J Z06

As you all know..I sold my 'vette in July. I bought an Audi(read OUCHIE..more on this later) S4 in place of it.

I believe all cars are subject to quirks, defects, maintenance issues etc. In comparison...my 'vette when I bought it was six years old, had almost 64,000 miles on it...was FACTORY stock. It needed NOTHING when I bought it...brakes we're good, tires lasted the rest of the year etc.

Fast forward to July 2004. 2001 silver s4, 47,004 miles(I still remember the odometer that day) Tires are feathered, needs an alignment...brakes began humming, pulsating when coming down from highway speeds. Went to the dealer twice to find out why the speedo wasn't working(faulty vss sensor replaced under warranty with a bad 02 sensor). Now I have to get the brakes done which is by Audi warranty said to be a "wear item" and isn't covered, and wasn't under bumper to bumper coverage which I thought was . The rotors can't be turned due to being a "Soft" material I was told by several reputable "Euro car" shops today on the job. Ready for this? the least expensive four rotor/four pad replacement job is $700! I almost out!

I also have either a torn cv boot or upper tie rod boot(common for failure) which can be around $120 to replace.

I know I prolly have the freak car which requires more maintenance than others(I know friends who've owned audi's with ZERO trouble) I just find it funny how it works for me.

Someone already asked me "So, when are you dropping $7300 for the 460 hp turbo kit...it'll go 11's all day" My response was "BEEN THERE DONE THAT, NUH THANKS!"

Just thought I'd share that with you guys.

philly1919d

I'm sorry dude...maybe you should have kept the vette...or better yet...get another one!

Cozmo

Youll always be welcome here. Get another C4 and come on back!!!!

POLOVETTE 94

I feel your pain. My Vette has been under the knife in my garage for a year now (almost done, really) and I was bored with my 92 Honda Accord, with 302,000 miles on it, with no real issues. I also wanted an S4, but settled for an A4 V6 Quattro, to keep the money freed up for the Corvette project. This A4, with just over 100,000 miles on it has had more issues in the last 6 months than the Honda with 3 times the mileage had in the last 3 YEARS I had it. Who needs all wheel drive? It only snows really bad maybe 3 or 4 days of the year around here. I plan to milk the Audi along through the winter (and play in the snow a little) then sell it come spring. I was considering a Lightning or another Vette, but then next winter we'd probably get 3 feet of snow! Sell the Audi while you still can, and never look back.

redwing76

Audi? I sold my Mercedes for the same reasons.
Head gasket, 134,000 miles $1000.00
Engine wire harness, 134,000 miles $900.00
Water pump 100,000 miles $850.00
Resale 50% of purchase price and on and on.
Sold it bought a Lincoln LS V-8 great car. I'll never buy a foregin car again.

90EXPVette

Paisano!

When I read that you bought an Audi I'd hoped that they had improved over the years. I had a couple of them before I left Texas. An Audi 5000S that was awesome when I bought but after two years, damn near nothing worked (windows motors died, sunroof wouldn't close, only one friggin door handle would work, etc.,) I even replaced the engine in it once before I gave up on it and bought an Audi 4000S. I planned on bringing that one over to Italy. But after driving it from El Paso, TX to Chicago I started having electrical problems. My dad and I fixed them enough to get it here and the transmission went out on the way to St. Louis.

Though I like the look of the newer Audi's I'll never buy one again.

Good luck with yours, I hope that I'm wrong.

Ciao

Joe

LT1Vetteguy78

Jay are you impressed with the power of the S4? What can it run stock on average?

chucks88

Kudo's!!!

I'm tryin' to squeeze out 300k out of my Altima. It's got 190K now.

Jay, I know you could save a boat load of money by doing this yourself. Brakes really aren't that hard. I'm sure one of your car buds could help you out with this.

George Dickel

While stationed in Germany in the early 80's we bought a 2 year old Audi 100 (US version was the 5000) in a lemon yellow color. Man, was that an omen I should have seen and heeded. We replaced nearly every major system on that car while we owned it and when I sold it to another guy the transmission went out for the second time. It was a POS and I swore we would never own one again. Sounds like their quality hasn't improved much in 2 decades.

