Ask my wife, she’s used to be a Honda Accord owner likes most people who want reliable cars for safety reasons, now she will not drive anything but Audis, after we got married and I got her first 7 year old A6 Avant. She loved the car for the comfort, the safety (which she can feel by driving) of quattro handling and all the luxurious features that Japanese gadgets don’t even come close. She will not drive any other makes as long as we still can afford these cars. As for me, I’ve been owning Audi since Audi 5000s. I loved the comfort, the stability of driving the car and all the detail features of Audi cars. I normally leased a new body model of the A6 (about every 6-7 years) since 1990 until we tried a used 96 A6 Wagon and it’s been so reliable and we got a used 98 A8 and they’ve both been great. I think A8s are the best kept secret of cars. It’s inexpensive to buy used, reliable and extremely cheap to maintain. The comfort, safety, luxury and quattro features are second to NONE.
Here’s my take on owning Audi.
If you can afford the payments, don’t drive much, lease it for 3 or 4 years and give it back and lease a new one. The car is under warranty for 4 years 50k miles. If you want to own the car cheap and drive until you donate it, buy it used, but carefully.
Cost of ownership of Honda Accord & Audi A6.
My wife bought her new 97 Honda Accord LX special edition in 97 for $22,000. Either she’s taken by the dealer or Honda was just too hot to sell cheap. We sold her accord in 2003 with 97k miles for $6500.00. So, 6 years she lost 22,000 – 6500 = 15500 / 6 = $2533/year. The car only had 3 year/36k miles warranty and the services regularly in dealers averaged $500.00 each year, so it would come out about $3k per year to drive this popular Honda Accord.
2003, we bought a used 96 Audi A6 Wagon Quattro with 76k miles for $10,300. The car is more comfortable and stable than a new Honda Accord. We are still driving the A6 today, it has 142k miles now. We have not done anything to the car besides brakes, oil changed and tires. We change oil every 7500 to 10000 miles interval because we do have to add 1 quart for every 1000 miles or so (IMO most engine’s life is shortened caused by driving the engine low of oil NOT by changing oil INFREQUENTLY). This just blew the 3000 miles religiously must change the oil by the dealers. We should use our logic and correct information sometimes, read about the and on the internet. Forget about it, averaged cost to maintain our A6 is $200. a year because of tires and brakes in 6 year we owned our cars. The car is still driving quietly and safely now. So, if we sell the car now, we will get nothing for it, we will donate the car when it breaks, or give it away: $10300.-0 = 10300 / 6 years = $1716 + $200 = 2k a year. OK if Honda says it gets better gas mileage, A6 do get 26-28mpg on the highway, and please… I would give up 10 mpg to have quattro to go to the Sierra without getting out to install chains, 4 wheel anti-disc brakes NOT 2 disc, 2 drums, having heated seats in the snow, beautiful ambient lighting at night inside the car. And the parts are actually cheaper than Honda parts.
We got our 98 A8 in 2004 with 102k miles for $11,500. Now when I say this car is the best kept secret of all cars is because it’s built to sell for $75k and after 6 years, it’s only 1/6th of the original price. It’s built to sell for 75k, therefore the quality is much better than the A6 and the comfort is second to NONE. Why would anyone wants to buy an A8 with 102k miles for $11k, because all important maintenance had been done, waterpump, timingbelt, even transmission (problems with year 98/99). My wife is driving this car today and it has 156k miles on it, still more comfortable and quieter than brandnew $30k honda accord or $20k honda civic. So, what did I have to do with the car?
$500.00 for front suspension parts, Oil cooler and water pump replaced by mistakes? Brakes and tires…
So, $11,500 + $500 = 12k / 6 = 2k/ year + maintenance = $2,200 / year.
Gas mileage, 26 highway, 16-17 city all the time 20mpg. And again, life is too short to worry about a few mpg. Enjoy the car.
My 98 A6 leased car I got it for my father after the lease is still running @ 98k miles and all he needed to do was the timing belt and water pump because he was cautious. Maintenant cost per year? 1 oil change/year @ walmart.
So, again, all my friends said I was lucky because all their mechanics said stay away from Audis, I’m glad to hear these less informed mechanics to advise their customers NOT to buy Audis, there will be less people for me to compete when time to get a used Audi. All these people went out and get used BMW, MBZ, Lexus and paid more, still have problems, spend tons of money to fix, to drive, but they are happy because their mechanics are so right, there would be more problems with Audis… Well, if they actually drive Audis, their mechanics would be someone else’s… Were we lucky? So many Audi cars? Co-incident? We think NOT. What’s the secret? Later… There are so many happened @ the Audi dealers and independent shops these days that caused unhappy owners and unreliable and terrible services reputation to Audi cars. Thanks to these incidents, the resale value of Audi is the worst among luxury cars but its great for us. We get to drive wonderful cars with the cost of driving Honda accords. The real secret to select the best Audi car for the money and runs forever until you donate the car and the cost is still less than owning a brandnew reliable Honda Accord? Most people who’s driven an A8, ended up wanting one.
By the way, this is our sole opinions and don’t take our words for anything, do your own research…
Cheers,
Dec 11, 2010