Audi reliability

[quk@sievers.com (Phil Payne)]

In message <882564AB.0055CAAF.00@notes.toyota.com> Wendell_Gurley@notes.toyota.com writes:

> You should look up factual evidence on reliability.  Many on the list own
> Audi's from a time period of questionable reliability, and with mileages
> that would be beyond consideration for most consumers.  From experience and
> product testing, I can also attest to the fact that Japanese vehicles have
> good assembly quality, but durability and servicablitiy is not always as
> good.  And it does vary considerably by manufacturer.  As far as VW is
> concerned, their vehicles are not even close to the build quality or
> reliability of Audis.

Back in 1981, when we were setting up a pool of 80 vehicles for computer 
engineers in Germany, we sat around the management table for an hour or more 
trying to decide which marque to settle on.  Finally the technical service 
manager suggested called the ADAC (the German AAA) and asking which were the 
most reliable cars on the road.
 
The answer was that only four vehicles averaged less than one "attendance" 
incident a year - the top three were Japanese and the fourth was the Audi 80S.
 
It made our decision for us.  For my sins (not being quick enough to move out 
of the way) I was made "manager" of this pool, at least for a while.  Out of 50 
Audis, we had one front wheel bearing go bad.  We also (for the prima donnas) 
had four BMWs - a 323i, two 520is and a 720i.  The 323i had five gearboxes in 
its first year, both of the 520is were written off in crashes at the same spot, 
and the 720i was written off because of vandal damage.

--
 Phil Payne
 phil@sievers.com
 Committee Member, UK Audi [ur-]quattro Owners Club