When it comes to reliability, Audi is about as middle of the road as you can get. It ranked fourth on SlashGear’s ranking of luxury car brands, but it didn’t make the cut on the top ten most reliable brands. Among the 30 automakers it ranks, Consumer Reports lists Audi at 19th overall. So, when someone wants to get a used Audi, they should know that they are prioritizing luxury over a rock solid car. That does not necessarily mean every Audi is created equal. There are some reliable model years in there. You just have to look a little harder to find them.

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This is especially true with a vehicle like the Audi A4. While this car is generally one SlashGear thinks you should stay away from on the used car market, there are definitely some good years in the A4’s history. If you have your eyes set on an Audi A4 for its style and luxury and want to be able to get the most reliable model you can, here are the model years that you should keep high on your list, based on the opinions of everyday drivers’ ratings. Along with those, we’ll spotlight a few more years that should be avoided like the plague.

The earliest A4 model that you will want to look at on the used car market is the 2012. This model came in the middle of the car’s fourth generation, and was built on the company’s B8 platform that was also used for the A5 and Q5 models. It also came at a time that wasn’t particularly stellar for the A4, which we’ll get into more later. That said, the 2012 model year has a number of positives, such as a 3 out of 5 owner satisfaction rating from Consumer Reports. That is the highest for the vehicle so far.

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One of the best ways to examine its reliability is to look at the raw number of complaints a particular model year got, and for the 2012 Audi A4, those numbers are incredibly small. There have only been a total of 26 complaints submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Granted, this is a luxury vehicle that was being sold on average in the mid-30 thousands per year at the time, so it’s not the largest sample size. However, any automaker would be happy with those low numbers. Similarly, only 15 complaints have been made by drivers on CarComplaints as well. Backing up this well-built reputation is the fact that zero recalls have been issued on the 2012 A4, and that is a true rarity for any car. This is a solid starting point for the Audi A4 on the used market.

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Next, we go to the last two model years of the fourth generation of the Audi A4. After the reliability improvements of 2012, complaints immediately started to rise again, essentially quadrupling in 2013 according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, but Audi was able to reverse course when the 2015 A4 arrived. With this car, the level of complaints came back down to where the 2012 model was, and according to CarComplaints, it was actually well below those numbers. There are 25 complaints against the 2015 A4 made to the NHTSA, but with CarComplaints, there are just three. All three are regarding the engine’s excessive oil consumption, with two of them indicating it only occurs at a high mileage. The engine also made up about one quarter of the complaints to the NHTSA.

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The 2016 Audi A4 model was even more reliable. Drivers have only made three complaints about it on CarComplaints, though there isn’t one overriding issue. One concerns an engine clicking sound, another had a steering issue, and the last was a loud whining from the transmission. Complaints to the NHTSA were way down from 2015, as the 2016 model only has 13 complaints levied against it. When tens of thousands of these cars are produced, the percentage of reported problems here is miniscule.

[Featured image by Kickaffe (Mario von Berg) via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]

Moving onto the car’s fifth generation and B9 platform, we can see driver’s belief in the car’s reliability increasing with the 2018 model. First, we just need to take a look at some basic reliability ratings. The drivers surveyed by J.D. Power gave this A4 model year an overall average of 85 out of 100, and they gave that same score for its quality and reliability. This model year also gets the highest reliability rating from Consumer Reports until this point, with a score of 45 out of 100. That may not seem very high, but Consumer Reports scores regularly have a tougher audience than those surveyed by J.D. Power.

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If you thought the number of complaints from drivers was low for the previously mentioned model years, you will be utterly shocked by the numbers for the 2018 Audi A4. Over on CarComplaints, drivers have only submitted a total of two complaints, both about a transmission stall. Meanwhile, zero complaints have been made to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That’s right. Zero. Nothing. Not a single complaint has been submitted against the 2018 Audi A4. Not only that, but there are zero recalls issued for the model as well. Clearly, Audi knew what it was doing with this model.

[Featured image by Vauxford via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY-SA 4.0]

For the last positive Audi A4 recommendation, we go to the fifth, current, and last generation for the automobile. It’s a little tough to get some kind of consensus on these models because there is usually a certain source — typically Consumer Reports — that is quite down on the Audi A4 when it comes to reliability. However, the 2020 A4 model year is an unequivocal success from Consumer Reports drivers when it comes to reliability, with a score of 76 out of 100. Unfortunately, this time around, J.D. Power is the one that hasn’t properly determined averages from its surveys for this year. However, if Consumer Reports drivers are this high on this model’s reliability, the typically more favorable J.D. Power ones would most likely agree.

