AUDI reliability

[harryg]

See in magazine article that AUDI might take legal action after a report labelled the brand the worst for reliability.
Component cover provider Warrantywise stated it received an average of 102 claims for every 100 AUDIs on it's books. The report concluded build quality wasn't as good as it used to be.

The article is on page 17 in current Auto Express if you want to read more.

[vwawudi]

Interesting. I wonder what owners here think. I certainly hope it's not accurate as I've just scratched my Audi itch!

[Bratty]

I was quite surprised at the really bad level of protection that is afforded by the front inner wings!, take your wheel off and have a look:confused:, it is a joke! There is a ledge where pidgeons can roost, let alone accumulate nasty road deposits which if there are any imperfections in the coating will be interesting in time.

Still A blinking good looking car:D.

Dunk

[phil miller]

i wouldnt read to much in to that, Audis are like women, they have small problems, women have small crashes whereas fords are like men when they crash ie its a write off lol, for all we know they problems could have been brake light switch or a worn ARB link, i still think the VAG cars are good and hold there money better than most other brands

[robtt09]

On my third Audi.One TT and two A4 diesels.TT was least reliable but the most fun ! Current 3.00tdi is very reliable .No real problems at all. A few years ago I was talking to a bloke who did a lot of repair work on Audi,Bmw etc and he reckoned Audi shaded others for build quality at that time.

[wm1]

Interesting. I bought my A4 2.0 TDI 143 SE Executive new earlier this year and for me the whole 'Audi experience' has been a huge disappointment.

The quality of the build and the materials (particularly the switchgear and the plastics) are nothing like as good as those of the 2002 Passat 1.9 TDI 130 SE which the A4 replaced. (I decided against the current Passat because of its dreadful reliability record.)

...and the Passat's ride was excellent whereas the A4's is awful.

I'm quite happy to accept that 'buyer beware' applies and that I made a mistake in buying the A4. But in my view it sets an overall standard well below what I had expected in an Audi (my first, and my last) and in a car from any manufacturer costing £24,000.

[vwawudi]

Interesting. I bought my A4 2.0 TDI 143 SE Executive new earlier this year and for me the whole 'Audi experience' has been a huge disappointment.

The quality of the build and the materials (particularly the switchgear and the plastics) are nothing like as good as those of the 2002 Passat 1.9 TDI 130 SE which the A4 replaced. (I decided against the current Passat because of its dreadful reliability record.)

...and the Passat's ride was excellent whereas the A4's is awful.

I'm quite happy to accept that 'buyer beware' applies and that I made a mistake in buying the A4. But in my view it sets an overall standard well below what I had expected in an Audi (my first, and my last) and in a car from any manufacturer costing £24,000.

I'm hoping reliability is better than ride quality. Ride seems best on the motorway. Fingers' crossed on the reliability front....

[tungstentim]

interesting, I'll have to go and buy the mag.
I've had two audi's now and four VW's ( two golfs and two passats current model). The audi's were reliable and the VW's not reliable at all. With the last passat spending over month in the garage in the first 18 months.

Also the wife has a SEAT and that's ok too.

Tim

[mkc]

My car has been reliable but Ive had a few bits fall off on the inside and the recent boot parts falling apart. So far it has been very reliable although I have noticed that when someone else drives the car away from the house it sounds like a bag of spanners when ticking over. Never use to sound like that, sounded really smooth and quiet.

Trim alignment is poor, lots of fixtures and fittings not mounted flush and lots of air pockets under the "leather" on mine. Ive also got a very annoying rattle/vibration level with my right ear, coming from either the door panel or pilar. If I hold the window or push the seat belt holder into the pilar it stops. Speakers also vibrating but thats probably my doing.

Its due its first service within the next 3 months so at almost 2.25 years on the road and only one oil change its been cheap to maintain. I think the list price of mine as gone up to over £27K now which would be a worry if I was buying new.

I cant help but think that the Audi brand now sells itself and they can afford to make cut backs in some areas. However wining the most unreliable brand may have shot them in the foot.

There are so many on the road now and with the arrival of the A1, A1 soft top and A2 soon there will be even more, they wont be able to afford to let quality slip even more. For many the A1 will be their first step onto the brand, if its a rubbish experience they wont come back. Hopefully the new A6 and A7 will put them back on track and that will filter down the chain

[Alan02]

One article i read said that Audi warranty claims were,on average, one of the most expensive of the lot.

[B8 TDI]

Consider this, the average Audi has upwards of 20 control units, miles of wiring, thousands of intricate parts, with everything connected, managed and monitored.

If the exhaust gasses are slightly out of spec the car warns you and you tend to take it to a dealer.

Now consider a 2000 ford pickup. it could start spewing bits of the engine out the exhaust, and some drivers will still not be aware that something is wrong. and since it has not been taken to the dealer the stats claim it's more reliable.

Stats are just that stats, and for the most part meaningless. in this case you can not take something like dealer visits and repair costs as a measure of reliability when comparing an Audi to a Ford for example.

[kodkod.84]

I've had this argument with a friend of mine who claims that Skoda/Ford/Vauxhall are more reliable than Audi.

His data came from the Warranty Direct survey- now the cynic in me says this is because, as the data is based on number of warranty claims, that the average Audi driver extends their warranty more often than the drivers of these other brands as they are driving a fairly expensive car.

Also as the cost of repair is higher at Audi dealers the owner is more inclined to make the claim on warranty policy than pay out of their own pocket.

Just my thoughts...

