Are Audis the most unreliable car on the road

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Tue 20 Nov 2012 12:12
Are Audis the most unreliable car on the road - skidpan

Driving into work on my 15 mile commute this morning spotted 2 cars pushed off the road onto the verge of major roads, one was a 61 plate Q3 and the other a 62 plate A3. I appreciate that VW and Audi get a lot of flak on here about their products but to see these 2 cars within a mile of each other was a shock. Its quite rare to see stranded motors these days.

A couple of miles later saw another car die when it managed to hit a wall doing about 60mph. That needed more than the AA to sort it.

Edited by Avant on 25/11/2012 at 22:00

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Tue 20 Nov 2012 15:47
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - TeeCee

I think everything has its problems.

My prejudices got a boost a few years back. I was spending three days in the Czech Republic shortly before they joined the EU and not too many years after the Iron Curtain fell. Running around over there was just about every antique Soviet-Bloc vehicle ever made. Skodas of various vintages, Tatras, Trabants, Yugos, Polski Fiats, Ladas, even the odd Wartburg or two.

During that time I saw two vehicles stranded at the side of the motorway, a Citroen AX and a Peugeot 205.......

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Tue 20 Nov 2012 16:27
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - veryoldbear

That was because you could fix most of the antique cars with a screwdriver, a mole wrench and a club hammer ...

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Tue 20 Nov 2012 17:17
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - jc2

With most,you don't need the screwdriver or the mole wrench!

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Tue 20 Nov 2012 20:47
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - Bobbin Threadbare

I saw three white vans on the side of the motorway today. One Transit (rare to see those) and two VW ones.

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Wed 21 Nov 2012 16:59
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - daveyK_UK

From experience, the latest incarnation of the VW transporters is not reliable at all but seem to have some sort of cult status and commands a ridiculous price.

The Audi A3 is a real let down, it proved unreliable but more suprisingly poorly built.

After much arguing, I had all 4 alloys replaced after a year due to them deteriorating. The Audi dealer ended up sending me to the VW dealer to sort out the heater problem as they couldnt figure it out.

In the end the heater matrix had failed after 7 months, the electric window motor failed after 14 months, the rear tailgate would no longer open and invovled an audi tech having to climb through the car and spend 4 hours in my boot while I watched, the locking mechanism was replaced.

At 17 months old, it was soon P/X.

Now I can only speak from my own experience, but checking on the Audi forums, my problems where not unique.

Most dissapointing was the car itself, it really was nothing special, no different to a ford focus I had on hire a month or so earlier. Maybe customers expect something unattainable when thry purchase a 'prestige' marque, maybe at the price the cars demand customers deserve it.

One thing you do expect is reliability.

I am talking about a 2008 08 1.6 model.

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Wed 21 Nov 2012 17:40
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - SteveLee

Compare that experience with my "unreliable" Citroën C5, a couple of ignition coils aide - which took 5 minutes to replace for £25 each and caused a misfire - not a breakdown, the car was fault free - nothing went wrong in over 50K miles. Nothing went wrong with the Jag XJ it replaced (servicing aside 170 thousand trouble free miles.)

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Wed 21 Nov 2012 18:22
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - madf

I owned a 1998 A4 TDI.

In two years it had:

a new airconditioning condesner

two new front suspension struts

a failed cambelt tensioner.

A failed catalyst.

I sold it before the warranty ran out.

It would appear not much has changed.

And VAG/Audi dealers are arrogant.

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Wed 21 Nov 2012 18:26
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - thunderbird

Between 1986 when I took delivery of my first Golf to 2002 when we part exchanged the last Golf we had 3 Golfs and 1 Polo in the house. During those 16 years we did approx 250,000 miles, the total spend on repairs was approx. £700, £400 of which was for a gearbox rebuild on the 2nd Golf after 110,000 miles which had done a lot of towing of a trailer weighing over a ton.

Since then the dealers have done their best to prevent us buying another even though we have tried. If they treat you that badly before they get your money you stand no chance once they have it.

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Wed 21 Nov 2012 20:08
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - john farrar
My experiences are as follows:
A6 1.8T 2000 to 2007 , 150,000 miles apart from ignition coil failures and servicing, no replacements.
A3 2.0 diesel with THAT engine, bought new in 2008 , 55,000 miles, no failures or problems ( and engine was "chipped" at 5000miles).Still owned.
Daughter in laws A3 2004 1.9PD, 80,000 miles, only failure was DMF at 75,000 miles and a seized rear brake caliper at 70,000 miles. Oh yes she also has a regular rear side light bulb failure problem.
Travelling salesman friend four A3,s two 1.4 petrols and two diesels, one 2.0PD(yes THAT engine) and one 2.0CR all chnged at about 70,000 miles(he does 50-60,000 miles a year), ONLY problem was with a DSG box which needed a re-programme.
Travelling salesman's wife has had two VW Tiguans, again no problems at all, but to be fair only 30,000 miles each.One of the tiguans had THAT engine and one a CR2.0 diesel.

So in summary: as expected reliabilty.

Dealers: variable, one bad, two good.

Would I buy another VW/Audi, yes I would.
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Thu 22 Nov 2012 00:38
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - 1litregolfeater

Probably. As the owners are clearly a notch or two above your common or garden VW or Skoda, they are probably too busy with more important things to worry about car maintenance.

