I'm prolly gonna get flamed for this, but, here it goes......

I've lost ALOT of respect for Honda/Acura........After all the talk of tranny's going bad, bad customer service from dealerships AND the BIG Boys further up the chain, etc., I've been looking toward German/European engineering....Especially the A4 1.8T's (really pimp looking cars)..... Now I understand that it's way underpowered compared to your guys' CL-S', but I have a CL-P and with a few mods wouldn't it be easy to match the WHP to my CL-P w/ minor mods?

Now don't get me wrong, I still think that our CL's are the shiet but I hate worrying if every suspicious feeling shift means my tranny is gonna go or IF it does, how am I gonna get treated by the dealreships..... Are they gonna give me shit cuz of my CAI, Springs, etc., like alot of you guys have gotten...... (I know it depends on the dealership)...... I phucking paid for a ~$30k for a LUXO COUPE, and to be treated like I phucked up from adding a bolt-on would send me thru the roof..... I hate being phucked with, and reading the horror stories you guys post about trannies, dealership a$$holes, etc., irk's the shiet out of me.......

I looked at Bimmer's, G35c, Z's but they just don't do it for me...... Yea the power on those bad boys is tempting, but they're already kinda Blah to me in styling.....(JMO)......The S4 is HOT but out of my price range... (Saving for a house)..... So, A4's seem to fit my needs (for now)....... They look HOT, Manual tranmission, prolly gonna have alot more mods in the years to come, and I can prolly get one with all the fixin's for under $30K....... So after trade in and selling my mods i'd be paying off just as much as I still owe on my CL (maybe a couple grand more)...... but hey it would be a new car......

what do you guys think...... is it worth the trade off? what do you guys think is the potential on mods for the A4? Am I just being too paranoid about the whole tranny/dealership thing? Please voice your opinions......

oh yea, anyone with a link to some audi forums?

Thanks guys for listening to my vent/rant/questions.......

 

you'll deal with maintaince issues out the ying-yang.....sure they'll fix it but how many times do you have to take it in????

How many times have you been denied service?????

 

Buddy of mine took in his A4 today for a non-warranty covered emission device.

Total bill $950.

Have fun with it.

 

I haven't yet, I just started modding..... but that's the thing, if i do have to bring it in for service how will i get treated? I know alot of you guys have great service centers but equally there are a few out there with horrible experiences..... just reading those posts gets me all pissed off..... Now I don't know much about Audi, but that's why I'm asking for a link or something to an Audi message board so I can talk w/ audi owners and see what they're experience is with their cars and service......

It's just a thought, if I had to say "phuck HONDA/ACURA" audi would be the route I would take...... so for now I'm just gonna keep doing research on it.........

 

What device was that? I'll know too keep away from any mods that are NON-WARRANTY....... at least for a little while......

 

the audi is a decent car. the only thing I hate about Audi is they like turbos which is fine but if you ever drive a turbo car it's not like a supercharger where once you hit the throttle boom your gone you gotta wait a second or 2 for that turbo to spool out which can be scary if your passing a semi.the only thing I hate about the 1.8 T is (like you said) 170 HP isn't enough power. but each to their own. have you thought about a Audi TT quartro. i know they are still a 1.8 but they put on a extra turbo on that little guy. with 225 HP in that little of a car you'll be able to scoot.:P

 

Yea, I looked at those, but kinda looks like a VW bug on 'roids...... :P .....

 

Its a smog pump that pumpes air into the exhaust to help light off the cat.

Its not warranteed under the bumper to bumper type warranty.

 

audiworld.com

 

Not a bad car.. Looks, pretty sweet in blue. But, your gonna have to drop some cash to get "CL like" peformance, if you get the 3.0...

 

$500 for a performance chip and you'll be flyin'


dp

 

I love the new 1.8T A4... Really clean looking car with some decent power... I think it's really fun to drive even though it's a bit on the heavy side for the power output. Much better than a CL-P I think and it has mcuh more room for improvement and a bigger market of parts. Chip that sucker and you'll be looking at over 200 hp... my roommate's GTI with a 1.8T as well just got chipped for $700 and is at 215hp now... not too bad eh? Definetely get the Quattro version though... I don't really like FWD...

 

Get a 2000-2002 Audi S4 with 6 spd...

The new A4 is not the same performance wise, because you cannot tune the turbos.

Neither is the new S4 which they just released info on at audiworld.com, because it will be a 4.2 V8 vs. the 2.7 twin-turbo in the current version..

 

A4's advantage is quattro and not speed. a chipped A4 with exhaust might or might not be able to hang with a CLS/TLS in a straight line, but most can't. At the drag a few weeks back I outran most A4s with chips or stock but there was one or two that just had a chip that were a little faster. These are all pre-2002 of course. The new ones are heavier so they are slower.

Then again you can upgrade the turbos and then the car will really fly. Handling is pretty awesome. My buddy has taken some sick turns that I wouldn't/couldn't even attempt with the TLS (he does have upgraded suspension and I am stock). I like the a4s and if we are talking about reliability at this point Acura doesn't seem to be much better than audis these days. If anything, get a used S4, just make sure its a 2001 because I think they had issues with turbos blowing due to bad hosing or something.

