2002 A4 vs. BMW 325 Xi - reliability

Go look in April Consumer Reports "car issue".

2002 was a "good" year for the 3-series. I don't think A4's ever had a good year in terms of reliability.

By the way, neither is a high performance car and even if they were that should not make them more maintenance-prone. Witness beasts like the Supra TT, NSX, 300Z TT, Mitsubishi 3000GT which were very high performance sports cars and not maintenance prone. It's a German thing, not a high performance thing.

On the other hand, you have not shared with the group the manner in which you plan to use the vehicle. If winter driving is one of your needs the equation changes dramatically.

The two cars' AWD systems are very different in design and behavior. The A4 is far more capable on snow and ice than the 325xi, because of the latter's rwd bias and completely electronical awd system. The latter is a reactive system, while the former is a preventive system.

I drive a lot between Tahoe and Silicon Valley, at any time of the day or the night and in any traffic and weather conditions, including fresh snow and near zero visibility. Over the years I have driven many AWD vehicles, including Toyota Previas, Audi 90/100, A4/S4 and A6, and BMW X5 (the 325xi shares the same xDrive AWD design with other BMW AWD cars). BTW the X5 was by far the least reliable vehicle we ever owned.

There is no question that the Audis beat all others in bad weather, and by a large margin.

dk