It looks like I may have a chance to get a great deal on an Audi. It is a 2008 Q7 which is the bigger crossover. It has right at 100k miles. I don’t need the SUV haters to tell me how horrible it is… I know it gets awful gas mileage, and the 3.6 isn’t the most powerful for this size vehicle. What I’m most interested in is anyone who has had experience with Audis and their reliability and cost of maintenance. I know they are part of the Volkswagen umbrella and I’ve had great luck with those in the past.
This one looks great inside and out with just some minor cosmetic repairs needed which my boys would be great at fixing, and the price is considerably below average. This would also not be my primary vehicle. So, what are your thoughts on the brand and buying one this age with this many miles (it is about 12k per year which is average)?
Spud, I had a 2009 Q7 and we had many small problems:
[ul]
[li]Required new brakes on all 4 corners after 20000 km.[/li][li]The internal cable between the driver door and the lock seized. We had to drive to the dealer holding the door closed.[/li][li]The gas tank door would not open. Luckily we were not far from the dealer, it took half a day to fix that.[/li][li]The entertainment system would randomly lock up. They could not fix this for the 4 years we owned the car, despite multiple attempts.[/li][li]At least one recall, possibly 2 during the period we owned it.[/li][/ul]
Other than that, we liked it. When our lease was up we looked at the Q5, but ended up with the BMW X3.
This Q7 is based on the same platform as first-generation VW Touareg which had notorious reliability issues, even by the very low standards of 2000’s VW. I honestly don’t know if the Q7 is just a VW with different badges and more bells-n-whistles (like many Audis) or if it is actually mechanically different from its platform mate. Either way, by 2008 the VW group was just starting to emerge from the dark days of the late 90’s/early 2000’s and since this was an older design by that point, I’m fairly confident saying that this thing isn’t the most reliable car in the world.
But, hey, if it’s cheap and you don’t mind having to throw a few bucks (or kilo-bucks) around now and then to keep it on the road, it’s a pretty nice ride. Reliability isn’t everything!
Not an expert nor have I owned one, so no doubt you will get better answers from (for example) consumer reports or posters like the one above who have actually owned the car, but I would say Audis generally have a reputation for being reliable, and fairly expensive to fix when they do go wrong. From the above it does sound like there were build quality issues with that particular model, though. It was Volkswagen/Audi’s first go at a big SUV, if I recall correctly, which may explain the teething problems.
In general you should have no issue with that sort of mileage, mechanically - I’d expect it to do another 100k miles easily.
Audis are neat cars in many ways. Unfortunately, like other European cars they can sometimes be ridiculously expensive to fix. Even knowing that, I was shocked when I encountered a thermostat replacement that was in the $400 range. It’s not the kind of car I’d recommend to anyone on a tight budget.
Well… it’s mine now so I guess I’ll find out first hand. My wallet is lighter and my driveway is quite a bit heavier. I now have five cars (for another two days). I’m either a collector or a hoarder. I sold one to the guy who was working with me to get it ready to sell, and he’ll get it on Thursday.
Anyway, I got a great deal. A couple grand less than I could find any other. It is from a lot, but I know the sales manager. They put new brakes on all four corners and it is in great condition. They offered me a warranty for a bit under $2k for 3 years so I figure someone smarter than me has figured out that on average you will spend less than $667 per year on major repairs and that is no problem. Hopefully I’ll be below that figure.
If anyone knows a safe place to download an owner’s manual I’d appreciate it. The first place I found tried to download a virus along with the manual.
Congrats on the new (to you) Q7! My best friend has been shopping for a 3-row SUV and he really likes the Audi Q7 and Mercedes GL450 the best.
There isn’t a lot of reliability information available from the usual sources (Consumer Reports or TrueDelta.com). There aren’t enough of them sold to identify any weak areas or problem patterns. Based on my knowledge of VW engines, I can tell you that the 3.6L V6 is the most reliable and requires the least maintenance of the engines available on the 2008 Q7. (FYI- the other two engine options were a 3.0L TDI and 4.2L V8).
I tried to find an Owners’ Manual download but had no luck. You may want to check out the AudiWorld forums which seem to have a significant number of Q7 owners actively participating. I learned from that site that Audi doesn’t provide downloads of Owners Manuals, to the dismay and frustration of many owners. Your best bet is probably going to be eBay and the cheapest 2008 Q7 manual I found on there is $29.95. There are several others but all are more expensive. Here’s the link the the $29.95 one- LINK
I also found some specific maintenance information that I thought you might find useful-
Audi recommends using Full Synthetic Motor Oil.
They recommend Brake Fluid changes every 2-years or 30k miles (whichever comes first)
Spark Plugs need to be changed every 55k miles.
**(and most important of all, in my opinion)- Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF) changes need to happen every 35k miles. **
My vehicle (2012 Mazda CX-9) allegedly has “Lifetime Transmission Fluid” and never recommends a fluid change. I change mine every 30k miles in all my cars and I just had the first one done on the Mazda. I managed to get 224k miles out of the transmission in my '95 Jeep Grand Cherokee and it was notorious for failing as early as 80k miles. My mechanic had never seen another one make it past 150k miles other than mine. It was still shifting fine when I sold it with 224k. The Service Manual only required ATF changes every 90k miles but I did them every 30k…I think that made the difference!
I have an A4 that also didn’t come with an owner’s manual. I usually just whip out my phone and google “Audi A4 reset service indicator” or “Audi A4 change clock” or whatever and have always found what I need on some forum or other. A lot of times the forum threads are started by people complaining that the information isn’t in the manual, so I’m not sure I’m missing much.