A4 3.0 Quattro V A4 2.5 Quattro - economy & servicing?
Discussion
Hi guys/girls.
The Mrs is looking for a work car and has decided to try Audi for the first time (gets the thumbs up from me!).
We are going to look at the above cars, both in Avant form and are wondering what you think of them, especially if you have run/currently own them yourselves?
From what we've read so far the diesel doesn't appear to be a great deal more frugal on fuel - is this true?! SWMBO will be using it five days a week, so the miles will add up and servicing needs to be realistic too.
Any comments and suggestions would be greatly received
Cheers,
J & A
The Mrs is looking for a work car and has decided to try Audi for the first time (gets the thumbs up from me!).
We are going to look at the above cars, both in Avant form and are wondering what you think of them, especially if you have run/currently own them yourselves?
From what we've read so far the diesel doesn't appear to be a great deal more frugal on fuel - is this true?! SWMBO will be using it five days a week, so the miles will add up and servicing needs to be realistic too.
Any comments and suggestions would be greatly received
Cheers,
J & A
the 2.5 is the earlier engine, and wil be a cheaper buy, but if it was my money i would be going for a 3.0 every day. I owned an A4 2.5tdi q avant for 18 months, good are but the engine isn't the best you could go for. i would up the budget and aim for a 3.0. The 2.5 was almost an end of a generation technology and the 3.0 uses current generation.
Fuel wise they are actually comparable. My pal still has his 3.0tdiq A4 avant and averages around 40mpg. i used to get a fairly solid 38mpg from my 2.5, best ever was 44mpg on a long 1200mile motorway mile trip. Good cruiser, but be wary the 2.5 can have some alarmingly expensive bills. But as with all econmomy based questions depends on how you drive and what type of roads.
Drive wise the 2.5tdi has a big black hole of power until you hit 1800 rpm, can catch you out at junctions and such. The 3.0 is much more progressive pulls well from very low down and spools earlier.
Spec you never mentioned, i prefer the sports setup for the brakes/ seats/ toys. But the SE rides rather well also but the seats i dont fine hold you very well.
Look through the search facility its been asked a few times
Fuel wise they are actually comparable. My pal still has his 3.0tdiq A4 avant and averages around 40mpg. i used to get a fairly solid 38mpg from my 2.5, best ever was 44mpg on a long 1200mile motorway mile trip. Good cruiser, but be wary the 2.5 can have some alarmingly expensive bills. But as with all econmomy based questions depends on how you drive and what type of roads.
Drive wise the 2.5tdi has a big black hole of power until you hit 1800 rpm, can catch you out at junctions and such. The 3.0 is much more progressive pulls well from very low down and spools earlier.
Spec you never mentioned, i prefer the sports setup for the brakes/ seats/ toys. But the SE rides rather well also but the seats i dont fine hold you very well.
Look through the search facility its been asked a few times
I have the new A4 3.0tdi quattro Avant. (Manual)
Torque when the turbo cuts in is stella! (much beter than the Aston).
On a run I get about 42mpg. Short stopping, about 34mpg.
Turbo lag is a problem, floor it in the wrong gear and nout happens. (There is no upstream spinning like I had in the 911tt). You just have to get used to what gear to be in, and when... which cures the problem.
I'm really happy with it.
Steve
Torque when the turbo cuts in is stella! (much beter than the Aston).
On a run I get about 42mpg. Short stopping, about 34mpg.
Turbo lag is a problem, floor it in the wrong gear and nout happens. (There is no upstream spinning like I had in the 911tt). You just have to get used to what gear to be in, and when... which cures the problem.
I'm really happy with it.
Steve
GetCarter said:
I have the new A4 3.0tdi quattro Avant. (Manual)
Torque when the turbo cuts in is stella! (much beter than the Aston).
On a run I get about 42mpg. Short stopping, about 34mpg.
Turbo lag is a problem, floor it in the wrong gear and nout happens. (There is no upstream spinning like I had in the 911tt). You just have to get used to what gear to be in, and when... which cures the problem.
I'm really happy with it.
Steve
Hi Steve,Torque when the turbo cuts in is stella! (much beter than the Aston).
On a run I get about 42mpg. Short stopping, about 34mpg.
Turbo lag is a problem, floor it in the wrong gear and nout happens. (There is no upstream spinning like I had in the 911tt). You just have to get used to what gear to be in, and when... which cures the problem.
I'm really happy with it.
Steve
Thanks for the info. The 3.0L Diesel would be nice, but not sure if we want to stretch to that at the moment due to other plans (below).
Hope all's well up there and Charlie is doing well? SWMBO & I read your build blog as we are embarking upon a rather different build of our own. We are also getting a couple of dogs and Charlie is so darn expressive one like him could be a front runner for the new pad.
