I am very close to buying a 1999 A6 Quattro with 87K miles from a dealership. After much research done via the internet, I fought out that the most 2000 and below A6s are extremely unrealible. Maintainance and repair costs are just wayyyy too much for a college student such as myself. Just check out this forum: http://www.carsurvey.org/modelyear_Audi_A6_1999.html. The car always seem to have some sort of trouble, some event life threating!!!

My question to all Audi owners is how reliable is your Audi? How much money have you put into your Audi on repairs? A common problem seems to be: water pump, drive belt, eletrical and lighting. Have all of you guys ran into such problem?

Should I go with a more reliable car such as the Honda Accord V6EX? I just hate to scarfice to be in a lower tier car. But If it means I might save thousands down the road in maintanence/repair cost, I might go for the Accord.... What should I do guys?

ALL INPUTS ARE WELCOMED. THANKS>.

 

I have a 2001 A6 4.2 Quattro and a 2004 Honda Accord Special Edition and I have spent more on the Honda than my Audi. I have also had much more fun with the Audi. You can't really put them in the same class. If you can afford to buy an Audi, you can afford to keep it maintained.

Then again... I love Audis. I've owned a lot of cars in my time and if I were to go back and buy one of them over again. I would be another Audi or another Volvo.

 

Audi is MORE FUN, no doubts there. But I would suggest extended warranty that covers electronics. I have 05 4.2 and looks like I already have some funky business in electronics department. My cousin on the other hand has 01 S4 - running problem free for 6 months now... Karma? (I was seriously considering new Honda Hybrid 06 instead of C6A6 4.2 when was shopping. Happy now that didn't go with Honda :-). Overall I think Honda is more reliable. If you go with Honda though - buy it new.

 

If you can barely afford to buy the audi, then you probably cant afford the upkeep. Thats seems to be a common problem with used cars also. If the previous owner couldnt afford the upkeep you may have just inherited a bunch of problems.

 

I have 1999 A6 brought at 75k miles and owned it for about 6 months.....Still now I did not had problems regarding performance of my car...I had the car battery down.....it was because it was not changed for a long time...

SO it all depends on how your previous owner maintaned the car...I totally agree with dankhound...

So before you buy it make sure all the previous maintainces that were done on the car....

 

The other posts I don't really think answer your question with any conviction. An Audi of the age you are looking at is going to cost you most likely thousands of dollars more to repair than an Accord. Audi's are not nearly as reliable and they cost more to repair. I work in science and am therefore very in tune to what compiled evidence illustrates. There is way to much good data avaible that proves my point. If money is at all a concern it is a no brainer. Buy a Honda or Toyota, the odds will be with you.

 

Perfectly put timfahy. Eventhou its possible to have a problem free audi and a problematic honda. Odds are your costs are going to be higher with the audi.

 

I bought a 1999 a6 2.8Q with 78,000 miles on it and the only thing it needed was an evap system for emissions but that wasn't too bad at $500. Every thing else works great and runs great. no problems very smooth. pretty good acceleration for a 2.8 if useing the tiptronic. As long as you take care of your audi then your audi will take care of you as long as it wasn't completely messed up prior to your ownership. ohh yea if there's no warrant from the dealership then buy it from a private party and get it looked at by a trusted mechanic. even if there is some minor problems, you will be able to save a lot more money and fix those for less than buying a used car from the dealership with no warrant.

 

Has the timing belt been done?