thejulex

I am not sure if you knew that but the reason why they don't rust that much is since their whole underbodies are fully galvanized just like the hardware all the builders are mandated to use for any outdoor construction. I addition, all the bolts nad hardware is either plated or just plain stainless steel so you really have to struggle to find anything outright rusted underneath there, The stuuf will rust a little, but nothing significant.

To put this into perspective, my 2001 subaru outback is just a rust land undeneath. It is so horrible it is hard to describe. There is no single bolt that I could possibly just remove, everything is so rusted that it needs to be filed down/cut off and new hardware installed. The panels/fenders are just a pile of rust etc.... I know since my wife didd 2x 360 this winter and hits the car from a;ll possible sides and there is rust everywhere.... just a f.ing pile pile of f.ing rust.

rider384

02 A6 2.7t here. Mine has 104,9xxx miles and it's been kind of a bitch about maintenance. I like the car - it's extremely comfortable, smooth, easy to drive, that sort of thing. For reference, it's not driven hard, rarely above 3.5k RPMs.

The problem comes in the maintenance department. With every single service having been done, being taken into the dealer at every indication of something being wrong, it's still a bitch. Past 2 years it's had its book value put into it in maintenance. Past 5k miles it's broken 3 times as well (MAF, injector harness and suspension gremlins). Over the past 2 years some weird **** has broken that you wouldn't expect to break (Windows, doors, mirrors, that sort of thing).

My experience is that is isn't reliable, but it isn't unreliable either. It's certainly not bad, but it does need more attention than I'd like to give to it, especially since I have another project sitting in my garage sucking up my time.

2.7Lturbo

i see most of your problems with cars come from having them serviced at a dealer... little FYI theres a reason **** keeps breaking

CrodA6

Coming from a perfectly reliable Acura to a used Audi is not a good idea if your concerned about maint. and repairs. Frankly I think you will be shocked coming from a Acura. two different beasts. If reliability is your top concern, move on.

thejulex

I second that. My Acura Integra run until its 12th birthday and 200k miles without anything outside of timing belts and a burst coolant hose which is phenomenal considering how many things broke in my audi allroad 2.7t to date which is still barely not even on its 10th birthday.

If you currently have Acura, don't even think about old Audi. It might look appealing but there is a reason why originally 30-40k car costs almost nothing these day. It does b/c of impeding maintenance costs and reliability issues.

Get NA model like 2.8 and you will be much happier.

frankinstyn

Very true. My 2.8 may be slow compared to the turbo and the v8 but it does run silky smooth with 167,000 miles on the odometer. The only engine related problems I've had in the last three years (77,000 miles) are the thermostat frozen closed, crank position sensor failing, and leaky cam plugs. The thermostat was my own fault for not replacing it with the first timing belt.

That all said, it still has its electrical gremlins elsewhere. Airbag light and currently the random abs light just sort of showed up this winter. No reason at all. I'm kinda fed up and will probably just sell it when I get my VW Rabbit fully restored.

spoon2000

I agree completely (unless you have the time and inclination to shop for parts yourself and/or do your own labor), especially since you are coming from an Acura which has probably been hassle-free for the most part.

Our 2000 A6 4.2 has about 85,000 miles and has been driven mostly in the city in a very non-aggressive fashion. The interior and body are pristine, we are the original owners, and we have every bit of repair paperwork ever generated on the car. We just had the transmission rebuilt for around $5000. I've lost track of how many CV boots the car has torn through. The power steering rack had to be replaced last summer. The water pump and the associated items one typically does when dealing with overheating problems have been replaced 3 times. The MAF sensor went out a couple years ago (fortunately, Audi covered that cost under a service bulletin warranty). The CD player in the radio quit working. The front passenger door window motor is pretty-much shot at this point, and the rear window lock-out mechanism on the driver's door is broken. The display in the center of the dash has lost about a third of its horizontal rows. The driver's seat stopped holding its memory several years ago (fortunately, that could be reset with VCDS, which we have). The coolant bottle disintegrated several years ago for no apparent reason. The airbag warning light often comes on in cold weather. All the vacuum hoses rotted a couple years back (kind of to be expected, and fortunately I did them all myself, but still a hassle). The supplemental air pump hose rotted through a while back (I was able to replace it with a piece of dishwasher drain hose from the hardware store, which works great, and which was a much better alternative than paying $70 or whatever the dealer wanted for the hose part). The coolant temperature thermostat went out a year or so ago (fortunately, I was able to swap in a $10 replacement from an auto parts chain store). The front control arm bushings all need to be replaced at the moment. Gas mileage is about 15 MPG around town (although that's primarily a function of the V8 engine and the predominantly-stop-and-go driving). And so on and so on. Those are the items I can think of without thumbing through the repair records. If you're in a major metro area, taking the car to a shop that repairs European cars will set you back $100 to $125 per hour (which is why I do my own brakes and other stuff that is easily accessible and that wouldn't require me to take annual leave to free up enough time).

We made a conscious decision when the car was about 5 years old to keep it until it was 10 years old before replacing it (our previous Audi had lasted 14 years without too many major problems). However, in hindsight, I think we're pretty-much at break-even with the money we'd have been out had we traded the car in when it was 5 and bought a new one (except that we'd have been enjoying a new car 5 years earlier, and we'd now have a car on our hands that had only depreciated 5 years instead of 10).

Don't get me wrong -- this had been a great car to drive in any kind of weather, it goes like a bat out of hell when it's asked to, it's super comfortable, we feel very safe in it (we ought to given that it weighs 4200 lbs!), and even other A6 owners have trouble distinguishing it from models that are a year or two old. But at this point we won't shed any tears when we wave goodbye to it. We would certainly not sell it to any of our friends.

Gr8White

This always seems like such a loaded question to me. Regardless of brand, so many variables factor into the mix. The BIGGEST factor seems to be where you have the service done, provided you don't do all of the wrench turning yourself. A garage is only as good as the technician working on your ride. And your problems become the technicians food, fun, and shelter.

I own a Honda and two Audi's. As I've gotten a bit older, I've learned to do more of the work myself and do some shopping around for parts; even if it means waiting a day or two for something I found cheaper online. The second Audi that I recently added to my garage (1999 A8) has 204,000 on the clock and drives better than nearly every new car that you could burn through two years worth of wages on.

The poor guy I bought the A8 from didn't want to pay to have it fixed (quoted about $1800) and decided to buy a new KIA because it had a 100k mile warranty. Couldn't fix what he had but could put himself on the line for a new KIA???

I guess my point is to find an owner that was as meticulous about his or her ride as you will be. If you have your heart set on an Audi, you will probably never be happy with something else. Buy within your means and try to do as much as the work as you can.

spoon2000

That's the understatement of the year. You can almost always save a TON by shopping around on the web; the worst thing you can do is not have the patience for UPS to arrive (same thing applies to cell phone accessories, too, FWIW). And don't just assume that because you're buying off the web that you're getting a good deal; sometimes the best price is at Amazon, sometimes at ECS, sometimes at Advance Auto Parts with a coupon, sometimes at Autohaus, sometimes at Pelican, etc. Frugalmechanic.com can be a big help, too.

6605stang

No offense to other owners, but I regret terribly buying my higher mileage A6 2.7T. Had tons of service documentation from a one owner with very little heavy foot driving and in the 2 years I've owned it, from 108k to now 121k, I've spent nearly as much in repairs as I paid for the car.

Just sayin'...

Fun to drive... a nightmare to maintain.