96zride

Audi/VW. My wifes 2002 Jetta TDI is a Piece of poop 41,000 miles and has already had a tranny, brakes and a bunch of electrical problems. I wish I had my old 91 S-10 Blazer back that thing had 270,000 miles on it and it ran like a champ and it didn't have an easy life.

onedef92

Audi? No thanks. I'll stick with my 1987 E-30 BMW DD. It's got 192,000 miles on it and still runnning with the O.E.M. clutch disc, pressure plate, throw-out bearing, alternator and rear diff!

No shet!

Y2KC5NBM

Sorry to hear about your problems Jay, I've done been to Audi school...no thanks!

bogus

back in the dark ages - the mid 70s - my mom had an Audi Fox. What a POS that was. In 7 years, the car covered 60k miles. By the time it was ditched, the dealer installed AC had been removed, cause they could never get it to work right... the clutch cable had been replaced. the engine never ran quite right; stalling, stumbling, etc. It started to over heat and burned more oil than gas.

What a hunk of junk. Made worse by a dealer - Dover Volkswagen/Audi, of Dover, DE - that could not change a sparkplug without screwing it up royally.

I would never buy another Audi, if for no other reason that because the dealer sucked so bad.

As for your experiences: sorry to hear.

No one said high-end German cars are cheap to keep.

I would much rather have my Honda, or my Vette, over those things.

One time, back in the early 80s, I was smitten with the Audi 4000 5+5 coupe. It had the 5000s 5 cylinder motor and a 5spd manual. What a neato idea! So I went down to the same dealer to check it out (stupid, I know, but gee, Audi's drive SO nice). I got the key, started it up, ran ok. Then, because it was drizzly, I tested the electrics - lights, wipers, defrost, windows. All sorts of weird things were happening. I don't remember the details, but something really strange happened when I turned on the wipers. Like a buzzer went off, or, when in interminted mode, they went full speed - I don't remember, but it was enough to get me to shut the car off and walk out.

scorp508

Ugh, sorry to hear that, Jay. One of my friends has a '96 A4 and it has been nothing but problems for him as well in the suspension/brake are. There is always something wrong with it.

all4c4lt4

Sounds like in another year you'll be back in a corvette. My friend has an 2000 Audi A6 (or 4) and swears at it everytime he walks past it. After one year of ownership he has spent $3500 in problem repairs that were not covered by Audi's warranty, or the extended warranty he purchased. Car only had 46,000 miles at purchase.

HeeHaw89

Note to myself:

NEVER buy an Audi.

A gal I work with has a 02 Jetta that is a total POS.

J Z06

Thanks for the nice words fellas.

I have a very good warranty(as you see hehe, not everything's covered) until 100,000 miles.

There's a little love/hate with this car, but I think I've had that with all my cars.

On the brakes, a few more sources said "As long as you're not Formula 1 stopping the car" you CAN cut the rotors(pending the rotors have enough meat) and as long as you put in factory audi pads, you should be fine. That's the least expensive approach...so we'll try that first.

Maybe it's a period this car will break my stones a little, then stop. HOPEFULLY.

As for getting back in to a C4? donno...that might be a while. I'm also enjoying a significant reduction in insurance cost going from a 14 year old C4 to a 3 year old Audi.

J Z06

Well, for a four door car that is somewhat heavy for it's size, YES I like the power. I loved it the first time I drove the car. VERY smooth. Turbo's have always made a lot of punch/torque.

Donno what it runs, we'll find out soon hehe. I'm sticking to my "I'm waiting 'til it cools down" method. Turbo's like cooler air just like any other engine does

Corvette Kid

I'll be watching, that's what my foul weather car is. It's a spring chicken at under 100,000 miles and extremely trouble free. I've told people for years that German cars were over-rated and WAY over-priced pieces of doggy-doo. Never owned one and never will.

skateparkdave

Cars are like fruit on a slot machine. Sometimes you get a cherry, sometimes you get a lemmon.