I am about to buy an A4 1.8 manual, but someone told me that the reliability of the A4 transmission is questionable and very expensive to repair. Should I shy away? Should a get an extended warranty on the drivetrain? Is the extended warranty a good investment? Otherwise I love the car.

I can't speak for everyone's experience, only my own. I'm now at 59,100 miles on my manual trans. No transmission problems to date. Then again, I must have the 'lucky A4' because I have had nowhere near the problems I've read about on this board lately. Funny, I thought first year models were supposed to be the one's to stay away from.<br>-Cathleen (A4 still just fine....knock on my wood trim)

Unless the person that told you that A4 transmissions are unreliable works for Audi and has access to private info, I don't think he/she has a clue about this issue. Car and Driver had to have a trans replaced on a long-term test car a couple of years ago. I think about 2 people on this forum have had replacements done. And yes, it would be expensive because rebuilt units aren't available yet, but it's also under warranty (3 years), so has been free for everyone I have heard about.<p>One or two examples don't create valid statistics. For the best statistics available, check out the Consumer Reports auto issue (April). The worst area seems to be electrical (as with most cars). Overall, the A4 would get about a "B" grade for reliability. (Camry, Accord, Lexus models would get an "A". BMW 3 series: B, most American makes/models: B, C, or D. This is my own analysis of their data - they don't use letter grades).

NT

Audi manual transmissions are quite durable, and you can expect them to last a very long time. The only ones I've seen here that were bad, were troublesome from the beginning, and replaced very early. It is not at all uncommon to have flawed samples out of the factory from any make. If it works when you get it, chances are, it will still be good at 200K miles, as long as you take care of it. yes they are expensive to repair, but that seems to be the norm in the auto industry. An example would be a friend of mine who was considering a used '88 Acura Legend Coupe for a commuter car. He asked the Acura tech about the car, and the tech actually warned against purchasing a Legend with the automatic transmission. The reasons: They are prone to failure by 100K miles, and they cost about $7K to replace. $7K for a 10 year old car! Makes the $10K on the A4 not seem so bad, especially when you factor in that it's new, and Audi will pay for the replacement.<p>Charles