The fact that this is still the car that I base my usernames on, despite the fact that I’ve owned several cars before and after, should tell you much its story right there. But in case it doesn’t, here goes: I bought this car when I still owned the 5000, so for a while I actually owned two Audis. “Solid” and “cold” are the two best words that I can use to describe this car. Very German. It felt very solid, and heavy. It leaked from every orifice, the Quattro 4WD decided not to 4-wheel-anything anymore, and it developed a very nasty habit of stalling in busy intersections.
But despite all of this, it remains one of my favorite cars. Everything felt as it was built with craftsmanship and precision, and the heated sport seats were awesome. I had to move to move to South Carolina for a while, so in my driveway it sat for nearly four years. I would’ve fixed it up gradually had I remained in NY, since 124k miles is nothing for these bulletproof Audi 5-cylinders. In the meantime, while in SC, I owned several more cars. Keep reading.
@B3Quattro – If I may ask, which Audi in your opinion had an edge in reliability – the 5000 or the 90?
Really, the words “Audi” and “reliability” are oxymorons. Audis have always been and continue to be cars that require regular wallet open and empty sessions.
If you cannot afford to lease a new one, you cannot afford to run a used one.
Later offerings from VW have improved though even the awfulness of the beetle has worn off their reputation now.
I never got the Beetle thing. When I was in high school, my buddies wrenched on their Bugs all weekend while I took my Corolla all over the place looking for the ultimate fly fishing spot.
It is always funny to read all these horrors about the 80/90/100 Audis, since in EU and particularly Eastern Europe and Russia these are deemed as indestructible paragons of longevity and reliability.
This might be in part due to normally substantially lower spec, but… I’ve seen, drove and been driven in them with 300-400Kkm on the clock and god knows how many times the odo had been rolled back. They started to become unreliable and or maintenance-intensive first with 2.6/2.8 V6’s and the trend only grew worse with every next iteration – A4, A6, and finally A8.
Audi’s rep in the US lives in the shadow of 60-Minutes’ hit piece in 1987 – both by the direct damage to the brand and because most memories of Audis stopped updating then (as the brand sold poorly for the next decade) and old 1980s cars are a disaster no matter what the brand.
As with any marque it depends on the model. I owned a B5 A4 until it was fifteen years old, and I daily drive a 17-year old S6. Both have been far more reliable in their old age than my Japanese cars (B13 Sentra, Mazda GLC) – other than my Honda Civic Wagon, which had to have a stake put through its heart two owners later.
The automatic transmissions fail, the electronics will drive you nuts, and certain engines mated with certain cars are real trouble (2.7T in anything, the 4.2 V8 slaughters CV boots, etc.).
I learned to drive on the generation after this, with six cylinders rather than five and FWD rather than Quattro; since every car we got before I hit puberty had a name, we called it “Karl” or “Charlie.” It was also a nice, solid car, and served my family well for twelve years; their previous car, a 4000 (B2 90, “Wilhelmina”), served them for eleven. We must have lucked out twice with the Audis—we also had a Volvo for a while and my parents did not consider it as reliable (and the Volvo was only bought because they didn’t want to be stranded in America’s last Peugeot).
I thought it was a delight to drive—solid, as B2Quattro noted, but also light on its wheels—it was always moving more quickly than it felt inside (a bad quality for a teen driver, admittedly) and very maneuverable. I fantasized about taking it with me to college, but this was when the car’s dark secret came out: it was only reliable because of lots of expensive preventative maintenance. My mother desperately wanted to get rid of the thing, but my father and I were in love. And love that meant lots of money was wasted, in Mom’s practical opinion, on preemptive replacements and premium gasoline.
Karl was gone by the summer, replaced by a first-generation Mazda6 which is, I now admit, better in every way (thus I’m calling myself “Atenza” rather than “B4FWD”). Although I have no need for a car right now (I live a couple blocks from a subway stop in a large city), should I be transferred to a suburban office park or move to another city my eyes are now fixed on it.
Not many Audis that age still in good order here the name Quattro always brings back memories of standing in a forest hearing Michelle Moutons Rally Quattro blasting through the night on gravel with the turbo5 screaming its guts out, spine chilling stuff, A real shame that model wasnt available to the public it would have been expensive but awesome when going
I have something similar as my daily driver right now. It’s ’90 Audi 80 1.9D (non turbo, 67 hp). It does 47 mpg if driven casually, although maybe a bit less right now when there’s about 15 Fahrenheit. Manual everything, including steering, nearing 200k on the odo and the engine goes like new, I just love the sound. It happened to me to have to haul 2000 lbs trailer with it a few times through country roads as well. I love this car and wonder why they are considered unreliable in US when in Europe they are thought to be most reliable ever.
This is because people in Europe are used to wrenching on cars at a level we are not.
We received cars with power or vacuum operated everything, and much of that stuff broke. Prior to 1987 or so, we served as a test lab for European smog equipment, since they didn’t even need catalytic converters then. We also used to drive more miles on average. I think the US average was about 15K miles while theirs was around 15K kilometers. Worst of all for the Europeans was that we embraced Japanese cars. Our standards were and are different when it comes to quality. Good dealer service departments are few and far between too, while Germans historically went to great lengths to train their dealers’ service departments. My local Porsche-Audi-BMW dealer had mechanics that regularly went to Germany to be trained on each new BMW model, but those trained mechanics jumped ship following an ownership change and set up their own shop. That shop was a great asset to local BMW owners until it grew to the point that they hired whatever mechanics were available and the factory trained ones transitioned to management as the models they were specialists on became obsolete.
My experience with VW-Audi service departments is that usually exhibit a unique combination of arrogance, incompetence and dishonesty.
In Germany, the TUV inspection system makes the cost of owning old cars pretty much out of the question. Most of the cars you see on the roads are less than five years old. You have to see Germans and their cars as about the most obvious form of overt nationalism there is. They are absolutely, profoundly and positively sure their cars are the best in the world and would not think of driving anything else. Period. They change them frequently, too! All is good for Germany’s brands, which are whacking out record profits.
Germany is a very wealthy country and most of the population can afford to own a nice ride and yessiree, there’s plenty on nice stuff on the road. There are loads of SuperMinis, which are by far the most popular of cars in Europe.
While in the Weimar area in 2010 for our daughter’s music festival, I rented Fiat Panda to tool around the German countryside. What a cool little car, a heart of gold, easy to drive, loads of room, really, I’d buy one here, and like 5.0 L /100 km
You are wrong. The average age of german cars is currently 9years. Since the average price for new cars is much higher in germany, most people buy used cars or keep their old ones.
The TÜV has to be visited with any car, wether its old or brandnew. The insurance for older, cheaper cars is also lower, than for a new car.
A reason, why Audis are considered reliable here (germany) is that people usually buy the less expensiver smaller engines, especially the indestructible turbo-diesels. This is due to the fact that gas prices are much higher here.
Hope I could help
While I don’t see many of these B3/B4 Audis anymore (then again, they didn’t sell nearly as well as their successors), the ones I see never have a spot of rust. Same goes for just about any Volvo from the past 25 years.