91 200 20v Avant or B5 1.8T Avant?

[CL Wong]

b5 = A4 model years 1996-2001
b6 = 2002-2005
b7 = 2006-2009?

I had a b5 A4 2.8Q that I bought new and later traded
on a minivan.  I liked the car so much that I went to
look for another Audi and wound up with a 200q20v
which I put up for sale recently but didn't put any
effort into selling because I like the car even more
than the A4. (pulled the ad when my heater blower went
flaky)

As a comparison, there are many things to like about
either car and each car has it's weaknesses.  The
newer cars seem to have bigger issues compared with
the older ones. ex: sludge, control arms

The older cars also have much more complete trouble
histories simply because they've been around for so
long driven masochists like us who are willing to put
up with all the little problems that crop up.

I really like the B6 and B7 A4s and may someday pick
one up, but time (and depreciation) will tell.  

The single major advantage of the newer cars is you
can plug them into a vagcom and have the car tell you
what's wrong with it.  Being able to communicate with
everything and reprogram stuff like door lock behavior
is really nice but also drastically changes the way we
interact with these cars.

My A4 had the following problems:

Audi dealerships

Not enough power.

frequent stalling whenever the gas formulation changed
from winter to summer.

the hose clamps kept letting go on the hydraulic line.
not sure why Audi used the clamp style and not the
screw drive

Clutch throw out bearing was making a loud whine at
70k

tie rods went bad soon after the warranty was over

control arms needed replacement but dealer couldn't
find anything wrong

trade in value was $5500 in jan 2002, car had a big
dent needed a timing belt, clutch was whining, and
control arms were rattling over bumps.  

The depreciation loss of almost $30k has sworn me off
new Audis forever.

key phrase in your post: 
there are very few known weak spots in the design

maybe there just hasn't been enough experience for the
weak spots to become known.  The people who have been
buying the newer cars were attracted by the style and
probably unwilling to endure any issues or get bored
with the cars before they experience trouble.

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