the beloved Gen III -- 04-08) TLs (and yes the screen name isn't just a wish I have a minty /94 NSX) I couldn't agree with your post more. My /15 A6 3.0T has had a litany of issues in 3.5 years/35,000 miles, all fortunately handled under warranty, the most serious of which was engine surgery to replace substandard upper timing chain tensioners and I'm now looking at replacing rear rotors (again) because they are starting to groove and warp. Wife's /18 A4 developing a couple of issues now after 6 months that I'll handle at 10K service. After the experience with the A6 (which I will keep no more than another 2 years/25K miles) I smartly leased the A4. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the cars -- very nice driving machines but not like the Hondas/Toyotas of years past that were so reliable and had very low running costs. I smartly kept one of the old TLs -- 04 with 172,000 miles -- still drives great and no issues of any substance -- certainly no engine surgery!

Most important thing is to go in with eyes open and not have unrealistic expectations (though I would have thought Audi had figured out how to design a proper timing chain tensioner by now). If there is another Audi in our garage it will be leased and under warranty at all times. As for electric seems like they are getting all the press these days. I agree -- not quite ready for prime time.

Best,
Jeff

minmet

Put some money aside for repair if you want a CPO A4 to go 4 -5 years afterwards. It’s very common that German cars become a money pit after manufacture warranty period.

SchwarzS6

I guess I am one of those guys that has had equal luck with Audi’s and Japanese cars. I had an Accord, which was never fun to drive, it was reliable but I only kept it until the 3 year lease was up. We also had two Honda Pilots. The first needed a transmission overhaul at 80k, we traded it for another one and that one started having a litany of problems starting around 120k - Radiator, alternator, O2 sensor, another radiator and so on. I had an UrS6 which I bought at 100k and sold at 140k. It needed spark modules and that was about it. My last A6 I bought with 40k and sold at 140k, the only thing I had to do other than brakes was a door lock module and a couple of headlight bulbs.

I did have one A6 with a wonky torque converter which I decided to trade rather than fix at 110,000 miles.

On all my cars I do all the maintenance and most of the repairs after the warranty/Audi care expires. This allows me to not feel guilty about repair costs.

One thing about Audi’s, Mercedes, BMW in general is that they are designed to go 130+ mph on the autobahn so they tend to have better brakes with bigger rotors and pads and as such brake jobs cost more because parts are bigger and higher quality. Talk about warped rotors /brake vibration - Honda Accords are notorious for this and my Accord was no different, at 20k miles they started to pulsate. I think that Audi’s are better as long as you stick to OEM parts. The only time I had a problem on my Audi with pulsation was when I bought aftermarket, and that turned out to be the pads depositing on the rotors. When I went back to OEM pads the problem resolved itself in 500 miles.

Pick the car you like driving, take care of it and it should be reliable. Don’t overthink the Audi maintenance costs.

minmet

Honda's quality and reliability degraded in the past 10 years or so. I had an 05 Pilot and need lots of maintenance works (interval is much more frequent than most cars especially with the 4 wheel drive) and had trouble with coolant passage at ~60k, Torque converter at 65k, Transmission to radiator connector broke resulted a new radiator replacement at 97k and finally the transmission died at 120k. I have my current 16 Pilot for about 4 years 45 k miles now. It already had one roof side rail cover recall, radio tuner replacement. For the past 4 years, I had done 6 times oil, two times rear differential fluid, one times transmission fluid and one times transfer case fluid as well as brake fluid changes all followed the manufacture's interval . Thank god I was doing all these myself. Otherwise, quit a bit of money there.
My wife had a Camry for 8 years 96 k miles without single issue. Regular oil changes at 5k and one set of brake pads plus brake fluid are the only maintenance done. She has her current Lexus RX350 for 4.5 years 45k miles now and had no single issue besides regular oil change each 10k miles plus one brake fluid change.
So, from our experience, Toyota autos are much more reliable and trouble free.

arf1410

My thoughts with a CPO, as it provides one additional year of warranty, for unlimited miles, after the expiration of the original warranty...

but from reading these posts... I do wish the Lexus NX "cockpit" had the features of the Audi A4 Prestige ... realistically, comfort and quietness is more important to me than performance... as I'll be coming from a prius that I drove like a grandmother, so anything will be a performance upgrade!

NoMoreSwede

You will absolutely spend more maintaining an Audi. Assuming you followed the maintenance schedule for your prior car, I can tell you the Audi will require things done much more frequently. I don’t recommend buying the car and then failing to do the preventative maintenance. You can find the service schedule online. Read it and see if you can tolerate the thought of 2 year brake fluid flushes, 4 years transmission fluid changes, etc. If that doesn’t cause you concern then I think the A4 would make you quite happy.

SchwarzS6

This has been mentioned before but apparently not everyone got the message. Brake fluid should be changed on ALL cars EVERY 2-3 years. Brake fluid is hygroscopic - it absorbs water - this is true of all cars and all brake fluid. You cannot stop this from happening just because you buy a Japanese car. The water in the fluid will lower its boiling point so if you need to use brakes in an emergency while coming down out of the mountains or multiple stops from highway speeds due to traffic the water in the fluid can boil and the pedal will go to the floor and you will not be able to stop. The water will also rust brake components which can also be dangerous.

NoMoreSwede

This post makes much more sense to me now. I pulled up a maintenance schedule for a 2015 Prius. No mention anywhere of replacing brake fluid. Spark plugs don't get changed out until 120,000 miles. It's basically oil and filter changes and tire rotations for the life of the car. I'm uncertain whether the drivetrain and various systems of a hybrid makes this possible or if Toyota has decided the car can function for that long with minimal care.

OP, the Audi maintenance schedule looks a lot different. I'll fall back on my prior comment to have you take a look and see if this is a reality you can deal with. What I don't recommend would be to buy the car and then decide to follow the maintenance schedule out of the Toyota book. That's a recipe for a post from you saying what trouble the car has given you. Preventative maintenance will help you prevent issues down the road.

arf1410

I've been looking at the Audi maintenance schedule to, so let's switch from brakes to plugs. A4 says plugs at 40k miles, A3 says plugs at 80k miles. What's the difference?