Check out this repair bill

[RDH/86200X]

So back in December I took my Audi in the get the valve cover gaskets and the timing belt/ water pump replaced. I was quoted 1400 parts and labor. After a couple days I get a call from the shop. They tell me that three out of four of the vvt actuators (variable valve timing) are leaking oil. Those parts were 880 each and there was no point in doing three. When you replace those you have to replace the corresponding sylenoid. That particuler part is molded into this aluminum case. They are 1000 each and there were only four in the united states. Now let's add this up including the original quote but not the new labor charges. 880x4+1400+4000= 8920+ unknown labor so let's say and extra 400. That would have put me at $9320. Not cool.

This is what I ended up having done. Which was cheaper. Got a used engine had the timing belt and water pump and a bunch of gaskets replaced and a new clutch put in. The total for that was 5009.09.

Moral of this story is. No mater how fun it is to drive an Audi don't buy one.

This was on a 2004 Audi A4 3.0 quattro sport 6spd manual that had 67,000 miles.

[threewheelin-feelin]

my shop teacher told me when you see a audi... hold up your thumb and back up till you cant see it past your thumb anymore....and thats how far to stay away from them

[RDH/86200X]

I have always loved the look of the A4 and found this one for a good price. I love driving it and it gets good mpg its just really expensive to fix anything under the hood. I won't buy another one that's for sure. Never have this kind of trouble out of my other vehicles. 96 GMC k1500 and a 07 Honda accord.

[El Camexican]

I bought my wife a used (40,000 miles) ML350 a few years back. Dealer charges $300 for an oil change (I do them myself for about $90) and I have spend stupid money keeping this thing going. It has only 55,000 miles now, but the A/C system (3K) torsion bushings (1.5K) Tanns leak (1K) and a few other things that I am forgetting are starting to make me look at another Ford. Still, it is a blast to drive! Nothing handles like the Ero cars.

[just ben]

I would have called some friends,bought some beer and had a bon fire.

[jb2wheels]

Damn. That's TPC $$ to fix a car. That sucks. Alot.

I bought a 96 Town Car Cartier for $700 in December. $500 later and I have a real nice daily driver for less than the original repair quote.

[DohcBikes]

The only way to repair an Audi is to take it to the scrapyard.

Then go buy a Toyota.

[fabiodriven]

Thanks for the post. My buddy was just talking about buying an Audi so I sent this thread to him.

[Dirtcrasher]

My old boss bought Audi's but he only kept them 2 to 3 years.

They sound like money pits!!

[RDH/86200X]

When I got the Audi I was looking for a car I can put a car seat in. With where I live I needed something that would do good in the winter with all the ice and snow. It feels like its glued to the road. I have taken 90° corners at 50 mph plus and not one squeak from the tires. It has enough power to throw you back in the seat and still gets and average of 26mpg. Which is a lot better than the 14mpg average in my truck. I do have bad luck when it comes to cars tho.
Here is the list of cars I have owned and what happened to them. 86 chevette three blown headgaskets. 91 Cadillac retired at 290000 miles no major work done to car. 88 Mazda rx7 another fun to drive money pit. 91 Toyota supra with a 2jz twin turbo swap. Totaled before anything went wrong with car. To much car for a 20 year old. 02 Subaru legacy wagon t-boned last winter. This winter wife's Honda needed power steering hose. My car as seen above and my truck needed tires and new brake calipers.
Something about me and vehicles around chrismas just doesnt end well.

[LastFoolerInVA]

The US has disposable cars?? strongly disagree on this one... My good ol' faithful Pontiac Grand Am is still kickin... bought it brand spanking new in 03 with 7 miles on it.... 10 years & 330,000 miles later she's still my baby... & she has had a hard life.. I was 23 when I bought it & put that car through some sh&*... I averaged it up one day a few years ago & she's been in excess of 100mph for over 500 miles...(not all at once)...

[Dave Little]

German cars, as a general rule will always be more money-pit-ish. They are just more quirky since it seems to be a cultural thing that the German automotive engineers will
do things just to show off how skilled they are as engineers and build something that is completely ridiculous when a simpler more reliable way of accomplishing the same thing
would have sufficed. This phenomenon goes back to WW2 as far as I can tell perhaps even further. I've driven a handful of German cars for the last 8 years and liked them, however we are talking VW's and diesel at that and I turn my own wrenches so
that puts a different colour to things. Some of the newer VW's that are based on essentially an Audi platform I've head horror stores about so it does not surprise me.