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While it doesn’t have zero complaints submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration like the 2018 model does, its three complaints is still very impressive. Two of them relate to electrical system malfunctions, and the other was a suspension issue. On CarComplaints, there’s just one submitted issue concerning a problem with the start and stop functionality. You’d maybe expect more complaints to be filed across these sites because three recalls have been issued, but that just isn’t the case. The 2020 Audi A4 delivered on reliability for drivers.

As it is a little difficult to get proper opinions of drivers’ experiences with the Audi A4 from the vehicle’s first generation that lasted from the 1995 model year through 2000, the first model year we think should be avoided comes from the second generation. That would be the 2003 model, which is around the beginning of a particularly bad stretch for the vehicle. It is not a coincidence that the earliest recommended model on this list for a reliable A4 is 2012.

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Based on the number of complaints made to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on the above models, you may expect a bad year to be closer to 100. Well, the 2003 model has a total of 215 complaints by drivers to the NHTSA, which is the most since the 1999 year that had 196. The complaints were quite varied as well, covering everything from its fuel system to engine cooling to not being able to maintain speed control. Four recalls were issued for the 2003 A4. Two of those were to address the same fuel pump error. Overall, the 2003 Audi A4 was simply not a very well-built vehicle, and that wouldn’t be fully turned around for nearly a decade.

[Featured image by Jones028 via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0]

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The third generation began with the 2009 model year, and things did not get off to such a hot start here either. This was the very first model year to have any kind of rating from Consumer Reports, and the 2 out of 5 owner satisfaction score is not the way you want to make your debut. However, the publication did not have a specific reliability score for the car quite yet. For this model year, we need to go to the complaints made against it again.

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There is a decrease in the number of complaints levied against it to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as compared to the 2003 model, but 141 complaints for the 2009 Audi A4 is still a fairly sizable number. It’s over on CarComplaints where we see how it fits in the grand scheme of the A4’s life, as it has the most submitted complaints of any single model year. The overwhelming majority of the complaints revolve around the engine consuming its oil at an incredibly rapid rate, which is extremely damaging to the engine and costly to maintain and fix. The 2009 Audi A4 has also been subject to six different recalls, and each one concerns the car’s airbags in various ways. Airbag issues are definitely not a sign of a reliable car.

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It’s important to not just take the word of one source when it comes to determining the reliability of a vehicle. The audience for that source may end up being something of an outlier when compared to other opinions. This is the case with the 2011 Audi A4. For this model year, there have only been 32 complaints made to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and at a first glance, you would think this would be a vehicle that would be recommended for its reliability. However, if you look elsewhere, the response from drivers is not quite so kind.

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According to the drivers over on CarComplaints, this is the model year that has caused the second most problems of any year, with just four less complaints than the 2009 A4. Once again, its excessive oil consumption is the biggest issue. Thanks to the number of complaints about this and the estimated average cost to fix it being around $6,000, the 2011 model year is what CarComplaints deems to be the very worst in the A4’s history. The 1 out of 5 owner satisfaction score given to it by drivers surveyed by Consumer Reports doesn’t help its reputation at all, either. Luckily, Audi was able to turn things around with the aforementioned 2012 model year.

[Featured image by MichaelGil via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0]

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Just as the beginning with of the third generation in 2009 was not much of a success, the same can be said for the start of the fourth generation with the 2017 Audi A4. While this does have a surprisingly high owner satisfaction score of 4 out of 5 from drivers on Consumer Reports, that glimmer does not necessarily tell the full story on its reliability. If you look at the reliability score, that has an overall average of 37 out of 100. Drivers may have liked enough about everything else that the 2017 A4 had to offer, but even they had to admit it wasn’t all that reliable.

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This increase in issues shows itself plainly in the timeline on CarComplaints. There’s a dramatic spike in reported complaints for the 2017 A4. The two previous years and one year after all have next to no issues and all ended up in the positive first half of this list. Drivers on CarComplaints aren’t focused on a single problem either, as they include issues pertaining to electrical systems, climate control, leaks, and engine failure. Concerning complaints submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it’s the airbags that make up nearly half of the 31 complaints and also accounts for three of the model’s five recalls. People may have enjoyed driving the 2017 Audi A4, but this list spotlights reliability, not likability.

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To determine what model years for the Audi A4 were the most and least reliable in the car’s 30 years of production, a number of different factors were considered. At the most basic level, there are the reliability ratings from drivers that have been compiled by sources like Consumer Reports and J.D. Power, each of which survey actual drivers of these vehicles and collect their feedback to compile them into an average. 

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Beyond that — and arguably even more importantly — there are the actual problems that drivers faced with their A4s that led them to submit complaints to an organization like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as well as a website like CarComplaints. The more complaints a model year received, the less reliable that car probably is. 

[Featured image by IFCAR via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | Public Domain]