Audi / VW - Educate me

Looking at buy a 2003 - 2006 Audi A4/6 or Passat

I have never owned a euro car and am ignorant as to the Maintenance and/or issues. I know there has to be some experience here and would like to hear your thoughts.

I had an A4 that was slightly older than that and it was a maintenance pig. A true pain in the ass to own (and I owned it since it was new). Currently the wife owns a VW (2012) and it's been the only car we've owned together that hasn't had anything break in the first 10,000 miles. Probably just jinxed myself.

As wonderful as they are to drive, I'm not sure I'd want to buy one that was pushing ten years old. Things can get expensive.

Speaking from the VW side.....the 2006 Passat had nothing but black marks against it for electrical and AC issues, and it didn't help that they sold them from mid-2004 thru 2006. There are a lot of them out there for attractive prices, so be careful.

Don't know what your price range is, but it might be worth stepping up to a 2007 Passat.....we have one of those and can't really complain about the reliability after 80,000 miles. The car went back for a horn contact issue under warranty (it would beep at random while driving down the road), and I had to replace a headlight bulb. The 2.0T delivers 30mpg on the highway, and it has a ton of cargo space for a wagon. My only grumble is excessive oil consumption.

The filters, plugs, and engine oil are quite easy to change, and I usually take it to the dealer for coolant/brake fluid/tranny flushes when they have a coupon special. There are a ton of mail order VW parts outlets, and it is easy to get things in a hurry with a good discount.

Something to keep in mind (and this is very true of BMWs, Benzes, etc.) is that, even though you're buying very used, you are buying a premium automobile, and your repair bills will reflect this. The A4 is a nice car. The four wheel drive system is very similar to that used by Subaru. Myself? I'd seriously look at the Subaru product.
Lyle

2006 passat is not the same car as a 2005 passat, I owned a 2005, 2006 was first year of the transverse mounted engine (non Audi based) currently own a 2012 passat tdi

Good info Thanks all!

I wouldn't own either if it didn't have an OEM warranty,

kraut cars are just not as refined in the reliability dept as the japs or some american cars are now

These are known as $2k cars based on their repair costs at dealships per visit

I have owned a 2003 A4 1.8T since new. It now has 169,000 miles on the clock. The car has been great. I have followed the maintenance plan, with 1 exception - oil changes every 5k miles VS 10k miles, I just had new rear brakes done and the hydraulic engine mounts needed to be changed. This and a replacement switch for the drivers side window is all it has needed.

Still have the original front brakes and shocks on the car. This did surprise the service manager.

Car does not rattle, tracks great, great MPG (~32 - 36). Pulls strong. I will buy another when this car id done. I fully expect to run this car until 250,000.

Older Audi's can be money pits in a hurry. There are exceptions to the rule, but as been stated, they are on the higher end of cars and can get expensive. One of my techs has an A4 and some of his regular service bills are on the steep side.

There's a reason 12 year old BMW 3 series sell for roughly the same as a Honda Accord of the same year. Saab's are even cheaper, great to drive, and have countless issues

A buddy of mine has an older A4 and loves it (98-99), he is the one that encouraging me to look in that direction.

I think the girl may have a Maxima or Camry in her future though. I am a long time Toyota guy however had a 89 Maxima that ran flawlessly for 298,000 miles before the transmission started slipping.

Thanks for the info and everything you have told me coincides with the research I have done. Some are good. Most are money pits. I think it depends on the previous owners. Buying used is too much of an unknown.

I have a 2005.5 Audi A4 w/2.0T (B7) engine with 145,000 miles. In the last 45,000 miles I've had to replace the turbo diverter valve, PCV valve, front suspension bushings, and waterpump temp sensor. Other then that the car's been great.

I also had the WP and timing belt replaced at 110k.

If I was looking for easy to drive and maintain car I wouldn't buy any Vw/Audi from 1999 to 2008. Anything 2009 is a much better engines and bug fixed. This coming from a guy who has owned every generation of water cooled Vw.

I have a 2006 A6, currently have close to 90,000 miles on it, and no problems.