I have no desire to own an American car, much less drive one..American trucks different story.

[RDH/86200X]

I normally work on my own cars but its winter and I don't have anywhere to work on it. If it was summer it would have only cost me around 3k for parts and another 50 or so for beer. And for German cars being quirky that is true but isn't as bad when you don't use aftermarket parts. I don't know why but this car loves its OEM parts and develops the weirds things when using some other brand.

[Dave Little]

Yup, that's another thing too I have learned over the years...OEM or the OE supplier or Tier 1 european manufacturer only, all else gets chewed up and spit out no matter what it cost or where it was made. Parts must be vetted carefully...they are unforgiving in that regard. One of the things I admire about American cars is that whatever they give you at AutoZone or PepBoys is good enough and they have a high tolerance for neglect, even thrive under such circumstances. Once a German car knows you'll spend money on it, it knows it has you because you failed 'the sh1t test'.

[briano]

This is why I drive junk. Lol. Both of my trucks I have now I paid $200 each for, a 96 Chevy 1500 4x4 and a 97 s10 2wheel drive with a 2.2 with a 5 speed. I work at a shop so I get beaters to work on all the time, I got the s10 from a guy that didn't want to put ball joints in it so instead of paying to get it towed to the scrap yard I gave him $200 for it. I have less than $500 total into it and been driving it for 2 years. The 96 k1500 I got a deal on from my brother, I've been driving that one for 4 years. Both are getting scrapped this year though, both need more work than I'm willing to do yet they are still drive alb and safe for the road. I'll be 36 at the end of the month and so far since I've been 16 I have owned 38 vehicles with a combined total of around $17,000, not to bad since I made money selling some of them. Lol

[MNhondaguy]

Chances are you could have gone along time without replacing those parts the dealer suggested. If there was only 4 in the US and you needed all 4, sounds like they were trying to get your money.

I drove a 92 Mazda b2200 2wd short box reg cab for 6 years. Got it with 148k now has 273k. I rebuilt engine myself and bill was only 440 for all new pistons rings gaskets complete head job. Including all tires, front end rebuild, stereo system, engine rebuild, and maintenance I bet I have less than 3k$ into it. Paid 150$ for it and 3 hours labor later I drove it for the next 50k trouble free.

I now have a 96 saab 900 2.0 turbo. Had to do the timing chain as usual at 130k miles. Did the head gasket and head job and all crank bearings as well. All work done by me, 1k$ in parts. I love it and wouldn't trade it for anything.

My buddy had a Audi tt 2001 model. 1.8 turbo 5 speed. Told him to do the timing belt otherwise he'd do a valve job. He didnt, so he did a valve job as they bent when the belt broke. He had less than a grand in parts and machine work done. Did labor himself. Trouble free car after that.

Anything will last a good amount of time if the necessary maintenance is kept up. Granted some take less maintenance and some prefer oem parts, but all cars have engines and moving parts and don't like being neglected.

[RDH/86200X]

Trust me when I say they weren't trying to get me to buy parts that I didn't need. When ever they said that something needed replaced I went over and inspected it myself. The sylenoids and actuators have oil in them and the seals were shot. I think this is because the car is an 04 with only 67xxx miles on it. Which means it sat still for most of its life and we all know what happens to rubber when it just sits. After getting the work done there is a notable difference in power and fuel economy (it got better).

[Mosh]

Yep no surprise on that repair. VW and Audi with the V-6 engine group..I call them the 3000$ oil leak. I may lose customers over it as some seem to be diehard fans of those cars, but I straight up tell them to sell them things when they come in spewing oil. When someone ask me about buying those cars, I tell them to RUN as fast as they can in the other direction.
They usually are not worth the 3-5000 grand you put in them when done as they generally have about 120K on them when the oil leaks start.

They usually say !!!Achtung!!! all over the engine compartment..German for ATTENTION.
That is no joke..

