Buying advice A4 allroad

[Paul in France]

Hi,

I'm a new member, and would be very grateful to anyone who could help me navigate the minefield that is choosing an A4 allroad. I have already decided that a 2.0 TDI would fit my needs perfectly, and I would be limited to a 2010/2011 model, purely because of my budget. If anyone has any pointers, they will be very well received especially concerning the different MMI versions.

My wife runs a property care business here in France, so the allroad capability, combined with the space is a great solution for us. Loads of space for gardening stuff.

In the late 90s I was once the proud owner of a jet black 2.0 Audi 80, and must confess after 4 years of ownership I never had a single problem. 

Thanks in anticipation, Paul

[Steve Q]

Welcome to the forum Paul, you'll find the members on here are a friendly and helpful bunch :) 

The a4 allroad is a great car and you've gone for a good engine choice. Ideally the car your looking at should have full service history and by now the cambelt and water pump will due to be changed due to age if not mileage. It's worth checking to see if the car you're looking at has had the emissions recall. If it has and it's for sale shortly after this has been carried out then you have to question why. If it were me I'd avoid a VAG car that's for sale and has had the emissions recall carried out in the last 6 months just to be safe.heres a couple of threads which maybe useful: 

Also most allroads were automatics so make sure the gears change smoothly in auto and manual mode as faults can be expensive to fix. It's worth seeing when the gearbox oil was last changed.

Obviously the allroad has Quattro and again it's worth making sure this is working as it should abd worth checking to see when the oil was last changed in this too. Quattro is a great system but can be sensitive to small changes that could cause damage. One example of this is mis-matched tyres on the same axle or uneven tyre wear. 

I've also found this YouTube video which maybe useful:

Overall the allroad is a fantastic car and it'll be very useful for yku. Plus they have good resale values. 

Hope I've helped :) 

Cheers

Steve

[Paul in France]

Hi Steve, thanks very much for the comprehensive reply. I had the Cambelt & water pump on my check list, but the other items you also mention are definitely worth checking. I had no idea that the emissions recall had caused so many problems and was so wide-ranging. I read that it only affected the V6/8 models. Living in France I am often very isolated from motoring themes in the UK. I aim to buy from a reputable dealer, simply for confidence and recourse in the event of problems. The prices of used vehicles over here are astronomical. A low mileage 2010/11 2.0 TDI, could be twice as much as in the UK. Don't really mind driving a RHD over here though.

Thanks again for all the information. Very useful advice. So pleased I registered and posted to the forum.

Cheers,

Paul

[Steve Q]

You're welcome Paul glad I could help :) 

Thank you for your kind words about the forum we try and have a nice atmosphere on here :) 

Keep us posted on your search and if you want any more help then don't hesitate to ask :) 

Cheers

Steve

[Badgerman]

Like Paul, I'm new here and also just buying my first Allroad, will be selling on my 2007 A4 once I get the new car. 

I know the Allroad has had the emissions update, but I can't date when. Selling garage is much aware of the issue and I have a warranty. Cambelt and water pump being done hopefully right now, and a slight suspension knock that's just audible somewhere at the front being looked at.

Body work is pretty clean (it's a 2011), but what I can't get over is just how hammered the wheels are - knocks and gouges all round them, the previous owner must have aimed for every kerb in the country!

[Steve Q]

30 minutes ago, Badgerman said:

Like Paul, I'm new here and also just buying my first Allroad, will be selling on my 2007 A4 once I get the new car. 

I know the Allroad has had the emissions update, but I can't date when. Selling garage is much aware of the issue and I have a warranty. Cambelt and water pump being done hopefully right now, and a slight suspension knock that's just audible somewhere at the front being looked at.

Body work is pretty clean (it's a 2011), but what I can't get over is just how hammered the wheels are - knocks and gouges all round them, the previous owner must have aimed for every kerb in the country!

Sounds like you're getting a nice allroad :) shame about the wheels but they can be refurbished. Maybe the garage can do this for you :) 

Hope my advice further up the thread was useful to you :) 

Cheers

Steve

[Badgerman]

Thanks Steve. Yes, I've asked him to quote on the wheels but we may hold off for a while as it's really just a cosmetic thing. More urgently, I need to tart up the current car's ones as well for sale purposes (no dings though I'm happy to say, just surface corrosion), as I'll need to move it quickly to minimise insurance costs.

