A4 3.0 Quattro or A6 3.0 Quattro?

[openside]

Hi, currently driving my b6 a4 1.9 tdi sport 130 remapped to 165. However my daily commute is 40 miles each way A and B roads and after spending 2 hours a day in the car I'm finding it a little bit uncomfortable. So I'm looking at 05, 06, 07 in either a4 or a6 guise for under £8k.
Which one would you go for? Anybody with experience of both cars? Are the A4's seats comfortable enough for 2 hrs a day every day? Aesthetically I would prefer the A4, however if the A6 is considerably more comfortable with more toys as standard then it's a no brainer.

Thanks in advance

 

[lynallbel]

I find the seats quite comfy in the wifes 3.0 tdi firm but comfortable, I drive some real crap at work and have to say the a4 oness seem pretty good, its only an se spec, so cant comment on the posher variants.
If the roads around your area are **** I would highly recommend the 16 inches wheels much nicer ride, dont look as good but the old **** appreciates it.

 

[Mike_B]

If it helps, I had a 1999 A6 2.5 Quattro Avant which had what were described as "sports seats" - excellent - loads of room in it too, and a very good long distance car. Despite also having "sports suspension", it had a lovely ride and I guess the longer wheel base and wider track than the A4 helped a lot. That said, it was also noticably bigger and I quite often found it a pain to park on the street. I lived in Glasgow at the time, with a regular commute to Bristol and Coventry, journeys I normally did by plane but was quite happy to do in the A6.

My current car is a 53 plated A4 2.0 SE in which the seats are generally fine, but it's not as good a long distance car, although these days I don't do much more than maybe two or three hours max on any one run.

I've also had a 54 plated A4 (standard spec) 2.0 in which the seats were dire, lacking any lumbar support. I removed the seat back and inserted some old Karrimat which made a massive difference - the car still wasn't as good as the A6 on a long journey though - in those days I was driving all over the country, and usually arrived with backache, even with the additional lumbar support. I never, ever, had any similar problems in the days I had the A6.

I'm a big bloke - the A6 is a big blokes car, and if and when I can ever have another one, I'd chose it over the A4 any day.

 

[desertstorm]

If you haven't got to get people in the back of the A4 then the A4 B7 would be a good car. There just isn't any leg room in the rear if the front seat passengers are tall.
As above cars with low profile tyres on big wheels don't tend to be as comfortable, I personally don't find leather seats that comfortable, The car I bought has leather / Alcantara sport seats and after some twiddling with the adjustable lumbar and the seat in general I find it pretty comfortable.
The A6 seems to get slightly more powerful versions of the 3.0 engine meaning the performance looks similar between the cars. The A4 would be a bit better on fuel though as its a lighter smaller car. Looks to be about 150Kg lighter comparing similar models.

 

[openside]

Cheers for the replies. Looks like the A6 is the way to go. The only thing that bothers me is the 6 is a whopper in terms of weight and looks.....but it's a peach of an engine so it shouldn't have any probs dragging it around.

 

[Oddie]

I've just replied to your questions in the other thread but thought i'd just post a little more in here. My A6 is the 2.7 TDI, is it only the 3.0 you are looking at ? My father in law just purchased an A8 3.0 TDI Quattro but had to have new injectors fitted costing a fortune. It would appear that the injectors are a real weak point on the 3.0 TDI affecting the A6 and A8 models. Dependant on the year of car you are looking at I suppose. His car is an 05, they may have resolved them at a later date.

 

[openside]

I've just replied to your questions in the other thread but thought i'd just post a little more in here. My A6 is the 2.7 TDI, is it only the 3.0 you are looking at ? My father in law just purchased an A8 3.0 TDI Quattro but had to have new injectors fitted costing a fortune. It would appear that the injectors are a real weak point on the 3.0 TDI affecting the A6 and A8 models. Dependant on the year of car you are looking at I suppose. His car is an 05, they may have resolved them at a later date.

Unfortunately around that age 05, 06 my budget will extend to £8k. Would prefer the 3.0 purely for a bit more power. However dodgy injectors are the last thing I need! May have to have a rethink.

 

[Oddie]

Unfortunately around that age 05, 06 my budget will extend to £8k. Would prefer the 3.0 purely for a bit more power. However dodgy injectors are the last thing I need! May have to have a rethink.

