Ming02

I currently have an '02 A4 and I may be looking to upgrade now that my car needs a few thousand dollars in repairs and maintenance done.

My budget is pushing me towards a early B8 model - probably no newer than 2010.

I know that my B6 had lots of teething problems and it spent a lot of time at the dealer to fix lots of small problems - not counting the coilpack fiasco! Since the warranty ran out it's been smooth sailing (until now!) and I now have 170K on the clock.

When shopping for a B8 what should I keep an eye out for and what maintenance / prevention work should I be asking about to make sure things have been taken care of? I've been away from AW for quite some time, so I'm not all that familiar with the common B8 problems. It does seem that there is talk about oil consumption on the early model runs - what was the fix or prevention for that? I've always changed my oil in the B6 with M1 every 5k since new so I've never had any issues with oil deposits like those who changed on the recommended interval.

Crucible35

Look out for:
- Oil consumption
- Water pump (I've had three)
- Front control Arms (high speed shimmy)
- Power steering hose (low speed shudder)
- Turbo (mine is going at 125KKMs)
- Sunroof deflector

These are common to the 2009 (mine) but many with newer models have all these as well. There are TSBs out on these issues(except the turbo) so the dealer had to do the work. The newer the better IMHO.....with as much warranty as possible.

I will never get a first model year of a refresh or redesign ever again. Learned my lesson. G/L