Cheers,
Jason & Ann
So I think you're saying you are looking for a 3.0 petrol from the sounds of the above? Either way, here's my info by comparison for you.
Ours is a 2004 Avant Q Sport 3.0 manual, B6 model. Before that we had a 2.4 petrol manual (B6 model again but only the 5 speed). The 2.4 used to drink both petrol and oil far more than the 3.0.
We're currently on 71k miles, have had the car since 9 months old/9k miles. Servicing costs since then have been good I'd say, varying between about £250 - £370 from memory, I'd have to double check on the paperwork to be certain but you'd be better ringing your local dealer or independent for a quote as labour rates will be different. We stick to the variable regime and it's been once every 18k miles so far. The car is very good on oil, needing only half a litre in between services (the 2.4 used a litre every few thousand miles). MPG wise, I get about 26-27. My wife gets more like 30mpg when she drives. I did a grandad style stint once and did hit 34mpg but it's a painful thing to do.
Tyres have worn pretty well in general, we went to Michelins after the standard ones wore out and they lasted very well (about 25k-ish). We've moved onto Goodyear Eagles now and they seem pretty good too although the initial feel wasn't as good as the Michelins but I'd be hard pressed to tell between them now. Can't comment on wear rates on them as they haven't been on for long enough.
Problems so far - had some rear suspension bushes changed under warranty at some point plus a window switch as the one-touch had failed (but it still worked on constant presses so no biggie). Never had any critical issues with it at all. Main issue we have encountered is with the brakes. When we first got the car, the front discs were warped. The dealer changed them for us, maybe under warranty or their selling standards, probably a little of both. Since then I've been very kind to them as they seemed like they were the same spec discs as on our previous 2.4. That car of course had a smaller engine and no quattro drivetrain to lug around, so we never had any issues. I feel as though Audi should have upgraded the discs on the 3.0 quattro. We managed to get about 45-50k miles out of them before they too warped, which wasn't bad considering, but I did feel as though I was always having to nurse them a little. I changed them for a set of EBC discs with red stuff pads and could see an immediate improvement in braking power. Might have worked better with lesser spec pads though, as they warped in no time at all. I couldn't live with them as they were, so I changed them again, this time for Nitrac discs and EBC Yellow stuff pads. The Nitrac discs have some fancy cryogenic treatment that is meant to make them more resistant to warping and they have performed very well in that respect. Braking is better than standard Audi discs/pads, but not as good as the EBC "very expensive per mile" option. The EBC discs were drilled and grooved but were a lot noisier than the standard ones. I went drilled only with the Nitrac ones and they are much better unless you are harder on the brakes when they do make more noise. This could be down to the EBC pads but if I was doing it again I'd probably go with Nitrac solid discs instead, and not EBC pads as they came without pad wear sensors. Not a big problem as you can just bypass the circuit which turns off the warning by stripping the sensor wires and connecting them.
The engine itself is very smooth and sweet to rev, great for long distances. Love the security of the quattro too. My other VAG car is in for warranty work at the moment and I've got a BMW 520d loaner which is fine most of the time but there's been plenty of times I've missed the quattro (and plenty of times I've spun the rears, but then it is a hire car so it deserves the odd prod!).
Overall, it's an excellent car - we'd have changed it a couple of years ago normally but it's just such a hard act to follow. As much as I'd love to go up to an A6 Avant at the moment it's been very hard finding something that we can justify spending £10k or more to change. My wife loves the car to bits and is somewhat hesitant anytime I see something to consider as a replacement.
Other options on the car are full leather, CD sat nav (does the job but would have preferred the DVD version), storage pack, CD stacker and Bose (which is excellent). Main option I'd have liked to have on the car is heated seats.
Hope this is of use - let me know if there's anything more specific you'd like to know about.
Ours is a 2004 Avant Q Sport 3.0 manual, B6 model. Before that we had a 2.4 petrol manual (B6 model again but only the 5 speed). The 2.4 used to drink both petrol and oil far more than the 3.0.
We're currently on 71k miles, have had the car since 9 months old/9k miles. Servicing costs since then have been good I'd say, varying between about £250 - £370 from memory, I'd have to double check on the paperwork to be certain but you'd be better ringing your local dealer or independent for a quote as labour rates will be different. We stick to the variable regime and it's been once every 18k miles so far. The car is very good on oil, needing only half a litre in between services (the 2.4 used a litre every few thousand miles). MPG wise, I get about 26-27. My wife gets more like 30mpg when she drives. I did a grandad style stint once and did hit 34mpg but it's a painful thing to do.
Tyres have worn pretty well in general, we went to Michelins after the standard ones wore out and they lasted very well (about 25k-ish). We've moved onto Goodyear Eagles now and they seem pretty good too although the initial feel wasn't as good as the Michelins but I'd be hard pressed to tell between them now. Can't comment on wear rates on them as they haven't been on for long enough.
