'04-plate Allroad - thinking of buying, bad idea?

[tim79]

Hi All, first post here so go easy on me!

I've been doing a fair bit of research in recent months as I am in the market for an Allroad, not particularly fussed whether its petrol or diesel as it will be a second car for when the family does longer trips and possibly will help us out should we get snow this winter where I live (as we have done the past 3).

Thing is, all I read about these things is that they are great cars BUT be prepared to pay thousands each year for new air suspension. Without fail that seems to be all you hear, at least on the more mainstream reviews.

Hence I've come on here for a bit of professional advice for owners! Is it really that bad? Is basically every car guarenteed to fail? Or is this the Allroad's equivalent of Porsche's rear main seal issue - you hear about a few going and then suddenly every car in the world is likely to fail? I guess I'm just looking for a sense of reality in the reviews, if that's possible?...

Any help much appreciated, I test drove a diesel and petrol this weekend, liked both, sent a long time testing the suspension of each via the dash buttons, both worked perfectly, sending the cars up and down evenly on all corners, no groaning or hissing etc etc so is it just the failures of a few giving the whole production run a bad name?

cheers
Tim

[bagpipingandy]

The issue with air suspension is it can be costly to fix, if A DIY person then 1 airbag can be replaced for around£250. the valve block and ecu come in at around 150 each with the final and most expensive part is the compressor, £350+, however it would be extremely unlucky, or poor diagnosis, to have to change every part of the system, if well maintained the only part which is likely to need changed is the airbladders as the rubber perrishes through time and they then leak.

I have a 2000 w reg, 135k miles. owned for 4 years and I personally have only ever changed one front airbladder, the rest is original.

as mentioned in a few posts these were £30k+ cars new but they still have the running costs now as they did new.

the allroad is great, when buying you just have to check as much as you can to eliminate buying one which has been treated badly and potentially giving more prolems

happy hunting,

andy

[adamss24]

How much you're thinking to spend ? I might put mine for sale soon, 150k allroad, full rebuilt engine: new cams/lifters/rocker arms, full cambelts, new upgraded injectors, color codded, ABT quad exhaust, full leather, cruise, Bose sound system, phatbox mp3 player, ABT front grille, rs4 b7 front brakes, new rear brakes, 20"x 9" wide s8 alloy wheels, all new front suspension arms, s6 track rod ends, rs6 rear antiroll bar, H&R front antiroll bar and much more ! Runs like a dream and needs nothing doing... Will put a few pictures of it shortly in the classifieds....

[mike ryan]

I would go for as low mileage as you can get. I looked for ages like you and got worried with all the horror stories. The thing with forums and the Internet is you only read the bad stories. No one ever comes on to tell you just how well the cars going. That said they seem to wear out at a certain mileage so go for as few miles on the clock as possible. Mine had 75000 on the clock and is as good as new. There are some nails out there also but go and view a few and you will soon see the good and bad. Avoid any that have any obvious signs of suspension issues. Spend time sending them up and down if it takes to long forget it. Also look to see if its low on any corner on arrival this can be another sign. Pick the right one and it will do you well for years.

[kid-jensen]

Mine's an 04 plate Petrol model and I've had it for just over a year.

Before that I had an 02 Diesel version but couldn't get on with the narrow power band, and the noise, and the fact that it was not that economical (~31mpg average in Summer, 28mpg in winter). And did I mention the noise?

I'm happy to believe that diesels can be tuned to be more of a sporting drive, but as they stand, they're not for me. Which is fortunate because petrol versions are so much cheaper, but unfortunately they carry on getting so.

Expect mileage in the low 20's to mid 20's if driven with an eye in the fuel gauge.

Because mine has around 100K miles, I'm currently having problems with one front suspension bag drooping, which I have "fixed" with Slime and I'll keep an eye on it. I've also got the dreaded Exhaust Gas Temperature Sensors failing (both of 'em) which I'm putting off doing because they are well overpriced.

Apart from that, my 04 Allroad has been trouble-free and great to drive hard or just cruise. The bodywork is lasting well and given a polish, it looks very impressive.

Don't expect a smooth ride though, the rattly old front suspension (and the not much better rear) can be a pain if your roads are bad, and what roads aren't?

I've not been in a coil sprung A6 to compare, but I'd be surprised if it was worse. It's not a bad tradeoff for the adjustable height though, the Allroad wouldn't be so special without it.

And of course, never buy an Allroad with clapped dampers, they are at least as expensive as the airbags!

And the bloke at the parts counter will tell you the price without laughing, something I could never do....

[a_nd_s]

Good idea, I have had mine for 7 years (2004 model) and the only unexpected problem I have had was an EGR valve failure. Its been extremely reliable and loves to cruise up to the alps each winter. They do eat tyres though and I discovered when I changed to some cheap wanli snowgrip winter tyres ( 4 for £360 ) they braked better than the Wrangler or Pirellis and felt a lot better steering wise so I keep them on all year round now and they seem to wear less and more evenly. Had the discs replaced once, rear pads go fairly quickly also. You certainly need fsh. I've had a few niggles like a loose door handle, and the GPS Ariel had water ingress and failed as it was £600 for the part, I replaced it with a dash GPS puck Ariel from ebay (£8 :-) ) and the nav is fine.