used car

[ram]

Hi guys i know it's not an lc question but i need some help here

After driving around in 3 door polo diesel for last 10 yrs the wife and daughter have given me an ultimetum on buying them a decent newish 4 door saloon and after much disscusions they have decided to go for an 08 or later audi A4,my inclination would be to go for an auto but after reading some horror stories about the multitronic box and the habit of the newer diesel engines to go bad i am having some doubts
My question is that do audi do an ordinary auto and if not are the m/tronic as bad as they say and also would i be better of just buying the pre 08 model which had the older vag diesels
they also delibrated about the bmw 3 but chose the Audi for it's looks.
Frankly if i had to choose i would go for something that gave me the most value for my money but you how it is(badge snoberry comes to mind) with women.
Thanks in advance
looking forward to any input, specially from somebody who owns/works on this brand.

 

[karl webster]

Audi are nice. Think they are all tip tronic TBH.

Can you pm me details of polo if its going forsale mate. Good little run around for the bio maybe.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Our local garage (small, old fashioned independent) hates Audi's for one main reason: Many of the timing belt jobs on them involves removing the following:
-Headlights
-Radiator Grill
-Front Bumper
-Radiator
-And some more bits...

Obviously that's included in the labour for the job, but it's much nicer giving the garage an easier time to begin with...

We have a 2005 (so one of the last) E46 BMW 320d Touring, which the garage much prefers working on... In the 12000 miles we've covered in it we've averaged just under 40mpg (proper calculation using Fuelly, not the computer) and it gets driven quite hard, and for lots of 10-15 mile journeys. It's got about 106,000 on it now, and runs well... but does have more interior rattles than my Volvo V70 with 225,000 had when I took that off the road.

We've got a couple of neighbours in the village who run Audi A4's of various vintages, which they do seem happy with.

If you're looking at keeping it for a similar period of time (as the Polo) then I would be inclined to look for something with a timing chain, as opposed to a timing belt, otherwise you'll be changing it every 80k.

Hopefully that's a helpful answer!

In your position I would probably still edge towards the BMW 3 Series over the Audi; there's not a lot that rivals them for handling, and IIRC the diesels are timing chains.

 

[OG.]

Doing a timing belt on the Audis isn't that bad. Yes all that stuff ha to be moved but its designed to move easily. I did a cam belt on an Audi A8 in an afternoon with no problems at all.
FWIW I'm not a fan of BMW as I don't believe them to be all that well built and see them more as a German Vauxhall really.

 

[ram]

Hi karl i think i'll be hanging on to the polo, like you said it's a cheap little runabout,yeh sounds like tractor but very cheap to run.

Ed i very much doubt they'll rake up half that mileage if they keep it for that long,the daughter mostly works in central and if she has to go on location they usually give her a hire car.

OG i remember someone in the trade calling them the bavarian cortinas years ago.

 

[Paddler Ed]

FWIW I'm not a fan of BMW as I don't believe them to be all that well built and see them more as a German Vauxhall really.

I'd tend to agree... they don't seem as solid as my Volvo which is 5 yrs (and 125,000 miles older), and the engines do have a shorter lifespan, certainly nowhere near as long as the 26 year old (and 450,000km) Toyota Land Cruisers we had at work in Aus (HJ75 and FJ75's)

Ed i very much doubt they'll rake up half that mileage if they keep it for that long,the daughter mostly works in central and if she has to go on location they usually give her a hire car.

I've reached the conclusion that we're quite heavy on a car; even when we had 2 cars (we've only got the one at the moment) mine averaged 18,000 a year, and her's did about 10-12,000...

OG i remember someone in the trade calling them the bavarian cortinas years ago.

Marketing's a fantastic thing... I just think of Merc's as German Taxi's... and BMW's as flash git's cars (esp when a coupe or saloon)

 

[OG.]

I've had Mercs and Volvos and would say the Volvo build quality on the Volvo was better than the Merc and both knock BMWs into a cocked hat from what I've seen. Biggest problem with the Merc was body rust - even worse than something out of Solihull.

The vehicles were 2000 vintage so things may have changed. Mercedes may have improved whilst Volvo under Ford ownership may be worse.

 

[Paul_Humphreys]

I am looking for a A4 Avant. Stay away from the auto as yes they do have problems, so do the 2.0 diesels. I am looking for a V6 diesel manual.

 

[chadr]

I don't think the 2.5V6 diesels were completely trouble free either. IMO, the best all-round VAG diesel engine in recent times would be the 1.9PD (in 130bhp guise).

YMMV.