Opinions on Audi?

Great cars for the price but generally not as desirable as BMW/Merc

first gen audi a2 is the best car audi has ever come out with

Most of Audi is the epitome of badge whoring.

With a few exceptions like the RS models and the R8, which stand on their own ground.

Decent if somewhat overpriced cars, which are usually well equipped and well made.
Parts and servicing tend to be on the expensive side if you care about legit stamps in your logbook.
Since they're all built by VW, the engines will hunger for oil. Constantly.
Older ones tend to be slightly more reliable than newer, and have more desirable saftey features. Like an actual non decorative spare wheel.
They all need decent quality hard tyres on them though. If you put cheapies on, they'll scrub down to slick inside a couple of months. Shoulders first usually, so you'll have some warning at least.

I've owned an A4 for over 10 years, and it refuses to die. It has turned into some kind of automotive undead creature and has steadily shambled it's way up to 250k over the 22 years since it got pushed out of Ingolstadt.
Every year it fails inspection because it destroys the cat, but otherwise is fine (if a little shabby looking).
It's not doing bad for something that is basically a Passat with a different jacket and a fancy pair of trainers.

>Most of Audi is the epitome of badge whoring.
It didn't use to be though.
Somewhere in the early 2000's VW decided that Audi was going to be it's 'aggressive' department, and tried to meme itself into fame and success with mixed results.

Driven S6 with stage 1 tune to 540 hp and its amazing. Veeky Forums is too busy trying to say the FiST is the best sports car in existence to notice that Audi is now one of the best brands out there

If you look it as a status symbol. I'll rank how people see it.

1.Mercedes
2.BMW
3.Audi
4.Lexus
5.Infiniti
6.Acura

>never see rusty ones
THats because they crash them long before that

Mine's really rusty. So many winters, so much mag chloride, such a lazy previous owner

After seeing what happened to a friend after buying one, they're utter trash. He got a 2002 Audi TT MK1 and that thing sprung a leak from everywhere possible and then the transmission destroyed itself. The electrical issues were also bizarre where things would cross with each other.

>Then Audi did that LED headlight strip thing

Every single automaker has copied the LED framing running lights look.

The R8 was probably the most influential vehicle, from a design perspective, of the last decade. Srs.

>buying an early 2000s german car
>expecting anything to work

go grab an e46 from similar years. everything will break. everything.

germans made SHIT cars in the early 2000s. american cars were just shittier. the only things built to last out of that time period were from japan.

I like their newer cars. They look more agressive and sporty and less tame imo. Only rich people drive newer audis here.

I've got an 06 S4 and I love it. Parts are expensive,but you could have probably guessed that.

oh also, not having bluetooth SUCKS ASS and I can't shut my headlights off.

I hear E46s are actually pretty decent, as are the E39s. But those 7 series with the bangle butt? Now those things are hunks of shit.

But from what I've seen of Audi, they're unbelievably terrible. I'd take a BMW or Mercedes over an Audi any day.

Nah that's bs, I see loads of e46's and e39's on the road every day here. Aside from the V8 e39's they're pretty solid in all reality.

1.Mercedes
2.BMW
3.Jaguar
4.Lexus
5.Cadillac
6.Infiniti
7.Genesis
8.Audi
9.Volvo
10.Lincoln
11.DS
12.Acura

Eh I'd put Lincoln above Volvo but otherwise this is pretty accurate.

Genesis and lincoln shouldn't even be on that list, pretty acurate otherwise

>Genesis above Audi Volvo and Acura
kys poor kia leasing faggot

based gook >>> fwd cuck

Pretty much this.

>no porsche

when brand new
>boring luxobarges offering bmw luxury but none the fun
>bought by massive twats or normies who wan't volkswagen with a different badge
when second hand
>poorfag mobile that marks them out for people who are insanely poor badgewhores and remain self aware. Usually top tier wannabe chad cunts or retarded white trailer trash
>sit around in parking lots blasting music because fwd burnouts make them gay as fuck and awd is dogshit anyway

Only good car audi ever made was group B quattro.

VAG shit. Next.

Great daily driver.
Horrible drivers car

Veeky Forums likes to pretend it's smart so people here will always parrot something like "rebadged VW" as this thread proves.

good looking cars, horrible reliability.

my friend's brother got a 2016 S4, beautiful looking car, but he said it has taken quite a few trips and vacations at the dealership since purchased brand new.

duh, they break before that

fuck VW

Only the 90s ones. I`ve seen some 00s Audis and VWs with a decent amount of surface rust. Nothing Mazda level though.

