2002 A4 vs. BMW 325 Xi - reliability

On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 19:31:51 -0700, "Ian S" >
wrote:

>"Karl" > wrote in message
...
>> And '03?
>
>below average in overall reliability. Problem areas appear to be electrical
>and power equipment - between 5% and 9.3% of survey respondents reporting
>problems in those areas for the period between 4-1-2003 and 4-1-2004.
>
I'll bet most of those reports were window-related.
Emanuel
--
2003 BMW 325i Black/Black
2003 BMW Z4 Black/Black

Go look in April Consumer Reports "car issue".

2002 was a "good" year for the 3-series. I don't think A4's ever had a good
year in terms of reliability.

By the way, neither is a high performance car and even if they were that
should not make them more maintenance-prone. Witness beasts like the Supra
TT, NSX, 300Z TT, Mitsubishi 3000GT which were very high performance sports
cars and not maintenance prone. It's a German thing, not a high performance
thing.

- GRL
"Karl" > wrote in message
...
> Hi,
>
> I'm thinking very seriously of purchasing either a 2002 A4 3.0 Quattro, or
> the BMW 325 XI from roughly the same year.
>
> I've read all the stuff about performance, safety, etc, etc. So I don't
> need a lot of input in that department.
>
> However, I am having a hard time finding good data on the reliability /
> expense of repairs / maintenance of these cars. All the reviews I've seen
> are from the year they came out. Now that 3-4 years have elapsed since
> the
> release of the cars from that year I'd like to know which of these cars
> has
> proven itself to be more reliable, have fewer problems and is less
> expensive to fix.
>
> A good friend who works in a used luxury car dealership, and is presumably
> neutral on the issue, advised me very seriously to go with the BMW as the
> Audi according to him "has a lot of problems and is more expensive to
> fix".
>
> I'm aware that both are fairly high performance cars and as such will be
> more prone to problems than the 1994 toyota pickup (135,000 miles and
> NEVER
> been in the shop for anything besides maintenance) it will replace. But I
> would think at this time one would have shown itself to be more reliable
> than the other.
>
> Does anyone have any input either way? Or better yet, some kind of long
> term comprehensive data on the web I can look at?

"Karl" > wrote in message
...
> Thanks. The more I look into it the more it seems the A4 is simply not
> going to hold up, and in the long run will cost me as much as a 3 series
> while providing a lot of aggravation.
>
> An 04 Audi is going to be overly expensive I think, and besides, that's
> not
> a long enough time period for me to trust reliability data to the point I
> trust it from 2 years prior.
>
> I'm now almost sure it's going to be a 325 or 330xi from 2002. It's
> flashier looking than I'd wanted -I really like the Audi's understated
> exterior- but I'd like to be the one admiring the car, not a mechanic.
>
>


On the other hand, you have not shared with the
group the manner in which you plan to use the
vehicle. If winter driving is one of your needs
the equation changes dramatically.

The two cars' AWD systems are very different in
design and behavior. The A4 is far more capable
on snow and ice than the 325xi, because of the
latter's rwd bias and completely electronical
awd system. The latter is a reactive system,
while the former is a preventive system.

I drive a lot between Tahoe and Silicon Valley,
at any time of the day or the night and in any
traffic and weather conditions, including fresh
snow and near zero visibility. Over the years I
have driven many AWD vehicles, including Toyota
Previas, Audi 90/100, A4/S4 and A6, and BMW X5
(the 325xi shares the same xDrive AWD design
with other BMW AWD cars). BTW the X5 was by
far the least reliable vehicle we ever owned.

There is no question that the Audis beat all
others in bad weather, and by a large margin.



dk