My used Audi A4: Costs & impressions after upgrading from a BMW 328i

I did consider a Tesla with the recent fuel price hikes but considering how much I drive and the questionable fit and finish of the Model 3 I decided to stick with the Audi.

BHPian rockporiom recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

BHPian rockporiom recently shared his 3-year ownership experience of his pre-owned Audi A4 sedan, after selling off his 2013 BMW 328i. Here is his detailed experience.

Update: I decided to pull my cost data and statistics for the A4 since I bought it. I use Fuelio to track all expenses related to the car, which might give some insight into associated costs with owning a B9.

Funny enough, I loved my 328i despite all the pain. I just cannot get past that awesome handling and weight distribution that car had. My car did have quite a lot of use, I had just moved to Windsor from the Greater Toronto Area and all my friends were still there so every other weekend I would drive down there. Funny story on a side note, my friend who came with me to look at the cars became my friend based on our craziness for road trips and cars, we were working together and on a Friday while walking to the parking lot after work I just spontaneously asked.

• Me: You wanna grab a bite? I know this place with great shawarma
• Him: he said sure where is it at?
• Me: Toronto
• Him: umm ya sure

I kid you not we drove down 400 km one way for shawarma and drove back the same night. It was a lot of fun, but that just goes on to show how the car was used and to be honest considering it was probably abused and been in a collision with the previous owner it makes me think if it had been taken care of it may not have had half the problems it did. If you take care of the car in most cases it would return the favour.

With regards to electric cars and usage. My back injury aggravated a lot over the last 2 years and covid didn't give me any option to travel in 2020 so my driving has reduced to quite an extent. The A4 to be honest is living a comfortable life with most usage now being within the city with only 2-3 trips being longer than 300 km in one go. Where my BMW did 80,000 in 2 years the A4 has done 40,000 km in about 3 years. I did consider a Tesla with the recent fuel price hikes but considering how much I drive and the questionable fit and finish of the Model 3 I decided to stick with the Audi.

BMW did indeed have quite a few problems with their initial turbocharged gasoline engines but now the B48 and B58 are one of the best engines out there giving many other forced induction ICE engines a run for their money. Many auto magazines refer to the B58 as the modern 2JZ. Diesel really isn't an option in North America, after the diesel gate debacle, almost all manufacturers have shied away from offering diesel engine choices. Most diesel engines are in SUVs in a much higher price bracket.

For parts, yes Germans will punish you hard whenever a major repair comes in, I guess it's just the way they decided to do things based on who their targeted customer base is. It is a bit unfortunate and honestly if it wasn't for them forcing replacing entire assemblies/shafts for a small problem I may have decided to stick with my F30.

Build quality wise BMW does feel a step below Audi but a step above Mercedes. BMWs suffer from rattles and creaks after a few thousand kilometres whereas the Audi doesn't have a single squeak in 80,000 km. I had disassembled the entire dash in my F30 and lined it with noise dampening material and felt tape to stop the rattle as it was driving me nuts. In doing this I noticed the construction of materials and how they had used metal and plastic together which was bound to eventually start creaking/rattling. BMW's target audience has mainly been the leasing market, in the USA their most popular method of sale is a 36-month lease and funny enough their included service has also now been reduced from 4 years to 3 years. Now even in Canada, the residuals have been adjusted to make the 36-month lease more lucrative than the 48-month option. Considering most owners would get rid of their cars within 30-36 months of ownership they probably wouldn't notice any of the rattles. Considering the depreciation and if you are good with being hands-on with your cars/doing DIY you can fix most of these rattles/niggles and get one heck of a used car for a bargain if you hunt well.

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