Used Car of the Day: 2012 Audi A4 Avant

Here's the thing about Audis: they get a bad rap for being unreliable, but they really aren't. It's the maintenance and the inevitable repairs that cost a fortune, and since most folks don't want to spend the money to keep them up properly, the cars break down, translating into "this car was an unreliable piece of junk."

The folks who have the money and time to keep a car like this properly maintained are going to have better things to do with their money and time than sinking it into a 13-year-old Audi. They'll probably just buy one new (or, more likely, lease one, which is the ONLY way to buy something from a German luxury make). But Luke, who just got promoted to assistant to the assistant manager of the wireless department at Best Buy, will be totally pumped to have such a sweet looking ride for the same price than an old Accord or Corolla. And it is sweet looking. Then stuff breaks, and poor Luke finds that one major repair costs a quarter of what he paid for the car, so Luke lets the poor car slide into decrepitude, and then it ends up a third owner BHPH lot queen.

Thus is life for used luxury cars...prime story material for our old contributor Crabspirits.

What also kills German luxury vehicles is that they aren't as easy to service outside of their OEM's maintenance network as those from American or Japanese makes. DIY is possible, but with a significant time and resource investment most people (and some shops) aren't going to bother with for today's ubiquitous and/or highly complex models. Better to sell/trade and start fresh once the expensive concerns start mounting, as it's almost a given that the succeeding model will be improved in most every respect while not threatening to strand you.

However, it's worth noting that much of the industry has since moved toward the complex solutions this Audi exhibits with similar (or even worse) longevity to show for it.