I guess I've had enough cars that the thrill of the hunt isn't so thrilling any more. I like rarer cars. I don't like trying to locate one.

Can't imagine someone in another state finding an online ad for the A6 I saw today and potentially hopping a flight to Phoenix to check it out.

I know I'd be pissed.


Had any luck looking online? At least you can get a pelican to do a cursory inspection.

That's the downside to photos, they can hide a LOT.

Says the guy who sends emails with 50 photos. :p

I've run through Auto Trader, Cars.com, eBay, and national searches on Craigslist. Very limited selection. There are a couple on eBay, but they're in Chicago and you can see rust on the brake calipers and hubs. My '84 911 came out of Chicago. It looked great on the topside, but there was a layer of crust underneath that made working on it fairly unpleasant. Of course, most A6 wagons seem to be sold in areas where it snows!

I've owned Audis now for 25 years, and they have always served me well. I have never had any major failures, and the minor failures have been nothing more than temporary aggravations. I will say that one failure stranded me - my 1990 Audi 80 quattro had a fuel pump die out in the middle of BFE. That sucked pretty hard.

But it was a pretty cheap and easy fix, so I was only disgruntled about the location of the failure.

I have found that working on the cars is a bit of a challenge if the cars have spent any time at all exposed to salt. Suspension bits that are all rusted together don't like to come apart, oddly enough.

Because winters around here involve snow and ice, the AWD system that Audi sports really does wonders. Paired with real snow tires, these cars are top-notch when it comes to winter. Sweet heated seats, AWD, power everything - and the prices on the used cars are damned nice. If you can find a good, used Audi, you can drive them until the wheels fall off. I usually drive mine 100-150k before I sell them. :)

100-150k is not "until the wheels fall off" mileage. Any car these days can do that no problem. At least need to double that to qualify for long term reliability.

I still would buy no Audi these days. But I did plunge into VAG with a Golf TDI. So far so good (wheels half driven off at 50k miles). :)

G

Oh, I'm sorry - did I neglect to mention that I usually buy them when they already have 100-150k on the clock?

That 80 quattro I mentioned we bought when it had 110k on it. I sold it a couple of years ago with 320k on it, and the college kid that bought it is still tooling around in it, as of three weeks ago. My wife's last Audi we bought at 140k, and sold to her grad student at 265k.

These cars will run a long time.

Ok - qualfied for "drive the wheels off" then! I thought you meant total mileage!

G

Keep your search limited to the western USA and focus on Colorado for Audis. It is one of the most popular locations for the brand and although it snows, it is paradoxically a very dry place and cars stay pretty clean if taken care of. Scour the Denver craigslist and save an eBay search with a 750 mile radius from your location. Some rust belt cars will come up but every one in the western states will as well.

Good luck. As others have said, they are great driving cars. :cool:

Typically more than that, and I actually try to show the flaws as opposed to hiding them. Tends to make for happier customers, especially when buying sight unseen.

Good advice. It's also easy and cheap to fly into DIA from almost anywhere. I seem to recall reading somewhere that CO uses a more friendly de-ice product that doesn't promote rust. They do use one hell of a lot of sand, a guy could make great money there just respraying front bumpers and replacing windshields.

Dont mean to jinx you, but those are famous for fuel pumps disintegrating and trashing the entire fuel system... Mucho dinero to fix !!! It's always something, isn't it ? ;-)

While I have never owned an Audi, I have been stuck twice as a passenger in broken down Audis (first time in a funeral procession). Coil packs both times, different cars, different owners.

I have also heard multiple first-hand horror stories (water pumps on the 2.0T, oil flow on a 2.0T, suspension issues, sensor issues).

You guys are discussing S4s, RS4s, RS6s, etc. while the majority of Audi (and VW products) use the 1.8T (1990s to mid 2000s) and the 2.0T (2008? forward).

They definitely are pretty cars. I understand why people like them but I need reliability in a daily driver. And none of the Audi cars are sportscars except the R8 and maybe the TT-RS.

I love how people talk about the "reliability" of their cars, then you find out their cars are 20-25 years old..... completely irrelevant to a modern example of the same marque

There have been issues with the transmissions on those as well. Almost as much notoriety as the early ChryCo minivans.

Except when you're talking to a fellow cheapskate that is also buying a 10 year old used Audi. In which case it's totally relevant.

Perhaps, but anecdotes about a 1990 Audi 80 isn't going to tell you much about a 2006 Audi A6

Audi changed a lot in those SIXTEEN years

We have had a long discussion about that on here before. My analysis says the majority is likely due to mis fueling. My math says one in 10000 fill ups need to be having an issue to explain the entire failures. I also cannot find the same complaint in Germany (where a very large number of cars run diesel and the mis fueling rate is undoubtedly lower ...)

I will keep you posted ...

G

The US has different fuel that has differing levels of lubricity than EU

Does a new Q7 count?
 

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1409878723.jpg

Bought this for my wife in June.
After about 4000 miles (1/2 of which was ATL to WI and back), it's been a great vehicle. Quiet, absolutely SOLID driving.
28mpg on the highway (3.0 TDI)
Wife is tickled pink, and is addicted to torque.
This replaced a Honda Odyssey that we bought when pregnant with our 2nd child.
"This will be the only minivan I ever own!!!" was her quote. Loved the vehicle, and got lots of great use out of it. Time to move on.