Yes thanks, advice was great. I had no idea that the emissions recall was such a big thing, in fact, I hadn't even heard about it. This one's a manual - how do you check the 4wd is working, please?

BTW this will be Audi No 5 - four A4s and one A3! Anyone would think that we liked them or something......

[Steve Q]

Nice to see you are an avid Audi fan :) 

Glad my advice has been helpful :) 

The Quattro system will be permanent and you'll be able to tell if it's working if you have a loss of traction. It's not always easy to text to be honest. 

Yea, it is, it's scary how many faults have been raised after the emissions recall. 

Cheers

Steve

[Badgerman]

Thanks again. 

I’ll be honest, we thought about a Volvo but Mrs B insisted it had to be Audi all the way....!

Cheers

[Steve Q]

12 hours ago, Badgerman said:

Thanks again. 

I’ll be honest, we thought about a Volvo but Mrs B insisted it had to be Audi all the way....!

Cheers

Volvo's appear nice but I can't be doing with the dash layout. Think the allroad looks nicer than the xc60 or xc70 anyway. 

[Paul in France]

Considered the Volvos too, and the VW Tiguan, but the practicality, looks and mpg of the allroad are most appealing. Badgerman, be interested to hear of your opinions once you've had time to get comfortable with the allroad.

cheers

[Badgerman]

Sure, Paul. We pick it up on Saturday week, so will look to give first impressions the week after that.

[Paul in France]

Most kind, thanks very much, and best of luck with it.

[Badgerman]

Paul, car arrived this week. Drove it for the first time today, so very early thoughts but here we go:

It’s certainly quick - after our 115bhp A4 it’s a revelation. 

Three quarters of a tank and it’s only saying 350 miles to go, a bit of a shock. The last one could easily do 650+ on a tank. We drive to Scotland a lot so avoiding motorway fuel will be harder.

It’s really big - much wider and taller and feels like it. I could barely get the bike racks on plus it doesn’t fit into the garage (!).

Drives very smoothly, clutch and brakes are much more “taught”. Six gears are nice too.

I detest the electric handbrake (cue flapping trying to get it on whilst simultaneously trying to pull away at every junction). The whole concept is ridiculous. I also don’t like the auto wipers which keep flapping in your face, but I think there’s a way to neutralise them.

Very stable on corners, gives loads of confidence.

Surprising amount of road noise from the tyres. 

Will report back with something more substantial in due course.

[Huskie]

Just to add to the discussion as I've also recentlly acquired my 2014 A4 Allroad 2.0 TDI...

I've come from a Skoda Octavia VRS petrol so I'm missing some of the acceleration performance, but the car is so much more refined I can live it.  It feels very much like an upgrade to the Skoda.

The electronic handbrake takes a little bit of getting used to.  I don't like how you sometimes have to press the footbrake to release the handbrake, all a bit of a faff and quite embaressing at the petrol pumps recently when I couldn't figure out how to pull away!

The stop-start also takes some getting used to.  I've always left my car in gear and depressed the clutch at traffic, so letting go of the clutch feels a bit strange.  Again it's also a bit of a faff as you have to get into neutral, footbrake, release clutch and then flip up the handbrake before the engine switches off.... there also seems to be some magical formula for stop-start inititation as it doesn't always work.     Then there's there the timed "engine ingition" - when you're sitting at lights at the car will just come back to life again, kind of annoying.  I haven't timed it yet but I'd guess it's about 20-30 seconds after ignition has been turned off automatically.  Maybe I'm the only one who experiences this?

The car cruises at motorways speeds admirably.  Very smooth and comfortable and it also pulls very well in 6th.  I would have liked adapative cruise control (it might be another option in higher spec models).  Holding the car on the clutch on a hill can be a bit difficult (it "wobbles" a bit at times) but that might just be me still getting used the car.

I have the model with the B&O soundsystem and the integrated subwoofer.  While it's not par with some after market subwoofer solutions, when it's cranked up to max, it actually kicks out decent and very acceptable bass if you're a music fanatic like me.  The quality of the rest of the sound components is outstanding with very minimal distortion. 

