Audi A4 (B8) or BMW 3 series?

1mm3

1mm3

1mm3

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Has to have:
- Automatic gearbox (Used to driving an auto and dont want to go back to driving manual)
- Badge (audi/ bmw)
- Look good (a4 b8 and facelift e90)
- 4 door
- Reliability: Ive read people saying to avoid audi multitronic? Are they really that bad and when it does go wrong how much are we looking at for repairs?

Budget: 13-15k (tops), would like to stick to 13k if poss

Looking at something like this:

2008 Audi A4 1.8T FSI 160 SE 4dr Multitronic Saloon
or
2009 Audi A4 1.8T FSI 160 SE 4dr Multitronic

Is it worth the extra/ looking for an s-line?

I know people say these cars are very boring to drive but the mrs has requested 4 door. I would ideally like to cut down on the expensive running costs of an e46 m3 and looking for something simple, reliable, looks good with low running costs. Only if they did this in a 4 door :(

2007 BMW 3 SERIES 335I M SPORT 1 OWNER FROM NEW FULL HISTORY 3.0 2dr


UPDATE- change of personal circumstances :(

Well the plan was to sell the m3 (I suspect id get around 7k at a push): 82 k miles, LSB convertible with hard top. Throw in another 5/6k or so and get something newer which looks ok and to reduce running costs.

Now taking into account personal circumstances- I really dont want to throw more money at the car change. So budget around 7-9k mark.

Taking into account your above comments- I definitely want to save on insurance, something more economical and cheap to repair/maintain. I fully understand there will be a huge performance drop. My previous car before this was a golf mk4 1.4..

Budget- 7-9k (try to stick to lower end of budget)

Car has to have 4 doors and look reasonably good. Open to manual now also.

Im thinking golf mk5/ old a4 (B7)/ any other recommendations?. Id prefer something german vw/ bmw/ audi
 
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Just before everyone starts jumping in with suggestions and stuff what are your performance requirements?

The 335i is a very quick car, the Audi 1.8T is middle of the road. The BMW is nearly twice as powerful as the Audi you have mentioned.

Think wisely as this should be linked to the daily running costs you expect to pay to own the car.
 
Im going to be changing from an e46 m3 so I expect a huge performance drop.

One of the main reasons im switching is to reduce on running costs as mentioned above.

Out of the 2 I prefer to go for the audi- 1.8 or 2.0?

I only do local commute and runabouts, hardly any motorway miles hence the petrol choice.
 
If you buy the 335i and re map it you will not really notice a performance drop, it will not get around a track as fast as the M3 but its probably just a quick if not quicker around town.

Tax is a little on the high side but if you can drop 13k on a car which is an extra 200 quid a year?

You should see about 20 mpg around town so not too much less then the Audi (well I don't know what the audi will get but I know the 2.0T I drive is quite poor).

So my point of view is if you like quick cars and want something that is not going to cost the earth to run you can't go wrong with a 335i.
 
1mm3 said:
- Look good (a4 b8 and facelift e90)
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2007 BMW 3 SERIES 335I M SPORT 1 OWNER FROM NEW FULL HISTORY 3.0 2dr
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Thats a prefacelift E92 not a facelift E90 :p

If your motivation is a reduction in running costs then it would be helpful if you outlined what it is about your current running costs that you want to reduce and by how much. Some aspects of the cars you've mentioned are cheaper, others not. The last thing you want to do is change to reduce cost and find it doesn't really.
 
1mm3 said:
.....
- Reliability: Ive read people saying to avoid audi multitronic? Are they really that bad and when it does go wrong how much are we looking at for repairs?...
Click to expand...

I had one on my previous A4 and I think it's a fantastic automatic, no gear changes at all as it is CVT gearbox, but some people don't seem to like the way it works. You can accelerate with your revs staying almost on a constant level. I think the later multitronics become are more reliable and yes I had one repair (but don't know the cost as it was a company car). I would recommend that you give it a test drive so you can compare better between how a conventional automatic "feels" to a CVT gearbox.
 
