2002 Audi A6 from North America - Comments

Its hard for me to remember everything that has gone wrong with this car, but here goes:

I have replaced the brakes 4 times in 2 years 40,000 miles.

Had the axles replaced at 35,000 miles - $500.

The battery replaced at 40,000 miles - $200.

The thermostat twice in the past year - $250.

The water pump and timing belt are being replaced as we I type this for a whopping $1500. The mechanic said that to get to the waterpump, the front end has to be removed.

The catalytic converter has been replaced twice. This was covered by the warranty.

I have an electrical problem that no one has been able to fix, the car thinks the driver side rear door is open when I make right turns or hit the gas a little to hard from stop. So far, $500 in labor, but still no fix for the problem.

In the 2 years I have owned this car, I have spent over $4000 in repairs and maintenance.

It feels great to drive when it works. I feel safe and comfortable in it. The bad news is that it's in the shop way too much, and costs entirely too much to maintain. Nothing is cheap to fix on this car.

I would never buy another Audi. Should have read a little more on the car before I purchased it. The Audi web site states that they do not offer an extended warranty on any Audi vehicle, I now know why.

40k miles and you are unhappy about $4000 worth of repairs; while some of the repairs are normal wear & tear? That does not seem fair to judge so poorly. I can think of many other cars/manufacturers that would be far worse without the power, comfort, and capabilities of the allroad.

Sorry, I meant A6...

Last time I checked, having the axles replaced was not normal wear and tear. Should have bought a BMW. Quality German engineering, none of that built in Mexico junk, like Audi and VW

Have you read Consumer Reports lately? Audi is above BMW and Mercedes in terms of reliability, only 4% below average in terms of predicted reliability. BMW was 16% below, and Mercedes was dead last, and 123% below average.

In addition, no Audi ever has ever been built in Mexico.

In addition, all of these cars are designed in Germany, it's just the people that screw them together that is different. To imply that Mexican, Brazilian, Russian, Argentinean or Belgian workers put the cars together worse than Germans is ethnically based, when you look at it. And just as a rule of thumb - the majority of workers in Volkswagens plants are Turkish!

Place of production makes no difference. It's all in your head. The parts are the same, the design is the same, the engineering is the same.

Honda builds Accords in Mexico. Nissan builds Sentras in Mexico. Toyota builds Tacomas in Mexico. Nissan builds Versas in Mexico.

I bet you money that if those cars had problems, no one would ever attribute it to Mexican production.

'Nuff said.

You know what they say, what's the difference between a porcupine and a BMW? A BWM has it's pr*cks on the inside.

Honda build Accords in the United States... hence the "1" at the beginning of their VIN numbers. The rest of the cars ARE built in Mexico and are of HORRIBLE quality (as is the Honda Accord, regrettably)

PLUS - Yes, Mexican, Russian, Argentinean, Brazilian made cars ARE of vastly worse quality (This is NOT ethnically based, as it is coming from a Russian citizen) because the pay, training and quality standards are lax compared to Japan or Germany - perhaps that is why the Turkish BMW workers put out good cars - not because they are Turkish, as you (probably unwittingly) suggested, but because the Standards, Training, and Pay are up to snuff.

Design and Engineering are a separate issue... however if you compare the Lexus RX 330s made in Canada (Plagued by horrible transmission problems) with the few that were made in Japan, you will see same engineering and design, but stark difference in quality due to assembly differences on the different plants.