Back to the Audi. I realize that long term ownership is the central discussion here. Of course, prior to first service - we have no idea. I sincerely hope that this model has enough years under its' belt to have worked out all of the bugs. If lots of issues before out of warranty - we will reconsider the long term plan. Same powerplant as used in M-B, Porsche and VW - if I understand correctly. Cant imagine that it can be all that bad. Most concerned about electronics and goodies - but hope that if serious problems, will work themselves out within warranty period. She is pretty careful and gentle on vehicles, and I hope that bodes well.

Comments on the overall package: Seats, Dash and materials are all nice. Carpet - looks like it came out of a 90's VW. Don't know why they did that. We did put the all weather mats in - so I am optimistic that the carpets will stay clean.

We have not had integrated nav before - and so far, she likes that a lot. I think not quite as advanced as some of the other makes - but we also test drove a new Acura MDX. My wife actually cried because it was so hard to use. Two screens and lots of buttons besides. That killed the MDX immediately.

The Q7 has great legroom in back (middle row), and 3rd row is kids only - but that was a big deal for us, as our folks visit frequently. We need the occasional space.

Cargo - not anywhere close to what the Odyssey had, but we do not need that very often.

Space for all the little junk that you always bring along - the Q is a bit short in that department too.

Sorry for the scattered pseudo-review, but those are my thoughts. Happy with the vehicle so far - and if I didn't need a utility of my own (Outback) to slog through lousy ATL area traffic, I would love an A6 - or other variety of their current lineup.

When we move on from our Mazda5, a Q7 is at the top of the list for consideration. Nice SUVs.

I have a cousin who just can't get enough of the Audi Q7. They have leased about 5 of them since they came out, (they have a bunch of kids), and a couple years ago they had matching his/hers identical grey TDIs.

I took pictures of them, these are two different cars:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1409888102.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1409888186.jpg

What can I say? They're eccentric. :)

I asked her how she knows which one to jump in when she walks out the door and she said that she just hits the remote and gets in the one that blinks. I guess they're having good luck with them. :cool:

Boy - a couple of TDI Q7 leased must be a great way to burn through a bunch of cash every month.

G

^^^this.

Add the word "forever".

I guess it's all relative but yeah, not the cheapest way to move people around. :)

It's a data point, though. Five different Q7s leased for 3-4 years each and pretty good luck. I was just there not long ago and they were down to one Q7 but replaced the other with an A7. So another Audi.

I hope their depreciation curve resembles the arc of a falling stone only because I think that I would love to own a used one! That may change after driving one...which I've never. From the outside I think they look good but also appear as though they could have a lot of blind spots and sub-optimal outward visibility in general.

I drove the first two they had back in '07 or so, a V-8 gas one and a V-6 gas. I have to say that I did not love them at all, just really disconnected and uninvolved. I realize that it's an SUV and not a sports car but still a really bad driving experience. The steering wheel felt like it was connected to some call center in India where highly trained workers were relaying the instructions back to the tie rods.

They sure look good, though.

I drove one for three years and totally agree. Not a great driving experience (preferred my RR or the wife's MDX) but it sure looked pretty. Brake pads and rotors were very expensive as I recall and it drank a lot of gas (V6) because you had to cane it everywhere.

Bringing this thread back to life in case someone wants to research a failing sunroof drain on a Audi Q7. We were quite shocked this week over our repair bill, at approx $7K. That's right.... $7 GRAND!. On the Audi forums, this issue is nothing new. We always knew it affected the '07 models, and I believe there was a class action suit against Audi for this... never expected this to happen to our '08.

The drain tubes will fail, causing the water to leak inside the car. It happened so subtle that we never noticed the wet carpets - it's been raining a lot in Norther California over the past few weeks. We realized something was wrong when we got stranded, car wouldn't start. Battery seemed to be dead.... turns out a lot of water entered the floor, battery and circuit box are conveniently located under the driver's seat.

Turns out, the water damage turned into an insurance claim, approx $5K. Mildewed carpets front and back have to be replaced, battery and circuit box. Parts were about $2200, labor was the other half at $180/hr.

I'm responsible for the faulty drains however, was told not to worry, parts may cost a couple hundred. Well that didn't include the labor... which now I'm looking at $1,700. My car is all apart, insurance claim was processed, but now I'm stuck with this huge bill on a car with 80k miles on it. We were just thinking of trading it in on something else too.

What a bummer.

These cars are fancy junk. Yes, they are a pleasure to drive and be seen in. Best to lease them new under warranty, dump when done, then move on to another...

PS... filed a claim with Audi USA to see if anything can be done.

Audi - German word for don't own off warrantee.

Sent you a PM.

I have a 2010 A4 B8 and one of the LED's on the speedometer is blinking on/off randomly.

It's going to suck to pay all that labor just to replace a frickin LED so if it's not too difficult to get at it, I wouldn't mind doing it on my own.

Anyone know or can point me to a DIY how to thread?

I found ones for earlier series but not for the B8 series.