01 A4 Quattro Manual, 114K.

No serious issues. I have a great shop nearby and I take it to them for the hard stuff. They are 3/4 the price of some of the other shops, 1/2 that of the dealership and they do great work. I think knowing a shop like that is a bonus, I travel too much for work to do a lot of the work on the car myself.

I had a high mileage BMW 3 series before this and I loved it as well.

it sure is running better than my brother in laws new-ish Honda civic that just cracked the block due to a know issue (He is getting a complimentary new motor at 60K miles)

The lack of service is another issue, Salt Lake would be the closest place to get it fixed,

I'd call Audi right away and sell it back to them - see if they could make their second one with so few repairs

I was told by a very reputable Audi technician that '02+ can have some serious electrical issues due to the way Audi programmed the computer system.

My folks and a few other people I know have owned both Passats and A4s of that era. They were so problematic 5+ years ago I couldn't imagine how shitty they are now.

That really restricts what cars are sensible to own where I live, also-- No Mini's, Smarts, Fiats, Mercedes, etc.

I just sold a beautiful 2003 Passat 1.8T after two insanely frustrating years of ownership. Walking away from the deal, with $4K in cash, felt like such a euphoric relief that no words could adequately describe it. The car offers an exceptional driving experience, everything from WOT stick you to your seat acceleration, to an extremely comfortable, refined ride. That said, in the world of modern vehicles, it is an outlier, a spectacular piece of shit. The goal of the German engineering mind seems to be to over-engineer everything, then let the bean counters figure out how to create their visions, using techniques and materials that are several magnitudes less durable that a typical Japanese competitor. I had a great deal of highly qualified free and low cost help from a top notch mechanic who is a good friend. Even with the mechanic, my engineer son and I, we still dumped unbelieveable amounts of time and over $4K keeping the thing running. Some of the shit we went through made me want to tow the car to the local firehouse, and let the smoke eaters burn it for practice.

Here are just a few highlights. A timing belt change requires removing the front of the car. Now it is possible to move the front end out to the "service position" to allow you to reach down into a small gap and do the work by feel, but it's a hell of a lot easier to just remove the entire front end. While you are doing this work, be extremely careful of disturbing any hose or vacuum control device. The wonderful engineering of the fancy engine shrouding, and noise insulation, traps huge amounts of turbocharger heat under the hood. The car has three separate vacuum control systems that are not capable of surviving this intense heat. After a few years every vacuum control dashpot, valve, port or connector is as brittle as a potato chip and waiting to crack in half as soon as you touch it. Now if you damage a valve, it doesn't seem like a big deal. It's a quarter sized piece of plastic, and there are a dozen of them that look the same in the other loops, right? Sorry, but each one is carefully engineered to that specific location and a dealer only item. Good luck getting a new one in less than a week in Wyoming. Here, in heavily the populated Northeast, it takes three days for the local dealer to come up with the right part. Now be prepared to pay at least three times what the part would cost if it was stamped "GM". That's how the game is played, if VW is the only source. The oil fill tube is another plastic piece of shit that boggles the mind. At some point it sucumbs to the heat and turns to dust. One day, you reinsert the dipstick and the top few inches break off. Once you remove it, take it to the bench and lightly tap it with the side of your hand. With zero effort you can quickly pulverize the entire part into a pile of tiny little plastic chips. The part is only $12 at the dealer, but the car isn't going anywhere until you replace it. The flywheel is a "dual-mass" design. It is a heavy stamped steel assembly that has internal parts that provide for a smoother idle. At 80K miles or so, this thing grenades and the car soundss like a Kobota Diesel tractor when it idles. The new flywheel is $800 at the dealer.

There are dozens of examples of inexcusable issues like this, that are absolutely unheard of in the competitors products. They also represent a fraction of everything we went through to keep the car running. The car was sold at 105K miles, and still ran and looked outstanding. That said, two different VW mechanics made the statement that, based on experience, a new turbo and a complete rebuild of the front suspension were just around the corner. An older VW/Audi product is something you own when you want a toy to play with. They are not reliable enough to count on as a daily driver, and owning one is the middle of nowhere guarantees two things. You will be spending a lot of time online, at the enthusiast sites learning how to fix the thing, and you will become real close with your UPS guy, as there will be a lot of boxes of parts heading your way.