Multitronics are unreliable, as you found, and if your company isn't footing the bill are far from cheap to fix.

When buying used it makes sense to simply avoid Multitronic entirely. It's not even that good.
 
[TW]Fox;22132999 said:
Thats a prefacelift E92 not a facelift E90 :p
Click to expand...

Ok, yes the e92 coupe (without facelift) still looks good :) but its not 4 door..

e46 m3:
-Insurance £1977.00
-Petrol £40-£50/ week just for a 13mile round trip to and from work and the -occasional trip to manchester
-Within the last year I've had to replace both rear tyres (£200+), car battery (£87.50), pay for recovery (£65), replace salmon relay (£5.00), diagnostics for smg fault/ ecu reset/ replace blown fuse (£269.00) and diagnostics and fix for battery drain (£299.00) from independent bmw garage

The other thing I forgot to mention was:

Last week on friday on the way back from manchester. It was raining quite heavily, I was only doing 70mph round a wide corner. Big range rover overtook going 100mph+ from RHS I ended up going sideways (back end went right) then left and finally managed to stop on hard shoulder. My wife and both parents were in the car, mum ended up going hysterical and wife was sick as soon as she got home. Luckily no accident or injury. And before anyone asks both rear tyres were changed for NEW within last year. In the 3 years+ Ive had the car this has never happened before.

I drove it for the first time yesterday and I actually felt scared of putting the pedal down (despite it being a dry). My parents and wife have all asked me to change car to something less powerful and "sensible". If I go for the 335i M sport no doubt my insurance/ petrol costs are going to be similar and its not going to be "sensible" neither.

Thats why Im thinking audi?! I do NOT want a manual though and Ive got my heart set on that.

Any other good looking/ lower running cost/ badged auto with good reliability? Im open to Mercs/ BMW/ Audi in similar price range?
 
Well a 335i is still going to cost you £200 a corner for rear tyres. It doesnt appear you've been hit with any of the traditional big M3 bills yet like a service so frankly I can't see the 335i or any car of that level offering major savings over the really rather small costs you've incurred so far with the M3. Infact you've been very lucky and its been reasonable cheap to run for you!
 
[TW]Fox;22133254 said:
Multitronics are unreliable, as you found, and if your company isn't footing the bill are far from cheap to fix.

When buying used it makes sense to simply avoid Multitronic entirely. It's not even that good.
Click to expand...

I never said that the multitronic was unreliable; i had one repair when the car was approaching the 95000miles mark (as well as my manual gearbox on my current car had a repair around 85000miles). At the end of the day it is personal choice and you can only base this on your driving style and your expectations from a car.
 
NXZT said:
I never said that the multitronic was unreliable;
Click to expand...

No, but yours went wrong.

i had one repair when the car was approaching the 95000miles mark (as well as my manual gearbox on my current car had a repair around 85000miles).
Click to expand...

'A repair' isn't a fixed unit. Repairing a failed Multronic gearbox is a considerable expense and they are notorious for failure.
 
[TW]Fox;22133897 said:
Repairing a failed Multronic gearbox is a considerable expense.
Click to expand...
Gearbox repairs are not going to be cheap regardless of type.
[TW]Fox;22133897 said:
... and they are notorious for failure.
Click to expand...
based on what ... own experience, hear/say, read somewhere in car forums/magazines or data from Audi Quality control in Ingolstadt? So please bring me up to date on the current failure rates of multitronic gearboxes in comparison to other car manufacturers as I'm expecting my new car to come with one and I want to be prepared.
 
You've even suffered Mutitronic gearbox failure yourself, so quite how you are trying to argue its a myth they break is beyond me :p

It's pretty much the worst type of box Audi offer anyway even ignoring reliability, so it's not exactly a chore to avoid one. The conventional automatic, the DSG/S-tronic and the manual gearboxes are all better at what they do IMHO :)

Putting up with the risk of unreliability can often be justified if the product is so good it makes up for this, but it's a CVT :p
 
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