motorsport_mike

This is like the option of taking "even money" in blackjack... Do what you feel comfortable with. You'll win most of the time, and once in a while you'll get burned. Pick a strategy and stick with it.

Hypothetically, if you had the choice with your last three cars, had never taken the warranty and instead banked the money, you'd have $6k in the bank. That would cover you when you eventually get burned.

jeff968

I didn't bother with the "extra" warranty on my last three cars and didn't need it. The S4 would be a new model for me. I'm looking at a slightly used version. Again, the purpose of these boards is to find out information from current owners like how the model performs over time. That is valuable information when being offered an extended warranty option.

Thanks for the thoughts.

RickFLS4

I have a 2013 and it has been good to me thus far. However, I think it is difficult to figure out the long-term reliability of a car than has been on the road for less than 3 years. Additionally, each owner may have a different experience. If you are looking for wide-spread issues specific to B8 or B8.5 S4s that make it obvious a warranty is necessary, I don't think you'll find one. (If you did it would probably make sense to move on to another make and model of a car rather than buy a warranty anyway.) As I noted in an earlier post, the main issue isn't the prevalence of problems, but the cost of repairs should one arise. A warranty is designed to mitigate risk of the unforeseen, not necessarily for the obvious issues.

slasher016

A lot of people on this forum say with no uncertainty that you should get an extended warranty on a German car. I've never really believed in them, so I probably won't get one, but some people really like the peace of mind.

jeff968

2013s have been out there for 3 years now, long enough for many owners to provide feedback on their general experiences. That's what I'm looking for. That said, I will keep my $2K and take the risk that this S4 is as good a vehicle as my previous Audis, in the short and long term.

strat10

I think the issue is that whenever something goes wrong, its expensive. These cars are extremely complicated, and expensive to repair.

TechSavvy

This.

I had an 09 A4 for about a year. I think I ended up putting about 9k into it for repairs over that span of time. It was about 3 years old at the time. Hence why I just got an extended warranty on my S4 I just picked up. Yeah I could have saved 5 grand.... but if anything major goes wrong even remotely related to what happened to my last car, the warranty would already pay for itself.

strat10

I had the following issues at 50,000
2011 S4 manual:

dash cluster went out
one speaker blown
rear view camera went out.

total: 2200.00
covered under my extended warranty.

jeff968

All I can say is wow! My 2006 has been so solid. I would go so far as to say it is the best car I have ever owned. I have had no issues other then maintenance (tires, brakes, oil, filters, timing belt), the coil packs, and I had to recently replace one of the xeon bulbs. 10 years of great performance and 120K miles.

penaltybox

If I were to buy a used S4 from an Audi dealership that isnt CPO, could I still purchase an extended warranty? Also how common are DSG issues?