Problems so far - had some rear suspension bushes changed under warranty at some point plus a window switch as the one-touch had failed (but it still worked on constant presses so no biggie). Never had any critical issues with it at all. Main issue we have encountered is with the brakes. When we first got the car, the front discs were warped. The dealer changed them for us, maybe under warranty or their selling standards, probably a little of both. Since then I've been very kind to them as they seemed like they were the same spec discs as on our previous 2.4. That car of course had a smaller engine and no quattro drivetrain to lug around, so we never had any issues. I feel as though Audi should have upgraded the discs on the 3.0 quattro. We managed to get about 45-50k miles out of them before they too warped, which wasn't bad considering, but I did feel as though I was always having to nurse them a little. I changed them for a set of EBC discs with red stuff pads and could see an immediate improvement in braking power. Might have worked better with lesser spec pads though, as they warped in no time at all. I couldn't live with them as they were, so I changed them again, this time for Nitrac discs and EBC Yellow stuff pads. The Nitrac discs have some fancy cryogenic treatment that is meant to make them more resistant to warping and they have performed very well in that respect. Braking is better than standard Audi discs/pads, but not as good as the EBC "very expensive per mile" option. The EBC discs were drilled and grooved but were a lot noisier than the standard ones. I went drilled only with the Nitrac ones and they are much better unless you are harder on the brakes when they do make more noise. This could be down to the EBC pads but if I was doing it again I'd probably go with Nitrac solid discs instead, and not EBC pads as they came without pad wear sensors. Not a big problem as you can just bypass the circuit which turns off the warning by stripping the sensor wires and connecting them.
The engine itself is very smooth and sweet to rev, great for long distances. Love the security of the quattro too. My other VAG car is in for warranty work at the moment and I've got a BMW 520d loaner which is fine most of the time but there's been plenty of times I've missed the quattro (and plenty of times I've spun the rears, but then it is a hire car so it deserves the odd prod!).
Overall, it's an excellent car - we'd have changed it a couple of years ago normally but it's just such a hard act to follow. As much as I'd love to go up to an A6 Avant at the moment it's been very hard finding something that we can justify spending £10k or more to change. My wife loves the car to bits and is somewhat hesitant anytime I see something to consider as a replacement.
Other options on the car are full leather, CD sat nav (does the job but would have preferred the DVD version), storage pack, CD stacker and Bose (which is excellent). Main option I'd have liked to have on the car is heated seats.
Hope this is of use - let me know if there's anything more specific you'd like to know about.
Droptheclutch said:
Hi guys/girls.
The Mrs is looking for a work car and has decided to try Audi for the first time (gets the thumbs up from me!).
We are going to look at the above cars, both in Avant form and are wondering what you think of them, especially if you have run/currently own them yourselves?
From what we've read so far the diesel doesn't appear to be a great deal more frugal on fuel - is this true?! SWMBO will be using it five days a week, so the miles will add up and servicing needs to be realistic too.
Any comments and suggestions would be greatly received
Cheers,
J & A
I have just sold a 3.0 quattro avant sport. I owned it from new (2002), it was my old company car, which I bought at the end of the lease. Never really very impressed with it. Not particularly fast but very heavy on fuel. The first 3 years of ownership I had to fill in fuel card records, IIRC over 3 years and 32,000 miles it averaged just over 22mpg, that was mostly long distance running. The best it ever did was 26mpg on the way back from the South of France.The Mrs is looking for a work car and has decided to try Audi for the first time (gets the thumbs up from me!).
We are going to look at the above cars, both in Avant form and are wondering what you think of them, especially if you have run/currently own them yourselves?
From what we've read so far the diesel doesn't appear to be a great deal more frugal on fuel - is this true?! SWMBO will be using it five days a week, so the miles will add up and servicing needs to be realistic too.
Any comments and suggestions would be greatly received
Cheers,
J & A
I have a Forester as well, fuel economy about the same, in terms of performance the Audi wouldn't see which way it went, much nicer to drive too.
In terms of problems it had 2 sets of coil packs.
New rear anti roll bar (failed the MOT on that)
Absolutely ate brakes (discs and pads), the last set on the rear lasted 9,000 miles. I was convinced the dealer was ripping me off but Audi UK weren't interested.
Those are the things I remember, I gave all the service records and bills away with the car, but there were many more. It was costing about £1000 year to service/repair and was doing about 8-9k miles.
Personally I think there are better cars out there, if you must have 4wd it is worth looking at Subaru, the legacy is very nice.
UVB said:
Ouch Russ, 22mpg is painful. I'm guessing you had an auto given you chewed a lot of brakes too?
No, manual.I'm not sure what was happening with the brakes. They were definitely shot, unless the dealer went to the trouble of changing them in situ in case I asked to see them, which I did.
I did wonder if they had been replaced the previous service, but no way of knowing a year later.
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