Faults:

So far nothing has gone wrong.

General Comments:

I have owned 11 BMWs to date, and decided to downgrade to an older Audi to try to see what all the fuss is about. Most reviews talk about how poor this car is on reliability, but I had to try it.

I decided to buy one when I had a full time company car, and I've been using this as a weekend car. It has been no different from BMWs I have owned.

The general trick with any euro car, is they like to be taken good care of. And you need to feed it good stuff.

Saying that, after I bought it I did the following:

Water pump and cam belt change (I would do these every 90k).

Full service (good to do it every 10k).

Transmission flush (needed every 80k).

All up they cost me 1250 NZD, and till now I have had no issues.

These cars are designed for open road driving. I get about 900ks out of a 60L tank, but I don't run it down to empty of course.

Do make sure you take unleaded fuel. In NZ standard it's 95 or higher. It doesn't like 91 very much.

The best part is the Multitronic transmission. It's like a cone design where you don't feel changes as it gradually goes up. Very impressive.

Read lots of reviews of them going wrong, but these days it's not as expensive to fix the older Audis, as most of them are well known by mechanics.

The previous owner said he had issues with the reverse gear selector, which was an electronic error, but it was fixed for 200 bucks.

So don't go to an Audi dealer if you fear cost. Lots of indie mechanics these days do a similar or better job for a lot less, and offer great service.

All the electronics work like new, although it's now 11 years old. The engine seems to be very smooth. Love the interior much more than the BMW 3 Series. I am comparing it with an E90 even, although I should compare it with an E46.

My personal experience has been great, but here are a few tips before you buy:

- Make sure it's not off a boy racer who trashed the car.

- Try to avoid Singapore imports, as they tend to have lots of electrical problems.

- Service history is an added bonus.

- Get it checked by professional like AA/VTNZ if you can.

Once you buy - you always must carry out a full service, check cam belt/timing belt and water pump when due, and flush the gearbox if due every 80-100k.

These are not cars where you can be thrashing it, but if you take good care, they can be as reliable as any other trusted Japanese car.

Service is not as expensive, if you know the right mechanic.

Value for money - I am very pleased, and I would surely consider buying more in future when I sell this.

Try one yourself, but don't buy if you're not prepared to spend more after purchase

Faults:

When I got the car, it had no heating pipes. The cost of piping would not have been much, but it simply would take too much in labour.

Head gasket needed changing.

Water was leaking out. Found a punctured metal pipe. Got it welded.

Roof lining came loose. This was a common problem when car is imported from Singapore. Most of the cars I got from there needed a re trim. Reason is the change in atmosphere. Also found that stripping it up, there are a lot of cut corners in terms of clipping parts back together. Audi's are harder to be clipped back on.

Warning for electrical problems when importing from Singapore. I was lucky, but others were not.

Interior had a few problems with stuff being broken on arrival. Also, the electronic dash was getting fuzzy when car was parked in the sun.

No rattles at all.

Be warned of bushes and seals. They seemed to be tired.

General Comments:

Had the car for a few months during the New Year's period. Used it for holidays too.

The car itself for long trips is really good. Very spacious, quiet, suspension setup is very comfy and approaches bumps nicely. A pleasure to drive during long drives. I found that it was a pain if you wanted something else. If you are looking to overtake uphill or to have fun driving it hard... well... buy something else or get the larger engine. The 2.0 is by no means something special in terms of power. OK torque, but not power. Combined with Multitronic (CVT) tranny, you can expect to be slow.

The materials used were not really something special. The leather seats were quite hard for my taste, but other than that, controls were handy, and they were working at all times.

Overall, I would say I would want to try another A4 with maybe the 3.0 Quattro. The Avant version looks great too. Just need to form an opinion after I try a car slightly better taken care of than mine.