marko959

I am interested in purchasing a 2005 Audi A8 4.2 with 106,000. I just finished getting rid of a 2006 BMW 325i with numerous issues that cost me a bundle. It was a lemon. I know we take chances buying older cars, but some are more reliable than others. Does this year and model Audi have a miserable and expensive repair history? What do I need to look out for? I can do some mechanical work, but not major. Is the all wheel drive system reliable?

Thank you for any input you can give me.

Brozee

Look at all the links in my signature. There is much too much to go over, just scan the forums and search and you'll find all the answers you need. Proper maintenance goes a long way on these cars. Set aside about $3k for maintenance to do a refresh if it hasn't been done (suspension, timing belt,etc)

MP4.2+6.0

+1. Basic rule as with any new intro is 2006 > 2005 >> 2004 for reliability curve at first new design intro, so 2005 does have some teething worked out relative to the most common 2004's. AWD system has comparatively (very) few issues, and 6 speed tranny is a huge breath of reliability fresh air after 5 speed lemon used in a lot of bigger Audis of prior generation.

But, if you want Toyota reliability and cost of ownership, head toward the Toyota, Honda or Lexus appliance depts. And yes, BMW seems to be taking an ever increasing knock for reliability, and for surprising core motor and other areas you just expect should plain work. By current D4 era we are seeing lots of refugees with many a bad experience heading on over.

dvs_dave

On the whole they are pretty solid reliability wise compared to their contemporaries. But make no mistake, one that hasn't been looked after can bite your wallet hard. Also being aluminum, corrosion isn't an issue which is more than can be said for similar age BMW's and Benz's. Overall build quality is very high and the car and interior stay in good shape and don't fall apart.

There is nothing particularly big or expensive that goes wrong with them. The powertrains have proven to be bulletproof. The front suspension likes to go through bushings every 50k mikes, but they're cheap and easy to replace so just a maintenance item really. The air suspension is a regular source of problems on higher mile cars. But these days the system and its failure modes are well understood, and by consequence not difficult or expensive to fix if dealt with quickly.

The electronics are proving to be solid and reliable too. Although there are a few instances cropping up of the ABS module wiring insulation breaking down on some older cars causing spurious and hard to diagnose errors. But again, its not hard to fix once it's been diagnosed.

A D3 A8 that has made it 10+ years and 100k+ miles, most bugs that may have affected early model year cars over later ones will have worked their way out of the system and likely been replaced with an updated part. So don't be overly concerned about the differences say between an 04 vs an 06. It's all about condition and maintenance history at that point. A clean and well looked after 04 will treat you a lot better than a neglected 06, for example.