[jpark]

Hi RS
Looking for some unbiased, long term reliability feedback on pre-facelift B8 s4's 2010-2012, 3.0 S/C. I've sat down and searched on google for some time but wasn't able to find anything critical about the car. But at the same time I'm not exactly convinced.

I really wanted to hop into something newer for my daily commuting and noticed that these cars have depreciated quite a bit within the last few years.. The price (70k~90k km examples are selling for for about 25g~28g now), looks, performance sounds rather attractive.

Here are my questions in a prioritized order:
-This will be my daily driver so i am specifically looking for the dsg. How are the dsg's? i know the mk5 gti dsg's had issues with the mechatronic failure.

-Anything to be aware of the supercharger system? any known engine related issues?

-Any electrical issues? Infamously known Audi/VW issues.

I am well aware the updated B8.5 is a better car all around but they are still significantly out of my budget.
Any unbiased ownership feedback is appreciated.

[freelunch]

B8's seem to be a gamble on the transmission; I think mechatronic failures are more common than the B8.5 and can run you $3-4k to fix

[vitaminG]

I like them too, great practical sports sedan.

I think all the tfsi engines have oil consumption issues. Definitely want the sports diff too

[westopher]

FSI/TSI/TFSI oil consumption issues seem to be a roll of the dice from my knowledge. I remember when I had my FSI motor, when the car came out "there was no chance that my car wouldn't consume 1-2 quarts per oil change."
It literally consumed nothing.
By the time I got rid of it, it seemed more like 20% of people had oil consumption issues. It seems to be the trend with VAG motors. Lots of blowup at the beginning about issues but then as the internet gets less interested in it, it usually turns out to be exaggerated.
From what I know, which isn't much about these, the S4 famous unreliability seemed to be less of a thing after the B6.

[lexluthor09]

Great cars, not many known supercharger issues.
Most engine problems are related to leaking fuel injectors, carbon issues are less prevalent on these motors too.

DSG is usually hit or miss on these motors, sometimes its just an electrical circuit board issue which is a mechatronics out. Any hard shifting that can't be readapted are usually a mechatronics. Those two are the most common issues with the DSG.

As for electrical issues the only one I can think of is door handle touch sensors, LED tail lights go out, other than that I haven't had many problems electrically that happen commonly.

[GabAlmighty]

Realistically you're not going to get a very good long term reliability assessment. The cars are just a few years out of their warranties, I'm sure there are some high mileage ones out there but your sample size is pretty small.

You'd be the real guinea pig for long term reliability in my opinion haha.

Irregardless, from the thread here I'd say you're pretty safe just keep a few g's incase you get a bad DSG model?