4 ms·

Not in my personal (anecdotal) experience. I bought a $65k MSRP Audi S4 for $31.5+tax, 4 years after it hit the market. Haven't had anything go wrong in the 2

by vecinu 7y ago

Not in my personal (anecdotal) experience. I bought a $65k MSRP Audi S4 for $31.5+tax, 4 years after it hit the market. Haven't had anything go wrong in the 2 years I've owned it, just regular maintenance that I go to an independent mechanic for. I find if you follow a few basic principles of used luxury car buying you can avoid a ton of headaches... - Stalk forums for the model that you want and understand all the serious problems certain model years can have. Avoid those model years, always buy the latest model year of that series (Most issues get solved by the manufacturer). - Do a PPI (Pre-purchase inspection), it's only ~$100. - Ask for previous maintenance records / repairs (Avoid cars with accidents or questionable titles). - Do preventative maintenance and never miss a scheduled service. - Fix problems immediately as they arise, don't let them get worse. So far I've owned a fantastic sports sedan that I've wanted to own for a long time, for 50% off.

prepend 7y ago
Wait until you have to replace the transmission or something else that’s common in the first 10 years. $10 for an s4 transmission is way more than for a Toyota.
- sjg007 7y ago
  lol.. all transmissions are pricey and basically a transmission should last for at least 200k.. Basically when the tranny goes you are done. If a brand has bad trannys people find out about it and don't buy their vehicles... including new ones. This is why you see 60k power train warranties etc... Parts are shared across vehicle lines and sometimes across manufacturers. Luxury manufacturers also have invested heavily in the certified pre-owned market which means that to save money they make the cars better initially. Why? Otherwise they have to pay the dealer for the work to repair. Cars are so reliable that even dealers will warranty the power train on a used car for 100k miles for no additional cost (even after negotiating the sale price). That's how confident they are. If you are really worried buy the used luxury car from carmax and purchase the extended warranty.
  - prepend 7y ago
    All should last, Audis are notorious for both sucking and breaking and being extra expensive. I had an a3 for a while and had the transmission replaced three times in 140k miles. The first was under warranty, the other two were $8k. Transmission on my corolla was $3k. Consumer reports publishes repair costs. Audis are much more than Honda/Toyota/Hyundai. You can purchase an extended warranty for your Audi, it will cost 3x what it would cost on a Lexus or Toyota. It’s a fun car to drive, but it costs much more to maintain.
    - vecinu 7y ago
      That's one reason why I never go for base models or cheap luxury cars. The 2.0T is a notoriously bad engine, I would have gotten the A4 but wanted the reliability of the 3.0T V6 and so far, I've gotten it. Again, you have to read, pick and choose the right model. Audi makes a lot of unreliable crap (Or at least used to a lot, in the past) so you need to weed it out.
- vecinu 7y ago
  I think you're referring to the mechatronics unit that was prone to failure in the B8 series model. Luckily, I bought a B8.5 so that is no longer an issue, as it was fixed. I'm not planning to replace the transmission on this car, I will most likely sell it in a few years.
- Yetanfou 7y ago
  I've worked on cars and tractors for ages (even though I never got one myself, cars are boring, bikes are better) and have never had to replace a transmission. Clutch plates, yes. Crankshaft, yes. Pistons, cylinder heads, valves, cylinder linings, bearings, the works. Transmissions? Nope. Might this be one of the bigger advantages of manual transmissions which still are the norm (and probably will remain so for the remaining lifetime of internal combustion engines) in north-western Europe? Apart from synchromesh rings there are no real wearable parts in a manual transmission.
  - kungito 7y ago
    Why are you specifically mentioning north west of Europe? No one I ever met in south east of Europe ever had automatic (where I live).
    - Yetanfou 7y ago
      Because that is where I live and have data on? Because I think I should not make statements about the rest of the continent when I can not be sure that what I say actually is correct?
newnewpdro 7y ago
Audis, especially Quattros, are an expensive nuisance to maintain. The first step of anything to do with the engine compartment is "remove front of car". They don't optimize the layout one bit for minimizing cost/maximizing ease of maintenance. I have a friend with an RS6 that sat unused for years because it needed some cam sensor or actuator thingy serviced to idle right and pass smog, to do the job required pulling the engine due to packaging constraints. A job like that isn't just expensive, it requires finding a mechanic you actually trust to do the invasive job properly, unless you can DIY. I'm a DIY type, and that has me firmly in the domain of mass-produced Japanese economy-sports cars. They're an absolute dream to work on. I can change the timing belt on my current car without even jacking it up off the ground let alone tearing the front of the car off, using nothing but a few hand tools.
- vecinu 7y ago
  Yeah I definitely agree with you there. You're referring to the "service position", which requires removing the front bumper. They do it to discourage DIY type of work, can't say I'm a fan.
thedaemon 7y ago
Your Audi went from $65,000.00 to $31.50? That's a huge value hit. Consistency matters.

