It was a year ago the insurance company totaled my daughters car and we had to find her a replacement. After much research we settled on a 2013 Audi Allroad Quattro station wagon. My wife did her own research and we compared notes and agreed this would be the best car. My daughter drives quite a bit - has put 24K miles on this past year - and needs something that is pretty reliable. Did not ask here as the answer based on TexAgs Automotive Board Orthodoxy probably would have had the Audi at the very bottom of the list - especially one that was 9 years old at time of purchase. We did use the data from Europe where you can see what % of make and models have had repairs during their lifetime and this is always a great resource when purchasing a car that sells in larger quantities in Europe. Might have been clued in to this resource from here. It'll tell you what % of cars have had their transmission replaced, needed a new fuel pump, etc. Germany has the best data, but other countries also have much better sourcing than you see here in the US. The UK also does a good job collecting and sharing data.
The car itself is really nice and the interior is high quality. Even now as a 10 year old car there is nothing loose or rattling and everything feels very solid. Nothing has needed to be fixed or tightened or replaced.
The drive itself is pretty good. It's been driven in all conditions on good and poor roads and handles really well. The snow has not been a problem at all and cold starts go smoothly - even after several days outside. The reliability has been as we would expect.
In terms of maintenance costs there are two things on which we've had to spend money. The first was the cable so she could connect her iPhone to the entertainment system. The connection was unique so we had to shell out $70 for the Audi-specific cable. The other item is tires. We tend to prioritize performance over longevity and she did have to replace her tires - really can't eke out more than 20K miles on the tires she uses. That's better than the 10K max from the tires on my car, but I'm sure many would go with a set of 40K miles and above.
It's been a great car so far and it has performed as we expected.
The car itself is really nice and the interior is high quality. Even now as a 10 year old car there is nothing loose or rattling and everything feels very solid. Nothing has needed to be fixed or tightened or replaced.
The drive itself is pretty good. It's been driven in all conditions on good and poor roads and handles really well. The snow has not been a problem at all and cold starts go smoothly - even after several days outside. The reliability has been as we would expect.
In terms of maintenance costs there are two things on which we've had to spend money. The first was the cable so she could connect her iPhone to the entertainment system. The connection was unique so we had to shell out $70 for the Audi-specific cable. The other item is tires. We tend to prioritize performance over longevity and she did have to replace her tires - really can't eke out more than 20K miles on the tires she uses. That's better than the 10K max from the tires on my car, but I'm sure many would go with a set of 40K miles and above.
It's been a great car so far and it has performed as we expected.