Audi: Reliability & Common Problems

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Cross-shopping? Audi vs BMW · Audi vs Lexus · Audi vs Mercedes

Across every Audi body style we've inspected — sedans, SUVs and anything else pooled together — the average one's condition dips below decent (a 55/100 score) around ~95k miles. It ranks Audi #22 of 24 brands we have enough data to rate; the longest-lasting, Tesla, holds up to ~184k. Shopping a Audi near that mileage? Expect more wear ahead — see which makes give the best odds at your budget.

Share of Audis in good shape (scoring 60+/100) by mileage and by age when we inspected them (each dot ≥5 cars; a band under 20 cars follows the nearby bands, so a run above the all-cars line stays above it, and a band of 20 or more uses the rate we measured; where a band has too few cars, the line follows the trend between the bands on either side; rolled-back odometers excluded from the mileage curve). The dashed grey curve is all cars we check.

Share of Audis in good shape (60+/100) when inspected at the same age — 5–10 years old, age-adjusted — by model-year generation; the dashed line is the all-brand average. Compare every brand's trajectory →

An Audi that still looks tidy can be hiding an engine that weeps oil and a computer that was wiped before you arrived. Start under the car and with a scan tool: oil leaks and fuel-trim problems show up together often enough that a clean dash is not reassurance, and cleared codes are more common here than across the fleet. The 2015–17 cars hold up best at the same age; 2012–14 is the window to skip. Condition typically slides past decent around 95,000 miles, near the bottom of the brands we rank, so high-mileage examples with torn bushings or tired tires are negotiate-or-walk cars, not projects to talk yourself into.