[s-cars] RE: 2006-7 RS4 >>> used Audi's

[Rich Assarabowski]

Designing a car for maintainability is not necessarily in a manufacturer's
favor.  A lot of people (e.g. neu-Audi types) dump their cars before the
warranty expires for fear of those frequent post-warranty $1000+ repair
bills.  As long as the customer turns around and buys another car of the
same marque the manufacturer comes out ahead (they sell more cars!),
provided they don't lose their shirt on warranty repairs.  From reviews of
recent Audis in the car mags, the percentage of Audi owners who would buy
another Audi is pretty high, no worse than other brands, from what I've
read.  If you can afford a new car every three years, it's a pretty painless
way to own a car and the manufacturers love it.  

The complaints come from guys like us that are willing to spend nights and
weekends under their cars fixing inaccessible heater flap servo motors
(BTDT) in return for driving a $45K car for the price of a new Kia.  I don't
think that matters much to Audi.

I've always heard M-B provides a lot of support to their loyal used car
owners, but I don't have any first-hand experience, perhaps others do?  

-- Rich A.


>I think we're in a transitional period.  Manufacturers are having a hard
time finding people qualified to fix their cars.  >I think to help
themselves, they will add diagnostics that spell out what needs to be
adjusted or replaced -- we're 
>almost there -- and also to make it easy to do so -- we're far from that.
Eight hours to pull apart a dash to replace a 
>vacuum actuated flap is crazy. Droping an access door to do so is a dream.
>People won't pay a mechanic $1000 to replace a $10 part.