I don't mean any offense by saying this , but it just baffles the shat out of me, how red blooded Americans can even stomach buying cars at then new level from countries that breed such great things as Hitler and hold their populace hostage such as Korea all while taking that money from Americans. I understand that many things are made over seas but when there is a choice I definately would shy away from supporting foreign products. When its used the money was already sent there by the original buyer so the second hand owner actually helps the American that fedthe communist..lol

Seriously though I have turned people away that were selling stuff like insurance or what not when they pull up in foriegn cars. I told the Autozone reps at my shop to pound salt when 3 of them rolled up in a new VW car to setup busness at my shop.
I said an American company trying to get business to send money to Germany??? They said well thats what they gave us to drive. I said they should spend more money on quality parts and less money on 3 reps to drive around in a german car.

[RDH/86200X]

Yep no surprise on that repair. VW and Audi with the V-6 engine group..I call them the 3000$ oil leak. I may lose customers over it as some seem to be diehard fans of those cars, but I straight up tell them to sell them things when they come in spewing oil. When someone ask me about buying those cars, I tell them to RUN as fast as they can in the other direction.
They usually are not worth the 3-5000 grand you put in them when done as they generally have about 120K on them when the oil leaks start.

They usually say !!!Achtung!!! all over the engine compartment..German for ATTENTION.
That is no joke..

I don't mean any offense by saying this , but it just baffles the shat out of me, how red blooded Americans can even stomach buying cars at then new level from countries that breed such great things as Hitler and hold their populace hostage such as Korea all while taking that money from Americans. I understand that many things are made over seas but when there is a choice I definately would shy away from supporting foreign products. When its used the money was already sent there by the original buyer so the second hand owner actually helps the American that fedthe communist..lol

Seriously though I have turned people away that were selling stuff like insurance or what not when they pull up in foriegn cars. I told the Autozone reps at my shop to pound salt when 3 of them rolled up in a new VW car to setup busness at my shop.
I said an American company trying to get business to send money to Germany??? They said well thats what they gave us to drive. I said they should spend more money on quality parts and less money on 3 reps to drive around in a german car.


That is pretty much the lesson I learned with this car. I wanted one since they came out. Had I known that they had vvt (which did not turn up in all the research I did before buying the car) I would have stayed away. Vvt is the worst thing to ever go into a car. Even the big American three are using it now. I understand its benefits not they don't out weigh the problems. When this Audi (always under diagnostic investigation) is paid off I will be trading it in for the 2013 GMC denali HD2500 that me and my wife want. That should be with in the next two years. I will not buy new cars. They lose to much value as soon as you buy them.

[ChrisD]

Frankly, Mercedes, BMW, AUDI, VW are all junk. They spread the propaganda that these cars are the ultimate in luxury, and need maintenance because they are so precise.....bla bla bla.

My experience was buying my childhood dream car. I always wanted an BMW M5 and after thinking about it for 3 months and watching the following video 100x or so, I jumped in.


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_zYWOqm_Zkc

Well, it really was a ton of fun. 500hp V10 knowing that these cars were a nightmare to fix, I bought the extended warranty on it too....thank goodness..

Vanos lines had to be replaced, the car was in the shop several times to reset the computer, an engine management module went up causing the engine to switch to safe mode and cut the engine to 1/2 power (while on the highway no less), the rear power window sensor went so the window wouldn't close properly, the vapor barrier inside the door broke when water filled up the inside of the door in a heavy rain, that flooded the rear of the car, which blew out the subwoofer under the passenger seat. After that i lost my temper. They recommended me to replace the clutch and it was not under warranty $7,000, while looking at $3000 in brakes and another $1500 in tires, it was time to go before I needed to address any of those issues.

Sad thing, it only had 40,000 miles when I traded it in. I tried to pass the warranty to the dealership when I traded it in, but they said they didn't need, nor want it. Well, I found out that the oil pump went and it cost $9000 to fix it. I feel bad for them, but I didn't know that was a problem and I tried to give them the warranty.

I traded it in for a Toyota Sequoia which I love. I have 2 of them now.

[ChrisD]

I tried to post a picture of it, but the site says I don't have permission to perform that action.

[Rider414]

Speechless - :eek:

[samuraiguys]

Ive been driving a 1996 geo metro 3 cylinder 5 speed for a good while now... its never let me down and always get consistant 45 MPG combined.. just got a vw diesel and its getting around 48mpg. I also have a 98 ram with the 12v cummins and it always runs great. Diesel is the way to go. You couldn't give me an audi they are junk. Everyone I know that's had one complains about them all the time LOL

[yamaha225dr]

Although I love a lot of the German and Italian cars, you will never see me buy one due to this problem. When they break, you better be prepared for the repair bill.