I'm also happy with the fuel consumption - I've come from a car that used to get no more 30mpg (and less than 22mpg if I booted it) and now I can easily get anywhere betwen 40 and 55 depending on it's driven.  I reckon if I drove like miss daisy, I'd see 60mpg.  On a 300 mile per week, it'll pay for itself in fuel savings.

 

On the whole I'm very impressed with it and hoping to keep it on the road for quite a few years :)

[Badgerman]

Huskie, I’m going to lose what little credibility I have asking this question, but where’s the dipstick, please?!

 

[Huskie]

4 minutes ago, Badgerman said:

Huskie, I’m going to lose what little credibility I have asking this question, but where’s the dipstick, please?!

 

I'm also going to lose all credibility by saying I spent about an hour looking for it before giving up and consulting YouTube.  There an electronic engine oil level checker on the display (which apparently is all you need these days hmmm).  

 

[Badgerman]

Seriously???? 😳 Some things on cars today are just mad and that’s one. So rather than taking two seconds to pull out a dipstick, you need to waste hours trying to reprogramme Deep Thought before giving up and asking a teenager? Bonkers!!

How long before I get low oil reassure on the M25 in the rain as there’s no oil in it........

[Huskie]

On 21/04/2018 at 10:58 PM, Badgerman said:

Seriously???? 😳 Some things on cars today are just mad and that’s one. So rather than taking two seconds to pull out a dipstick, you need to waste hours trying to reprogramme Deep Thought before giving up and asking a teenager? Bonkers!!

How long before I get low oil reassure on the M25 in the rain as there’s no oil in it........

Deep Thought?  A mere abacus - mention it not.  The Audi MMI is a computer those merest operation parameters Deep Thought is not worthy to calculate!  ;)

[Badgerman]

I’m back again with thoughts after owning the Allroad for 4 months now and around 4,000 miles. 

Like anything, upsides and downsides; aside from the enthusiastic thirst for fuel it has (struggling to get much above 45 admittedly with bike racks on), the downsides seem to centre around the controls, but first the ups:

It’s a really lovely car to drive; so sure-footed, solid and reassuring. Very planted, I drive sensibly but the odd occasion you need to move it responds. Spot-on.

The downsides: the bonkers blasted electronic handbrake - still lots of juggling, stalling, swearing etc etc in traffic. I now just avoid stopping on a hill. It usually conspires with the daft auto-stall facility to stop everything unless I remember to turn that off before setting off, which I am remembering more often. Windscreen wipers don’t have an intermittent facility, just a “crazed unpredictably random flicking” facility if not on all the time. No dipstick (but not yet run out of oil to be fair, the last one probably would have by now, you’d measure it’s oil consumption in mpg!). God knows how much is in it, I’m sure I’ll smell it if/when it runs out!!

We’ve just left the whole cabin control thing well alone as it’s utterly confusing (I know the oil level is on there somewhere as above) and we don’t have a teenager to try to programme it. Safer to leave, especially as we don’t have a manual.

Something really weird I’ve noticed recently is that there’s something wrong with the volume on the radio / CD player - it definitely gets quieter as you slow down and vice versa. I wondered if this is a voltage regulation issue somewhere, but nothing else changes too and it doesn’t follow engine speed; curiously, after lots of experimenting, I’ve realised it does it exactly at 50 mph and 40 mph. That’s a fault I think that we’ll never manage to find, I hope it’s not a precursor though of something more major going wrong but for now I’ll just ignore it I think.

Sounds a bit of a moan, I don’t mean it to be but it’s definitely got a sprite somewhere in it with some of the control things. Absolutely lovely car on a long distance though, and the cruise control is excellent. Oh and by the way - they’re huge! 

[Huskie]

I'm just echoing Badgerman's post above...

It is quite thirsty, but compared to my previous car (Skoda Octavia VRs - ~26mpg) it's an improvement!

On a recent 3 hour run at an avergage of 50mph, I've managed to get an indicated 53mpg.  On a normal 20 mile commute I'll get between 36 and 45 - very variable depending on the weather, and how hard I drive it.