 

http://forums.audiworld.com/a4gen2/msgs/144326.phtml

They're pleading for a safety recall too.

enjoy.

 

To switch from a Japanese manufacturer to a German manufacturer for the perceived notion that they are 'better made' and will have less manufacturing based problems doesn't make sense to me. Open up the yellow pages - you'll find plenty of mechanics in both catagories. ALL cars have problems. It's the nature of the beast.

Both German and Japanese automobile engineering are pretty good.

 

My mom took delivery on a 2003 A4 3.0 last month.

The car has made me want to sell my cl-s and get ANY A-series audi.

It is simply an AMAZING car.

Good luck, u will love it to death, much better than any Acura I have sat in.

 

btw, no maintenance for 100k km's...u ONLY pay for tires for the first 100k km's..compare that to the maintenance u pay for the acura....

at 75k i have already paid about 3 thousand canadian dollars in paying for maintenance..

 

Amirsafdari - you make a good point.

Low maintanence costs are important and I wish more manufacturers would 'step up to bat' and give free maintenance during the warranty period.

This is an important incentive that can really steer someone to pick one car over another.

Our cars are still pretty cheap to maintain. Even with major maintenance (done at dealer for 15/30/45K at, say, $350 each time) plus oil changes we're still hanging around $1500 for maintenance issues during the warranty period.

Some got annoyed at me when I scored the Acura at a low value rating in the JDPowers survey. Included maintenance would definately improve the value of this car.

 

I drove a 1.8T Audi 2002 model with Quattrto. That car was sweet. Handled well. But it was dog. A darn Civic can beat it literally. Even with a CHIP, when they can actually crack it will not help it much. The fuel system on the new ones are already maxed out. Read up before you buy. www.audiworld.com

3800lb car with 175hp engine if I remember right, even with the chip its still gonna be very slow.

 

Although, don't forget...aside from what we think, the 1.8t engine is known to be one of the TOP 5 engines that are made today...

I believe 1 car mag calls it the best engine ever...

but yeah, it aint that fast..

 

All cars have faults. Audi has many too. Infiniti and Lexus have the least.

 

I have both a 2001 A4 1.8T and a 2002 TLS.

If you are switching cars only for reliability then I believe you are making a mistake.

The most reliable move you can make is to sell your CLP and get a CLS and an extended warranty.

I did some research into after market warranties and Audi, BMW etc. cost almost double what they do for Japanese cars.

ie. people who put their money where their mouth is wrt long term ownership costs think that Audi/BMW will be more expensive to maintain in the long run.

On the other hand, if you are switching because you like either the aesthetics and/or the quattro better then by all means, it is a great car.

A4 - great handling sports sedan
TLS/CLS - reasonable handling powerful luxury cruiser with kick in the pants power

 

how the hell can this NOT be covered under a 'bumper to bumper' warranty??

 

Wow, you are thinking of trading in an Acura for an Audi and the claim is "it is more reliable". You are in for a treat.
Audis are very unreliable and are expensive to fix.
Honda needs to step up and fix the unreliable trannies, no doubt. But don't justify getting an Audi for the sake of reliability and maintenance cost savings. You'll be very disappointed unless you picked the golden apple off the tree.
Audi or Acura is a question of taste and sytle preferences, but anyone who has owned an Audi for some time will tell you that they break more often than you would expect and are expensive to fix.
Two people at my work HAD Audis. One had a V6 A4 and he drove it spirited most of the time--but no craziness--and he finally sold it because it was always in the shop. He had 35k miles on it and the clutch was giving him major problems so he had it with that. The other guy didn't find the A4 all that fun to drive, though it looked pretty sweet.
Ironically, both traded their cars for different Hondas.
I guess to each his own.

 

why is everyone saying audi's are expensive???

is $0 dollars expensive???

FREE MAINTENENANCE for 100k km's..thats like 69 000 miles FREE!

u only pay for TIRES on your car.

 

Amir is right, when i first got my car with 23000 kms something was wrong with the tranny. They took everything apart, gave me a new 2nd and 3rd gear synchro, new clutch.. I also mentioned the brakes shuddered, they replaced the rotors and pads, washed and waxed the car and only praise my modifications..

I have dealt with both these problems on my Acura.. ha ya right.. They blamed the extra exhaust temperatures the comptech headers were creating under the hood, which caused my tranny failure.

Also because I had Toyo Proxies on at the time, I abused my car and they would not give me new rotors, they machined them 3 times, and the problem came back after a few hundred miles.

Modifications were a no-no both with the dealer and with customer service which was even worse.

 

If you mod your Audi you will have the same warranty issues.

So if the goal is reliability, get a stock car that best fits your needs and driving habits.

 

hemants, did u skip what blk just wrote?

steve, which audi do u go to get your car serviced?

 

I usually go to Agincourt Autohaus at Warden and Sheppard.