2002 Audi A4 from North America - Comments

There was a recall on the motor we were not made aware of until the car blew up on the interstate in the middle of the night. Apparently this is only a problem with the 02 a4's 1.8t. I live an hour from the dealerships so I had to be towed into the dealership then find a ride home. The dealerships are awful. I had bad experiences with two of them. I've had lots of motor problems and they always find a way to blame it on me even though I have kept up all the regular maintenance on my vehicle! I drive the car a lot, but for the money, I should be able to do that and not worry about the motor blowing up. I had to have the car towed 3 times and getting back and forth to and from the dealership is not easy when your car is blown. Please understand I do LOVE the looks of my little car, and it is extrememly comfortable. All the features are excellent, it's the quality of the motor and the service I recieved that has deffered me from another purchase. Maybe I got a lemon, but I'll not take the chance again.

Please be aware that Audi dealerships take surveys and the service managers salary apparently depends on those surveys. I was strong-armed by one after a giving a bad survey.

Your story sounds very unbelievable or, you might really have gotten a Lemon. Its such coincidence that the car had to be towed 3 times, but you still kept and drive it? You live an hour away from the dealership and the car breaks down in the middle of the night? It's funny that the 1.8T, post 1998 is the strongest 4 cylinder yet.. its been apparantly called "bulletproof" by any tuner who has laid hands on the 1.8T. Maybe you don't know how to drive a manual?

I agree with the above commenter. If you drive your car too hard, it will break down on you. Don't over rev your engine, and I suspect you didn't baby your engine during the 1,500 km break in period either. The 1.8T engine IS pretty well bulletproof. I have a friend who has 3 cars with that engine in it, 1998 Audi A4, 2002 Audi TT, and 2004 VW GTi. All with flawless reliability.

How dare you people dismiss the first guys comments. You may have had good times with your cars, but that doesn't mean that everyone else has been that lucky. Some cars no matter what make are just lemons.

I have had almost the same exact problem as the first comment. My engine ceased on the interstate at 5:30 in the morning and I was lucky I wasn't hurt or killed. I had the car towed to the dealership and after 3 weeks of arguing with the mechanics, they finally admitted that the engines were faulty in the 2002 models. So they ended up giving me an older engine than I had originally. I am convinced that Audi's are poorly made. I have had my car for 13 months and it has been in the shop 5 times and approx 60 days total. I will not buy another Audi. They look nice, but are not worth the aggravation.

I've heard of the 1.8 turbo engines failing. Go to audiworld.com or look at the Audi forums if you don't believe me or the author. It's the same engine they placed in the VW Jetta, and their owners are also complaining about it. If you get an A4 get the non-turbo, less headache. Also stay away from the tiptronic automatic.