A4 B8 Avant 2.0 TFSI FWD SE - Owner review

[snoopster]

A review recently posted in Autotrader based on my experience.

Any other UK owners had similar experiences with this version of the B8?

"Good Points - Looks good, good fuel consumption

Bad Points
1. Oil consumption - piston rings burn out around 60 to 80,000 miles leaving you with very large repair bill. (Expect very little support from Audi UK)
2. Gear selection (FWD) - very hard to select 1st or 2nd gear in weather where temperatures are less than 10 degrees centigrade.
3. Gear ratio's - 2nd gear ratio is unsuitable for town driving. If you slow to turn into a street, you will stall the car trying to do it in 2nd. You will have little choice but to select 1st (if you can get it into 1st, see previous point) - well lets say Audi makes it a challenging manouevre.
4. Torque steer - FWD model is Incapable of transmitting power to road. Wheels very quick to spin (even with new michelins) and car has strong desire to pull from left to right
5. Tram lining - Car has strong tendency to follow camber of road or ruts left by lorries. 4 wheel Tracking and tyre changes does not resolve.
6. Suspension - So soft it is like riding a boat. Make sure you get S-line spec.
7. Paintwork - exceedingly thin, easy to scratch and very susceptible to damage from 'suncream'
8. Unusual metallic grinding noises when pulling away from cold - apparently air box noise.

Many of these characteristics are well documented in forums, and according to dealers, the characteristics of the car.

If these are characteristics you like in your car - have fun."

 

[Crazyfool]

Point 1: not if the engines been repaired or its a 2012 onward

Point 2: on the odd occasion

Point 3: never had that problem before and I'm renowned for being a lazy geat changer. I actuality stay in third!

Point 4: it's not too bad.

Point 5: I have the same problem with my convertible and I'm sure it's the same with other cars. Of course the car is going to run towards the tramline!

Point 6: I much prefer they harder S-Line suspension

Point 7: can't comment, I suffer from idiots who prefer to park into my car rather than in the space provided!

Point 8: never had that and hope it doesn't occur before I sell the car in the next couple of months.

All in all though, I will say it's been the most unreliable car I have ever owned!

 

[RapidAssistant]

Amid all the comments about unreliability and why “Audis should be better than this” etc – I wonder how much of this is down to pure perception and management of expectations. It seems to be peculiar to the German premium makes, not just Audi but BMW and Mercedes as well – we expect them to be flawless but are disappointed when we find out they are as fallible as any other make.

Why else does Skoda perform so highly in some customer satisfaction surveys compared to Audi, yet the cars are ultimately built by the same company using a huge amount of common parts?

 

[snoopster]

I am not sure I would say an expectation for maintenance costs on a family car lower than £2500 per annum and engines not to blow at 60k miles due to high oil consumption as particularly high expectations....

 

[RapidAssistant]

It is a legitimate expectation indeed, but my point was a general one you understand, rather than this particular case.

Discussion forums for all makes of cars are awash with these sorts of horror stories - it's a bit like reading a medical dictionary and worrying yourself sick over all the things you could die from.

Audi make 1500 A4's every day. Statistically, or by pure chance - there is going to be a few "Friday Cars" among them and unfortunately someone has to buy one. For every 2.0 TDI PD engine that's suffered an oil pump failure; for every multitronic gearbox that has expired prematurely, how many tens of thousands of others clocked up six figure mileages without issue and therefore weren't reported.

 

[snoopster]

Yes I hear where you are coming from with high expectations, but my expectations are set from my experience having owned Audi's for the last 15 years. In my experience, the quality on models after mid 2000's has steadily gone downhill in build quality and reliability. This model being the absolute pits. It is also fair to say that one should have high expectations especially when Audi's sister brand (and not so premium brand) heavily labours the point in adverts of their impeccable reliability.

I would like to say it is a one off and my car was a lemon, but when considering the somewhat serious and costly problem of oil consumption and burn't out piston rings, a class action lawsuit in the US suggests it is far from a one off problem and BBC radio 4 broadcasts in the UK suggest it is far from a one off problem. Actually so far from one off, it impacts all Petrol A4's/A5's/Q5's and in very very significant numbers. I guess there is the chance that Audi elected to make all these petrol models on Fridays ;-)

Marry this somewhat critical widespread manufacturing error up with all the other poor design choices made on this model, in my view, leads to a model of car that one should really steer clear of, despite the pretty looks.

Unfortunately I was unaware of this when purchasing the car new. I wish there were more owner review like this at the time to balance out the glowing and somewhat biased motoring press reviews.

 

[Crazyfool]

Yes I hear where you are coming from with high expectations, but my expectations are set from my experience having owned Audi's for the last 15 years. In my experience, the quality on models after mid 2000's has steadily gone downhill in build quality and reliability. This model being the absolute pits....

I agree.

I've owned a Vauxhall, Ford, Renault and Peugeot before I bought my first Audi. The Peugeot was my favourite car until 2 years ago when I bought my Audi Convertible. It is brilliant; puts a smile on my face every time I jump into it. It puts an even bigger smile on my face when I jump in it after not using it for a while. 114,000 miles and still going strong.

The worst car I owned was my A4 B6; so many things went wrong with it and it cost me a lot of money after the warranty ran out. However, this has been totally trumped by my B8 A4. I laugh at how much money I spent on my B6 because it's insignificant compared to my B8!

In fact I would feel more comfortable buying the B-C reg Audi Quattro I want than go for any of the new Audis.