by vecinu 7y ago

prepend 7y ago

Wait until you have to replace the transmission or something else that’s common in the first 10 years. $10 for an s4 transmission is way more than for a Toyota.

sjg007 7y ago
lol.. all transmissions are pricey and basically a transmission should last for at least 200k.. Basically when the tranny goes you are done. If a brand has bad trannys people find out about it and don't buy their vehicles... including new ones. This is why you see 60k power train warranties etc... Parts are shared across vehicle lines and sometimes across manufacturers. Luxury manufacturers also have invested heavily in the certified pre-owned market which means that to save money they make the cars better initially. Why? Otherwise they have to pay the dealer for the work to repair. Cars are so reliable that even dealers will warranty the power train on a used car for 100k miles for no additional cost (even after negotiating the sale price). That's how confident they are. If you are really worried buy the used luxury car from carmax and purchase the extended warranty.
- prepend 7y ago
  All should last, Audis are notorious for both sucking and breaking and being extra expensive. I had an a3 for a while and had the transmission replaced three times in 140k miles. The first was under warranty, the other two were $8k. Transmission on my corolla was $3k. Consumer reports publishes repair costs. Audis are much more than Honda/Toyota/Hyundai. You can purchase an extended warranty for your Audi, it will cost 3x what it would cost on a Lexus or Toyota. It’s a fun car to drive, but it costs much more to maintain.
  - vecinu 7y ago
    That's one reason why I never go for base models or cheap luxury cars. The 2.0T is a notoriously bad engine, I would have gotten the A4 but wanted the reliability of the 3.0T V6 and so far, I've gotten it. Again, you have to read, pick and choose the right model. Audi makes a lot of unreliable crap (Or at least used to a lot, in the past) so you need to weed it out.
vecinu 7y ago
I think you're referring to the mechatronics unit that was prone to failure in the B8 series model. Luckily, I bought a B8.5 so that is no longer an issue, as it was fixed. I'm not planning to replace the transmission on this car, I will most likely sell it in a few years.
Yetanfou 7y ago
I've worked on cars and tractors for ages (even though I never got one myself, cars are boring, bikes are better) and have never had to replace a transmission. Clutch plates, yes. Crankshaft, yes. Pistons, cylinder heads, valves, cylinder linings, bearings, the works. Transmissions? Nope. Might this be one of the bigger advantages of manual transmissions which still are the norm (and probably will remain so for the remaining lifetime of internal combustion engines) in north-western Europe? Apart from synchromesh rings there are no real wearable parts in a manual transmission.
- kungito 7y ago
  Why are you specifically mentioning north west of Europe? No one I ever met in south east of Europe ever had automatic (where I live).
  - Yetanfou 7y ago
    Because that is where I live and have data on? Because I think I should not make statements about the rest of the continent when I can not be sure that what I say actually is correct?

newnewpdro 7y ago

Audis, especially Quattros, are an expensive nuisance to maintain. The first step of anything to do with the engine compartment is "remove front of car". They don't optimize the layout one bit for minimizing cost/maximizing ease of maintenance. I have a friend with an RS6 that sat unused for years because it needed some cam sensor or actuator thingy serviced to idle right and pass smog, to do the job required pulling the engine due to packaging constraints. A job like that isn't just expensive, it requires finding a mechanic you actually trust to do the invasive job properly, unless you can DIY. I'm a DIY type, and that has me firmly in the domain of mass-produced Japanese economy-sports cars. They're an absolute dream to work on. I can change the timing belt on my current car without even jacking it up off the ground let alone tearing the front of the car off, using nothing but a few hand tools.

vecinu 7y ago
Yeah I definitely agree with you there. You're referring to the "service position", which requires removing the front bumper. They do it to discourage DIY type of work, can't say I'm a fan.

thedaemon 7y ago

Your Audi went from $65,000.00 to $31.50? That's a huge value hit. Consistency matters.