I don't have the confidence I did in the Skoda for quick overtakes and so on, but it's much more refined and I'm getting used to a "slower pace of life".  It's my first diesel, and when the turbo spins up, there's an immediate surge of power, it doesn't roar but you can feel it just pulling and pulling.  I may still get it remapped though. 

The MMI / Sat nav / console whatever it's called is a bit of a letdown.  It would have been nice to have a touchscreen instead of all of these buttons (and there are loads of them!) and a big dial in the middle.  If I want to enter a destination in the Satnav, I start by entering the postcode using the jogging dial (really not very intuitive).  Partway through, it thinks it's more clever, removes any further postcode entry function and instead gives me a list of streets.  It's pretty annoying and I often have to revert to using my phone for more accurate navigation.

The handsfree bluetooth is great.  Pressing the voice search button on the steering wheel and saying "Call so and so" from my contacts list works like a charm, and the call quality is great.  I don't need to raise my voice thanks to the microphone(s) in in the roof, and the receiver can hear me clearly, no need to repeat myself.

The cruise control is fanatastic - although it didn't frighten the life out of me the first time it slammed on the brakes automatically after I'd put my foot down.  If you set it at a certain speed, it will try and keep at the speed, feathering the brakes for you if you start going downhill etc, or slamming the breaks on for you if you've inadvertantly left it set, and then floored it!

I'm still not a huge fan of the automatic handbrake and I've found myself at traffic lights, having to jump through hoops just to get going again!

And yes, it's a big car (I've already managed to scratch the woder than normal wheel arches 😪  )

I'm still happy with it after 7000 miles, and I'm planning a roadtrip over to Spain next year - I wouldn't have even considered it with any of my previous cars, but this is a very comfrotable, smooth, and "relatively" inexpensive car to run on a long journey.

[Badgerman]

Right back after a year and a bit of ownership. Still a lovely car to drive - when it's running, but mine has been a disaster on the reliability front. I am pretty sure I just picked one with a bad history, there's evidence that it's been in a smash and repaired "quickly" and skipping a few key parts. So far, a caliper has seized, both front driveshafts replaced, gearbox removed and sent away for specialist work to replace differential bearings, engine support bars missing, new clutch and dual mass flywheel etc etc. And it's still got a judder on acceleration.

As above, I do think it's just this car and the dodgy previous owner, but the cost of the above parts is eye-watering. Lesson learned is if a car has 4 very badly mangled wheel rims, walk on past.....I wish I had.

[Badgerman]

We've worked out the judder! Temporarily sticking on some other wheels cured it. My ones are not properly round, it seems. Since writing the above, it's now got through another brake caliper and has developed a lovely misfire on starting, which I am hoping is just glow plugs getting tired. 

It's still the nicest car to drive I've ever had by a decent margin, but it's ability to destroy components is getting too much, so will probably move it on in the New Year, sadly, I will be sorry to see it go.

[Dave J K]

Hi my name is David , and the November before last I purchased a Audi A4 B8 2ltr TDI Allroad sport Auto , the most money I have ever spent on one item apart from my house , before that we had a Saab 2 ltd TDI 3 series looked after by a Saab Garage that worked wonders quite literally they would even search round for a good quality second hand part with a guarantee , about a week ago my wife driving home had to drive through about 1 foot of flood water , it didn't enter the car or anything silly but as soon as she was through the water she had a warning on the dash to say there was a fault with the steering , although she could still drive the vehicle , she should get it too an Audi service center , so between Christmas and New Year it went into Audi whereby they changed the steering rack for a new £2600 one , I have always looked forward to the day I could own an Audi , but I wasn't expecting sutch a traumatizing exsperiance 16 months after buying a 4 year old car from a top end of the line Audi dealership , allbeit an ALLROAD the type of vehicle that should be able to ride out things like small floods and potholes ect .

[michael prunty]

Hi there,

I am the proud owner of a V6 2.7L petrol Allroad from 2002, R/H/D, 126,00mls. in the A4 body. It has air suspension, 184Kw biturbo engine, leather seats, air conditioning, sun roof, heated seats - in fact, anything you could need in a car.

Audi aficionados here tell me this is not possible, as the A4 Allroad was only available since 2009.

Can anyone explain or clarify this for me please ?