Undecided

The high incidence rate of the control arm, transmission, and various other problems have my piece of mind dwindling. A GE warranty covers the car for and additional 5 years or until 80K miles, but costs around $1,600. If parts were cheaper, I wouldn't even consider selling it. Is anyone else worried?

David D

People need to just settle down !
Do you really think your Audi is any less durable than any other vehicle on the road.
We often rember the bad comments that peaple make but for god sake most of the forum is filled with nothing but praise,we all have to rember peaple love to complain IKve been a service manager for 12 years and the peaple that bitch the most are the peaple that know nothing about a automobile they think they can just beat them with little to no maintance and expect them to run forever.
any car built today is built 200 times better than cars built just 15 years ago
drive,enjoy!

David Hess

Audis hold their value and the drivetrains last forever. Ok maybe not forever but I have seen many Audis with over 200k miles. No car is 100% reliable. The control arms are a problem but no car is perfect. Transmissions are not exactly cheap for other models. If you want cheap parts buy American if you are in the US.
David Hess
98.5 2.8QSTip

Monkeyboy

Don't sweat the little things - Audis are great automobiles. I feel that if the car was a lemon or worth getting rid of, you would know by now. Don't get rid of a car based on the possibility of something going wrong in the future. You are wise to get an extended warranty if you feel vulnerable.
Be careful with the extended warrantees. I had a 5 year GE Capital extended warranty (NON AUDI vehicle). First off, my deductible was $100. I can't tell you how many times I spent $100. Also, I did not realize that they only covered the use of remanufactured parts. So every time something needed to be replaced, it was with rebuilt parts (transmission, head gasket, steering pump...). Lastly, they don't cover everything. I had to pay for alignments, brakes, rotors, timing belt, $300 of the head gasket repair, etc.
In the end it paid for itself, but I also paid above and beyond.

If your car is a lemon, sell it now. If it is fine, an extended warranty will give you peace of mind, but look at the contracts.

Mike AM

My '97 1.8T is at the dealer right now. I brihgt it in for what seemed like a bucking transmission problem. Their findings: An oil line broke, that took out the turbo. They are also replacing a loose idler gear. They now told me that the ECU that was just replaced a few months ago is bad. They have the idler and ECU on order, so I'm a Ford Taurus driver right now.

I really liked the car, and it is well maintained, but these recent problems have shaken my confidence. Lucky I had 1 month left on my warranty!!