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Thu 22 Nov 2012 07:48
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - thunderbird

Probably. As the owners are clearly a notch or two above your common or garden VW or Skoda, they are probably too busy with more important things to worry about car maintenance.

But the cars in the OP's original post were a 61 and a 62 plate, lack of maintenance would not have entered the equation yet.

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Thu 22 Nov 2012 12:16
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - TeeCee

By sheer coincidence the "most unreliable used cars" figures are out from Warranty Direct.

Worst of the list is the Audi RS6, beating even that well-known catalogue of failures the A6 Allroad. Merc beat them for number of car models in the bottom ten though.

Only one French car in the 10, the Citroen XM. I now need a new flabber as this one is utterly gasted.

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Thu 22 Nov 2012 12:48
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - Sulphur Man

Erm...the Citroem XM has been out of production for 12 years. The 1st gen unreliable Audi A6 Allroad ended production in 2005. How exactly is this list relevant in 2012?

I suspect the 'Warranty Direct' list is recycled journalism by some non-motoring staffer from the daily papers, who should be out of a job by teatime.

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Thu 22 Nov 2012 13:33
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - lordwoody

It would be relevant if you were thinking of buying one of those cars 2nd hand.

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Fri 23 Nov 2012 07:40
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - TeeCee

It would be relevant if you were thinking of buying one of those cars 2nd hand.

Exactly. Rereading my post I see that I neglected to mention that the article presenting the figures was specifically addressing cars made in the last 15 years and available to purchase secondhand. Apologies.

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Thu 22 Nov 2012 20:05
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - SteveLee

My mark 2 XM was near-as-damnit faultless - one abs sensor in 100K miles.

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Thu 22 Nov 2012 21:18
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - focussed

I was unfortunate enough to own a V6 XM-totally unpredictable as to what would go wrong next-the electric sunroof would open on it's own when it rained-broke down innumerable times-a red letter day when I got rid of it-Citroen? never again.

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Fri 23 Nov 2012 01:19
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - SteveLee

MK1 or MK2? MK1's were absolute nightmares, Mk2s surprisingly reliable.

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Thu 22 Nov 2012 17:40
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - iFocus

By sheer coincidence the "most unreliable used cars" figures are out from Warranty Direct.

Warranty direct are hardly accurate though, have a look at their top 100 and there are some questionable models fairly high up, purely because there aren't very many reports on them.

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Fri 23 Nov 2012 21:50
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - Zolasdad

Being taken home by Brittania Rescue, I asked the driver what was the most frequent car, in his experience, to break down. His immediate and unhesitating answer was Audi.

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Fri 23 Nov 2012 22:03
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - RT

Being taken home by Brittania Rescue, I asked the driver what was the most frequent car, in his experience, to break down. His immediate and unhesitating answer was Audi.

But given the numbers sold, you'd expect more Fords, Vauxhalls and VWs assuming equal reliability.

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Fri 23 Nov 2012 22:30
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - Avant

Can someone tell me why (unless it's only Audis above 2 litres that are unreliable) Audis are any more likely to break down than VWs, Skodas or SEATs?

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Sat 24 Nov 2012 08:11
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - Buster Cambelt

They aren't, it's just fashionable to knock Audi and VW and to love Skoda.

All over-rated in my opinion, but probably no more unreliable than most. In terms of breakdowns per mile they'll be average I'm sure.

SWMBO will tell you that the least reliable car she ever had was a Toyota and the most is a FIAT (and the best was probably an Audi....). My worst and most unreliable was easily a Skods.

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Sat 24 Nov 2012 14:08
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - corax

Can someone tell me why (unless it's only Audis above 2 litres that are unreliable) Audis are any more likely to break down than VWs, Skodas or SEATs?

Because Audi's have the newly developed technology first due to their position in the VAG hierchy - and Skoda inherit the technology a few years down the line when some of the teething problems have been sorted out, at the Audi owners expense.

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Sun 25 Nov 2012 18:17
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - hillman

The extremes quoted, satisfied / disatisfied, point to irregular quality control.

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Sun 25 Nov 2012 18:32
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - RT

The extremes quoted, satisfied / disatisfied, point to irregular quality control.

You're not wrong - but shouldn't quality control be better for a premium priced brand, both at the factory and at dealers.

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Sun 25 Nov 2012 20:53
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - christo

We have privately owned 5 Audis in the last 12 years - an A3 1.9tdi, A4 Avant 1.8t, A4 Avant 1.9 tdi, A6 Avant 1.9tdi and an A4 Avant 2.0tdi and they have been very reliable with no breakdowns and no expense other than servicing, tyres etc. In my opinion they are very reliable and hold their value well compared to more mainstream models. We have them as company cars and again, no problems have been reported.

If you want an unreliable car, look no further than a Saab 9-3. Don't buy one of these cars without a warranty....

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Sun 25 Nov 2012 21:53
Are Audi's the most unreliable car on the road - Trilogy

The 1998 Saab 9-3 owned by a family member since 2002 has been one of their most reliable cars ever.

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Sun 25 Nov 2012 22:00
Are Audis the most unreliable car on the road - Avant

"1998" explains that - it was before GM had done their worst. Generally Saabs before 2000 were good cars: twice I very nearly had one.

Edited by Avant on 25/11/2012 at 22:00

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