[Bratty]

If I was a Synic (spelling timothy!), I would say that a major car manufacturer would be foolish to manufacture there products to last too long ie.more than ten years.
That way the peeps who are willing to stump up the money to get the quality product when new or nearly new, the latter get the quality product plus the servicing and more seriously the "PARTS COSTS"costs.

If not we would all buy 11 year old cars risk free:confused:.

Dunk

[mkc]

So true, these new Audis with all this technology means that there is something to go wrong, everything is being monitored, measured, settings for everything, potential for something slightly out from the variables will result in a warning light on the dash. You cant buy the parts and tools to fix these cars in Halfords on a Sunday afternoon. I very much suspect that the faults reported are not major faults.

[Bratty]

Statistics are on the whole total ******** unless the half-wits are taking ALL the INFO within the same parameters.

My AUDI functioned absolutely faultlessly for its thirteen months and i had absolutely no guilt selling it on as NEW!

Dunk

[Hippogriff]

Only had two Audis, two A4s - a B6 Sport and a B8 S line - and I can relate that I have taken this car into the dealer (in its first year) more times, already, than I took the B6 into the dealer in the four years I had it... easily many more times.

Rattles, shakes, seat belt warning light coming on, Sat. Nav. issues, driver's seat moving at odd times (mostly just when I get in)... it all adds up to make me claim that the B8 is lowly quality (parts, build, whatever) than the B6 it replaced.

But maybe I just got unlucky.

Engine is miles quieter but road noises seems so much more... are they one of those things that cancel each other out? ;)

It would help if, when they fixed something, they didn't go and break something else.

[B8 TDI]

I've had my 2.0 TDI B8 for 25 Months (Registered August 2008) it currently has46,000km on the clock,

In the time I've had it I've had 0 problems, with 0 Visits (not counting services) to the dealer, I have 0 rattles, road noise is negligible, fuel consumption is great, Radio works perfectly, trim pieces are perfectly fitted, steering is perfectly weighted, leather seats are flawless, etc.

The one minor problem I've had was the plastic trim on the boot hinge breaking it's clips. but that's been it.

However since I don't post about how good my car is two or three times a week, anyone who reads this forum could easily come to the conclusion that all Audi's are problematic.

And that's exactly what the problem is with statistics, they don't draw a complete picture.

[Alan02]

Fact is all marques break! And they all have their specific problems to that manufacturer, some more than others. But, if you go to each manufacturers forum you`ll likely see very common problems on each model.

[Niko]

I've had my 2.0 TDI B8 for 25 Months (Registered August 2008) it currently has46,000km on the clock,

In the time I've had it I've had 0 problems, with 0 Visits (not counting services) to the dealer, I have 0 rattles, road noise is negligible, fuel consumption is great, Radio works perfectly, trim pieces are perfectly fitted, steering is perfectly weighted, leather seats are flawless, etc.

The one minor problem I've had was the plastic trim on the boot hinge breaking it's clips. but that's been it.

However since I don't post about how good my car is two or three times a week, anyone who reads this forum could easily come to the conclusion that all Audi's are problematic.

And that's exactly what the problem is with statistics, they don't draw a complete picture.
Echo these remarks entirely, 2 B8s both diesel, both faultless apart from the boot thing on the first The sline is plenty better than the SE particularly ride. Everything works as it should never a foot wrong. I cannot praise highly enough. Writing this from France on hols and the ride here has been superb. Audi, in a word vors sprung durch technich

[legendamongus]

My 2008 B8 has been in to the dealers once in the time I've had it. A clutch release bearing had failed, but it was repaired for free as its apparently a common problem. Other than that, its been absolutely faultless, which is more than I can say for some of the other cars I've owned...

I always look at these sorts of surveys with some distrust though. I find the problem with statistics is that you can use them to prove pretty much any point you like. I haven't read the Auto Express one TBH but they never seem to say how they've managed to secure a balanced data set for each category. A look at any manufacturer forum makes every car look terrible because the bad points are always flagged up. The cynic in me says that most of the people who participate in these surveys are the ones who are most ticked off that their cars aren't perfect 100% of the time, and that those whose cars are actually pretty reliable just don't bother participating.

[5up3rman]

I guess you can argue this issue all day long.
Go to a merc, bmw or ford forum and all you'll read about will be problematic mercs, bmws's or fords.
i think in general though Audi has dropped its build quality.
I'd imagine this has come as a result of now selling more cars than they used to, you now see as many Audi's as you do BMW's.

But in the end no two cars will be the same, no two owners will treat their cars the same.

[c parnell]

I have to say that the Passats and now the A4 i have. I have bought them and driven them with no niggling faults. the same cannot be said about the Citroen C5's i had which had so many problams with EGR valves and steering columes.
Also Citroen heavily discount the initial purchase of the car, then recoup much of it with extortionate service costs.
Clive

[mrmarc]

In the year I have owned my 2009 A4 3.0tdi the car has been in for a new battery,clutch and flywheel,bang&Olsen amplfier and is currently at Audi while they investigate tapping noise on start up and a chatter noise from the engine at 1500-2000 rpm. Oh and the the clutch has started juddering again and the engine hesitates between gear changes !! glad its still under warranty. I'v been there so many times I now know them all by there first names and have also been invited to there christmas party.

[5up3rman]

Reliability in general i would say they are on par with all and any other major manufacturer.
What is evident though is the build quality is not as good as it used to be.
And that i assume is just down to higher demand and production numbers in a shorter time.
Gut feeling no fact behind that.
Same situation happened with Mercedes when they went from being exclusive to trying to cater to every single person that could want a car.
Audi got so many cars in production now they even started using odd numbers to end to the end of the models of their cars