Are B5 rear wheel bearings a known problem area?

You might have more luck asking in the audi group

alt.autos.audi

Well, B5 Passat 4Motions would have the same problems, wouldn't they?

-- Mike Smith

Audi yes, VW no! The Audi uses a different rear suspension than the VW

Oh well. :-)

Totally unrelated (and probably dumb) question, inspired by the above snippet: Will US Audi dealers service VWs? The nearest VW dealer to me is over a half hour away; the nearest Audi dealer, about five minutes. The car in question is a B5.5 Passat, so I'd imagine there's a fair degree of overlap, at least for major components (30V 2.8L V6, 5-speed Tip, etc.)

Thanks,

-- Mike Smith

Why don't you ask them?

BH

Technically - yes, they could. Politically - no idea :) As far as I know, Audi is (or at least - was) distributed in the USA by the different company.

Here in Europe you usualy have the same dealer, which sells and services Audi's and VW's under the same roof, using the same diagnostic equpment. VAG did tried to "separate" them, i.e. forcing dealers to sell Audis and VWs in the separate buildings, but it never managed to push it through.

The B5.5 Passat (also known as 3BG) is very similar to the Audi A4 (in fact, almost identical).

In the US, it's a mix. I've seen VW/Audi combined dealerships, and separate ones as well. Around where I live, separate dealerships appear to be the norm.

I know, that's why I'm asking.

-- Mike Smith

What always amused me was that at the local VW/Audi/Porsche dealership, they had seperate labor rates for the three makes! VW was ~$70, Audi $85, Porsche $100 per hour. Same mechanics, same shop. So back in the day if you had a VW Quantum and an Audi 4000, the Audi would cost you $15 per hour more to have fixed than the VW, even though it was the exact same car in all but sheetmetal. This was 15 or so years ago - I switched to a farther away but much, much better dealership for parts and service ages ago.

Kevin Rhodes Westbrook, Maine

In article snipped-for-privacy@maine.rr.com (Kevin Rhodes) writes: $In article , Mike Smith wrote: $>In the US, it's a mix. I've seen VW/Audi combined dealerships, and $>separate ones as well. Around where I live, separate dealerships appear $>to be the norm.

Combined is more common around here (Toronto), though of course there are more VW-only dealerships than combined.

$What always amused me was that at the local VW/Audi/Porsche dealership, they $had seperate labor rates for the three makes! VW was ~$70, Audi $85, Porsche $$100 per hour. Same mechanics, same shop. So back in the day if you had a VW $Quantum and an Audi 4000, the Audi would cost you $15 per hour more to have $fixed than the VW, even though it was the exact same car in all but $sheetmetal.

I wasn't in the market for Audi or VW cars back then, so I don't know for sure, but I'd imagine the Audi probably cost more to buy than the VW. Premium name and all. Even though it's fundamentally the same car.

In more recent times, I suspect that if you were to compare an A4 and a Passat with the same drivetrain, you'd find that there's a premium to be paid for the premium name.

Not that there's a car shared between VW, Audi, and Porsche, but if there were, the Porsche would undoubtedly cost more than the Audi, which would be more than the VW.

That's the way it is. There are also Seat and Skoda, a basically the same VW's, but with "cheaper" image and lower service prices.

I heard, that Seat is planning to come to USA. It was a Spanish company, they maintain the Spanish image (Auto emocion :)) so they hope to attract the hispanics living in NA.

Of course there is one now :) VW Tuareg / Porsche Cayenne / upcomming Audi Q7 :)