Cost of ownership
 

I am considering leasing a q5. However, I have also been looking at Acuras. I realize it's a sales tactic but all I've been hearing is how high the cost of owningan Audi is. I have had an Infiniti for the past few years. Can anyone in the US give me some numbers-what have your costs been?

Look at the hourly rate at each of the three dealerships you mention. I think our Infiniti dealer has a higher hourly rate than the Audi dealership.


Mark up on parts is breath-taking, regardless of the marque.


If "cost of ownership" and maintenance is a genuine concern, look at Honda/Toyota.


You can contain your exposure by buying AudiCare for around $900. That will pretty much cover you (including any warranty claims) thru the first four years or so at which time you can move into another vehicle. Ohhh, the addition of AudiCare with a lease improves the residual value so you're practically getting it for free.


We got AudiCare for our 2015 Q5. It's had a couple oil changes but never been back to the dealer for anything else. It's approaching 30k miles now.

Since you're leasing, does it really matter? You are going to return the car long before the warranty is up.

The first 5K maintenance service is free, so potentially you will have to pay for the 15K and 25K service. That should be about $500 or so.

Not at my Stealership. They told the wife 15K would be $690 by itself for what ended up just $78 of parts when she dropped it off . . . until I went and gave them a piece of my mind and left with her car. Fortunately, we have a good Inde-service here locally now that will work on them for less than 1/2 that. We love and intend to keep our Q5 unless something even more stupid than the TDI scandal itself happens with its outcome but I am done getting raped on service costs so they can pay for their new $30M facility. My guess is they are not all this bad but you do need to understand service up front and I commend the OP for doing that.

All they try to do is rob you.

15K service is nothing but an oil change / brake flush and bunch of checks which I can do easily myself.

Our car is 2 years old and has only 8K miles. All it needs is an annual oil change at this point! When wife called, she got a $395 quote, when I called, it was $79.95..... Go figure!

If you buy Audi Care on a lease, the residual goes up 1% which raises your payment about $10 a month. Or just ask your dealer if they can throw it in, they probably will if it makes a deal.

I hate to say this, but if you are leasing then the cost of ownership isn't more than a few oil changes and those don't need to be done at the dealer after the 5k one which is free. You don't need to bother with all the "recommended" stuff. You're leasing and since you're not keeping it after the lease is over, who cares what maintenance hasn't been done. Other than recommended things, all other problems are covered under warranty, so no cost to you. Just my opinion, so for those of you who disagree, flame away!

It's after the warranty is over that things can get expensive, but no more than any other luxury car. Difference is German cars have failure rates that far exceed Japanese cars so that's why Japanese cars appear to be less expensive to maintain.

I can't really disagree with you on the leased car approach. That's also why I generally wouldn't want to pick up a car off lease, even though the required maintenance during the lease period is pretty minimal anyway.

As far as cost of ownership, repairs and service certainly seem to be more expensive for German cars, but are there statistics kept on post-warranty reliability? I'm just wondering if it's more perception than reality at this point, especially given how brands like Audi have moved up in reliability rankings in recent years.

Given that the Audi is all wheel drive and a typical "other" brand of any kind is just one or two wheel drive (typical FWD)...any NON-warranty expenses would tend to be higher on any AWD or 4WD car, than on a FWD car.

But as others said, on a lease? You should be under warranty all the way. All you might pay for are oil changes and wiper blades, and you can have that done wherever you please.