After many years of both my wife and I owning Audi A6's, I regret to say that I advise against buying Audi's. The story provides many lessons in how to turn positive word of mouth into negative wom.
If you want to see how a blog can turn things negative, read this recent story about how a similar blog posting caused havoc with Dell. Link.
I used to love the Audi A6. I've owned several over the years. However, the last two have had a series of repairs that I won't bore you with. My wife's last Audi finally died when water seeped into the electrical system because a dranage hole under the battery became clogged (inspecting it is not part of the standard maintenence), causing a short circuit. The entire electrical system was destroyed. The repair would have cost $11,000, but the insurance company chose to total the car.
On my car, the twin turbos both burned out, causing a repair that would have cost $9-11,000 if it were not covered by the lease.
However, the real reason that I can't recommend the Audi is their attitude toward my return of my last car after the lease was up. They had always taken back my cars after the lease had expired without charging me for the normal wear and tear: a few dings and scratches that a three-year-old car typically has. This time, the wear and tear was the same, but the attitude was different. Since I didn't agree to lease another car, they apparently decided to stick it to me. They decided to charge me for every ding, scratch and every other cosmetic deficiency on this three and one half year old car. In all fairness, where was a crack in the windshield that I expected to pay for (but not $600). They have refused to reach any kind of accommodation, thereby turning a staunch advocate into a bitterly disappointed ex customer. I actually intended to buy another Audi eventually. Now, I'll do everything I can to discourage people from dealing with a company who wants to grab a few bucks short term and is obviously not interested in the long-term satisfaction of their customers. I'm now about to try once again to negotiate with Audi to reach a fair accommodation. I'll update this post to let you know what happens.
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