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They are motivated to get you to buy a new car in less than 10 years/100,000 miles.
Years ago I lived next door to a guy who was an engineer at General Motors. He told me they had an entire engineering department dedicated to re-engineering parts that were lasting too long. That was a long time ago, and I think market conditions have changed all that. But their goal at the time was 3.4 years (that's when they wanted parts to "wear-out"). Think about when people bought new cars back in the 1960's & 1970's. It was considered normal for lots of parts to need replacement at 3-4 years. Lots of new cars were sold.
It's like Elon Musk eluded to in an interview, established manufacturers make their real money on selling repair parts after warranty, not on new car sales. They can't have everything lasting 10+ years. And Detroit warranty is only 3 years. So things will be engineered to break intentionally shortly after.
But the long OCI is about claiming little/no maintenance costs to a new buyer. Same for the ZF transmission. ZF directly says to do a fluid/filter change at 60k-80k km (iirc), but Audi says "lifetime". Remember, "lifetime" to Audi is only 200km (124k miles). They don't care that longevity beyond that is impacted by bad recommendations. They only care that they can say "cost of ownership is really low", for the "lifetime" of the vehicle.
No harm in doing the first change at 5000. As far as doing subsequent changes quicker. I don’t. Current TDI Q7 is at 136000 miles and goes 10000 miles with no added oil. S5 is at 80000 miles and has never needed additional oil between changes either. Those come up at 1 year and usually about 9000 miles. Not sure why I’ve never had an Audi that used oil. Even the TT coupe that was track driven for years never used much. It’s not because I baby them. Maybe just lucky.
No wonder Audi's reliability is much lower these days...
I always thought BMW and Audi are in the same ball park but it seems BMW has done quite well over the years where as Audi has gone downhill.
Audi CR ranking in last 3 years
2023 Rank 19
2022 Rank 15
2021 Rank 14
For reference Audi was Ranked 7 just in 2018 so Audi reliability has gone to hell over the last 5 years.
I split the difference and do my oil every 7.5k miles or so. I trust the 10k figure more than most but also lose at most an hour and $100 for every oil change I "overdo" rather than leave "overdue". Better safe than sorry, within reason.
Also I wouldn't necessarily trust Consumer Reports for real reliability ratings, not that they are paid off or anything (to my knowledge), but their metric for reliability includes things as catastrophic as engine fires and as unimportant as not being able to figure out your wiper on the first try. They take anything reported as "problems" from consumers, varying from minor inconvenience to software glitch to new engine needed, and seemingly give them the same weight.
When it comes to a new car, my experience is that I probably changed the oil after less than 2,000 kilometres. The mechanic explained to me that during the run-in of a new engine, deposits, pollen or other contaminants can get directly into the engine or fuel filter.
I would stick to 5K OCIs on all Audi vehicles with an ICE unless you are leasing the car or plan to ditch it before 60K miles. otherwise just change the oil every 10K and make sure to plan to get a new car in 4 years or when the repair bills start to stack up...
tons of issues with folks burning oil in the V6 engines and a lot of them have been doing 10K OCIs. I have had 6 audi cars and done oil changes at 5K and never had any alarming oil consumption and tuned 4 of the 6 cars. 10K OCIs, especially on turbo cars that run hot oil temps is not a good idea.
No wonder Audi's reliability is much lower these days...
I always thought BMW and Audi are in the same ball park but it seems BMW has done quite well over the years where as Audi has gone downhill.
Audi CR ranking in last 3 years
2023 Rank 19
2022 Rank 15
2021 Rank 14
For reference Audi was Ranked 7 just in 2018 so Audi reliability has gone to hell over the last 5 years.
FWIW, I just called two reputable independent European-oriented car service shops and inquired about their recommendations for OCI on a new 2024 A5. One recommended 1st oil change at 5K miles and then every 7,500 miles thereafter. The other recommended 1st oil change at 2,500 miles and then every 5,000 - 7,500 miles thereafter. Bear in mind, these recommendations were based on an owner who wanted to keep the car long-term. Each quoted about $140 per oil change.
03-31-2024, 01:15 PM