It's a bit of a strange one as i've been told that the 2.7 and 3.0 are the same engine yet there's hardly any information about injector failures on the 2.7's. The symptoms my father had were lots of white smoke coming from the exhaust and didn't disappear when the car had warmed up.

 

[desertstorm]

That does seem strange to me I would have thought the injectors would be very similar. And the 3.0engine on the A4 would br pretty much the same as the A6. Dodgy injectors was something I was concerned about when I bought my car which is why I stretched myself to a B8 A4 (there were other reasons as well theres more rear seat room in the A4) As there doesn't seem to be any issues with those, not that I have seen anyway.
If you buy a 2.0 TFSI you risk problems with oil consumption and High pressure fuel pumps, the 2.0 TDI's eat oil pumps . There seem to be things wrong with most engines you look at.

Karl.

 

[Geebo]

I have an A4 3.0 TDI quattro cab & It's recently had to have all the injectors replaced. It cost just under £2k. It would've been nearer £3k at my local Audi stealer. The symptoms are clouds of white smoke after ticking over or being stuck in traffic for 10 minutes or so. It clears after a few miles of constant moving. I also noticed the oil on the dip stick was way over the max due (I was told) to unburned diesel mixing with the oil. So something to consider if looking at a 3.0 TDI.

 

[Mike_B]

Unfortunately around that age 05, 06 my budget will extend to £8k. Would prefer the 3.0 purely for a bit more power. However dodgy injectors are the last thing I need! May have to have a rethink.

Me too - on all counts!

 

[jdp1962]

I have a 2007 A4 3.0TDi. I've had it since October 2010 and it is coming up 90,000 miles. Haven't had any problems at all with the injectors.

 

[B5NUT]

I'm about to pick up a 06 A6 3.0TDi been in the family for 3 years and and done 70K miles in that time, only faults were and engine mount, motor to control one of the aircon flaps and passenger side door lock, the engine has been fault less and thankfully as it's an old 3.0TDi so it's got cats and not DPF. Also if your looking for comfort i would not rule out a 3.0TDi A8.

 

[Geebo]

The injectors on mine failed at 90k. The diesel engineers who fixed it said that they would've expected them to do at least double that before needing replacing. However they are Bosch piezo injectors on my '07' 3.0tdi which don't seem to have the same longevity according to the Bosch technical department. I was also told that Audi don't use piezo injectors now. Maybe it was just that I was unlucky but a few other forum members had the same symptoms at the time. The engine is very smooth & other that the mentioned problem has been brilliant in the 18 months I've owed it. For me it combines performance with economy. Mine is auto & quattro so a return of 34 MPG this time of year with very short 7 mile commute journeys is brilliant as far as I'm concerned. I did over a thousand miles last September on holiday in Cornwall (600 motorway miles) & got 43 MPG.

 

[openside]

Are there any preventative measures to increase the longevity of the injectors or is it luck? With your help I've got a good idea of what to look out for regarding injectors on their way out, however after a few months of ownership there doesn't seem much to do to stop this happening? Which would be a major ball ache looking for a few grand to replace dodgy injectors.

 

[Andy27168]

Recently replaced my injectors in my A4 B7 3.0TDI march 2006, for just under £1600 (faulty injector symptons from 75,000miles replaced at 88,500miles), I was told specifically not to use supermarket fuel and to only use branded fuels, as the failling injuectors have something to do with the levels of sulphur in the fuel gradually changing to meet EU standards (allegedly). Be carefull when you say that you can recognise Injector failure on this engine, as when my failled though the engine gave off the obligatary white exhaust, it sometimes would,nt do it for hundreds of miles then for no apparent reason it would give of white exhaust for nearly a week (when the engine had been running for approx. 5-10 minutes from cold and pull to a stop in traffic and it would kick it out) until I then pulled away and once the engine had come under load for about a minute it would completely clear. Another sympton of injectors is slightly erractic tick over which I hardly suffered from at all.
Ultimately the engine is great but if I was to buy another then I would get it scanned on VCDS and monitor the injectors to see if they are within their measured tolerance.

 

[joinerman]

Sulphur is lubricant, to combat less lubricant in fuel a small amount of two stroke in the tank before fill up so it mixes with the fuel, makes the vehicle go better, quieter, this will be noticed after 10 - 20 miles. have been using it in my landcruiser and my transit for years,