>allowing you, the refined motorist, to purchase a BMW with peace of mind.
>refined motorist

*tips fedora*

I think people keep rebuilding and keeping old BMWs on the road because the RWD meme. Old BMWs go for quite ludicrous prices compared to other cars and MB and Lexus aren`t that far behind.

Because they're actually worth rebuilding, unlike VWs.

Middle aged white people/10

>but seriously tho Audi is a rebadged VW, so you get something built in Mexico with a massive markup
I just checked my local dealer. All of the Audis are made in Germany.

If you compare Jetta and A3, it's the same body but the A3 has a much better drivetrain.

If you get the Jetta GLI, it's the same drivetrain as the A3 but the A3 has a nicer interior.
At this point, though, there's like $3-5k markup, and that's largely due to it being made in Germany and the GLI in Mexico.

I like them.

Good styling.
highly regarded AWD system.
They make good engines have alot of experience with high compression/forced induction

They are known for being super over engineered to the point of being stupid about things. This make servicing these cars a fucking nightmare.

they used to have a actual "service" position in the b5 days. I don't know if they still have that. But it was literally taking off the front of the car to do engine work. Bumper/radiator/ and maybe even some bracing. Made doing a timing belt like a 2k job.

I have owned alot of cars. My favorite was a b5 passat 2.8 v6. Those passats were a strected A4 frame. Most of the car was audi. I fucking loved that thing. Great for crusing, highway, fun engine in the corners, engine was fun to rev out, awesome interior, great shifting 5 speed. that thing loved being 80MPH on the highway. I really miss that car.

Also. The 5cyl turbo Audi TTRS is a fucking godmachine. small tuning can make that car get like 600HP. That is a Dream Machine.

Where I live A4s are very common, I kinda want to get a B7 Avant with manual and debadge it. Perfect to go under the radar of cops

>the 90s ones
Can confirm this.
1995 A4 and only now is it starting to show any signs of rust. Just some little bubbles trying to peek through on the front wings.

One of the more frequent problems I've noticed on the newer ones is a buildup of condensation in the head/tail light lenses.
Always makes me chuckle when I see a decked out ufo racer that looks like it's just come up for air.

Jetta with a bodykit

Old E30s are fun and handle great so it's not that surprising. BMW in the 80s had the best designs around, Mercedes were just building the same brick that always was just a slightly changed W123, which were great cars I won't argue that, but Mercedes design has always been terrible and aged badly.

Audi also had good designs in the 80s but it seems they took a real shit in the 90s while Mercedes started to improve.

Recently bought a B7 Avant, service position is definitely still a thing. Even minor things like the oil filter housing are over engineered and generally a pain in the ass (you have to drain it, then remove it then unscrew it or something to get the filter inside out all this while oil goes all over the place when you drain it.

Even things like jacking up the car are just unnecessarily complicated where nobody really agrees on one specific way to jack it because of the possibility to bend the pinch welds on the jack points or whatever. I decided to just buy ramps to do oil changes and figure out jacks and jackstands along the way. Other than these annoyances they're actually pretty reliable cars as long as you keep up on maintenance and replace the cam follower. They do tend to consume oil a lot and I actually got the low oil warning 2 days ago because I haven't checked the oil in a while even though it was on max a month ago which makes me suspect a leak.

Mine's the tiptronic 2.0T and honestly feels pretty gutless even when I put the pedal all the way to the floor but it does cruise pretty well. Sounds like a diesel but supposedly that's all B7 A4's and has some pretty bad idle vibration, which is again supposedly in all tiptronic a4's. I still love it and I think its a pretty great first car. If you're taking it to shops to get everything done it definitely adds up. I got quoted about $1000 maple bucks from an indie shop for a timing belt + water pump change.

Aftermarket for B7's is pretty big and you can throw in some pretty good parts from RS4's like the rear swaybar and there's even some pretty good LSD's like the JHM one. You can definitely make some decent reliable power from them.

Common problems:
cam follower
diverter valve failure
pcv
gloveboxes break
coil packs

Oh and S4 motors shit the bed which is why they are usually so cheap, RS4's have different chain tensioners iirc so they last longer.

Design held up well imo.

they make fantastic dailies.

They start falling apart after they turn 10 years old though, and the more expensive the car, the more expensive and constant the problems that come up will be.

loved my B6 S4, atleast until it started getting ridiculously expensive to maintain

>They start falling apart after they turn 10 years old

Make that 5

All you need to know.

