Purchasing 08 Q7 3.6- what gremlins do I search for?
 

My wife and I welcomed twins six months ago to join our four year old which put my dreams of finding a newer S4 Avant to bed. :(

We have a Flex as a company vehicle but as the twins turn to permanent rear facing convertibles, its becoming tight. We looked at Explorer ( too small ) , Odyssey ( too expensive ), and might end up at Expedition as another company car. Dear lord. :eek: However, we also have a 2003 B6 A4 Avant ( 5 speed manual no less ) and a 2010 Mazda CX-7. I am thinking of combining these two into one good second three car seat vehicle and found a local used 2008 Q7 3.6 at a decent price.

I've read many many threads on many sites of 3 car seats, but rarely do they mention two rear facing and one forward facing. Adding one baby to two front facing children is alot easier than adding two rear facing babies at once.

My wife loves the Q7 and has always wanted one so I'd like to know what problems you owners of older first gen Q7s experience. This one has 76K miles on it and they are asking $19K, not certified ( at Volvo dealer ) Thank you very much :)

Look out for the sunroof drain leaking onto the bose amp causing the MMi not to function.

I had a 3.6 of that vintage, wonderful car despite its issues.

The sunroofs of that era had a drainage issue and leaked. If you can, find out if this one had the respective tsb/fix applied. If it has the keyless start feature, check the little lock buttons on the door handles. If they have a rubbery surface, they're the old style and they break all the time (i replaced 6 of them under warranty). If they're hard plastic, they have already been replaced with the new kind and they're far less likely to give you trouble.

The 3.6 was one of the first port-injection engine designs and was susceptible to carbon buildup on the valves (not terribly so). Mine started showing signs of that at 40k miles. Read up on that here and decide if you're ok wit the cleanup cost should yours develop this condition.

Mine also had the steering rack replaced at 30k miles, quite a surprising failure of what should be a pretty rugged component. I don't think that's typical though.

The electronics are a crapshoot in all audis/vws/porsches. Set some money aside for the inevitable repairs.
Overall, I think you shouldn't expect the lower puchase price to also translate into a low cost of ownership. They say if you can't afford a new german vehicle then you can't afford a used german vehicle either. If you want a lower and predictable cost of ownership, get a new minivan.
If you're ok with some repair costs here and there, i dont think you can find a more satisfying daycare shuttle anywhere.

My opinion the 2010 was the golden year. Fix a lot of the problems for example leaking drains and installing LED lights. Also was the year of the new TDI 3.0l CATA engine with great gas mileage. On road trips I can get up to 636 a tank. which it is around 33 MPG, and city around 25 mpg.
I have just the basic Q7, no keyless entry, no air shocks, no rear warm package, 19 in wheels, which I do not have a lot of problems from all the extra systems.
At 70,000 my motor mounts went bad, and the common problem with the turbo breather gasket goes bad causing a small oil leaking onto your turbo boot.
Drives great just oil changes and fuel filter changes.
70,000 did trans flush,front and rear Diff flush, and Trans module flush. ready for the next 70,000 change. I do most of the work my self. So the cost is a little low, but the parts are not cheap.
Also common hood lifts, and hatchback lifts going bad.

Recommend just a basic 2010 TDI my opinion.

i have a 08 q7 with 59000 miles on it and its at the audi dealership getting fixed. the sunroof frame had to be replaced because it was leaking bad and i had to replace the navigation module and the parking module sensors replaced as well because the water damaged them from the leaking water and that is going to cost me $4700 +tax and i called audi of america and they are covering 25% of that ..so check the sunroof and the drain plugs!!