I mean I know its a 1 in a million thing but I know a guy who has one of those allroads with manual and the thing still somehow runs flawlessly. Every panel has rust on it and the subframe is probably nonexistent but this pos managed to do a 400km roadtrip at 140km/h with no problems. Idk maybe he just babies it (judging by the exterior I don't think he does) or maybe he just follows maintenance schedules OR it's got thousands of dollars of work to keep it somewhat running but it restored a small shred of my hope for these cars.

They're probably pretty shit though.

Mercedes beats them at luxury and BMW at performance. Wasn't it for the nice logo, aesthetic grill and the Transporter movie series, nobody would like Audi.

Avoid if post -95
But hey, that applies to any other brand as well

how about washing the bottom of your car from time to time?

This.
Audi has the best marketing though - they are selling literal rebadged VWs at a 50% price premium.
Also the new Quattro is a meme - all new Quattros are haldex FWD biased.

>Audi, BMW and Mercs driven by dickheads in my area
i dont think i can ever get a german sportscar without looking like an asswipe.

Porsches seem to be mostly exempt of the stereotype, although if you drive a Boxster people will probably call you a faggot.

Still, you can get a 996 for like 20k and they're perfectly viable daily drivers.

Yeah Porsches are nice but i doubt i could afford the maintenance on one, altough i did hear that theyre more reliable than most german brands.

If you work on it yourself as much as possible they're not bad at all.
Sure, parts obviously aren't gonna be shitbox-tier cheap, but according to reliability studies they're right up there with Lexus.

they're boring and driven by cunts

no modern car rusts, partly because now they're all (not just Audis) properly protected and also because they don't last very long and get disposed of after 4 years.

>What are your opinions on the Audi brand (and quality) compared to German makers
Normies think that Audi is a premuim brand because of the cost.
This irritates me as hell. If you buy an Audi, you won't get any special or exclusive thing in your car. The quality management is absolutely same as the VW's. Also, you get VW parts in your "premium" car.... You are literally driving a car that was made out of parts that have been left on VW's shelf.
Also, Audi won several LeMans races, so I would expect them to make reliable powerful engines (like Porsche) but hell naw, all of their engines clog up ( I'm looking at you TSI and TFSI).
Their designs are pretty nice, but it would infuriate me, if I would spend several thousands of euro on a premium car, and when I get inside of it, I got the same switches and materials as I would got in a VW or in a Skoda.
>what are your opinions of their owners?
Their owners are afraid of driving, but want to show off. So they buy a semi-powerful FWD Audi, that may impress normies in a straight line.

For any given Audi you'd show me, I could find a similary priced alternative I'd want more; apart from a couple of legacy models, I just find them boring.

I recently rented a A1 1.4 TFSi and it was nice, but not exciting at all, plus the ride was punishing and the engine really rough for a modern vehicule.

Old Audis are dope as shit, i really like their reliance on build quality and engineering over flashy styling or gadgets. New Audis are just tarted up VWs except for a few select models which are the same bloated, technology filled wankmobiles as all the other "luxury" brands.

they try to be BMW / Mercedes but they don't quite hit the mark.

Yeah they used to be the blue collar version of a merc, nowadays theyre just VWs with different badges.

This fuckin' retard just proved point. BMW, Audi, Mercedes owners are pretentious, self centered brand whores who think they are above such mundane tasks as checking a mirror and using signals. Duh, I like my Bimmer, but will "upgrade" to a Benz when I'm 50, so I can show the whole world I'm a superior human being based on the fact that I accomplished the lofty goal of middle management. Eat a dick and die you smug asshole. You are the meme.

the allroad and all the 2.7TT cars are a meme

they ARE reliable stock. but the slightest mod will make them turn into heaps of shit. The allroad had the tragic addition of shitty air suspension added to that. with aftermarket regular shocks and springs they're awesome

>they ARE reliable stock
Sort of. The 2.7TT is a strong engine, but in the S4 the turbos are stuffed way down at the back of the engine bay so they get really hot really quick. It doesn't help that K03s are small, quick-spooling turbos either, since they're pretty much active from idle and very close to their limit on the 2.7TT.
Since people don't know how the fuck to deal with turbo cars, they just turn them off right away after a long drive, which cooks the oil in the turbos and results in sludge and blown turbos at ~100k.
Upping the boost even slightly makes these problems exponentially worse, but it's by far the easiest way to get some pretty serious power out of those engines since a turbo swap requires you to pull the entire thing out.