Audi Coupe Range

Fundamentally, these Audis were well-built cars but there a couple of things to watch out for when shopping for a second-hand one. First, these were very complex cars with lots of standard equipment. So it’s important to make sure every switch, every lever and every button does exactly what it’s supposed to. Check that the air-conditioning blows icy cold and that the cruise-control does, in fact, work. Fixing these problems after the purchase might make the car seem a pretty expensive one.

Mechanically, the biggest thing to watch for is a faulty transmission. The V6 variant of the TT had a six-speed dual-clutch gearbox which is not without some history of problems. So, during the test drive, make sure it shifts promptly and without any hunting issues. It should pick up a gear from Park without hesitation and there should be no noises from the transmission whatsoever. Any jerking during take-off or trouble selecting a gear means you should look for another example without these problems as replacing or rebuilding the transmission will cost a huge percentage of the car’s value.

The Audi TT is one car where the cost of an independent pre-purchase inspection might be a good investment.

What you haven’t told me, Luke, is whether your car has a petrol four-cylinder engine or a V6 turbo-diesel. In any case, the petrol engine fitted to this series of A5 Audis used a timing chain, so it should never need replacing as it’s designed to last the life of the engine itself. That, however, has not been the experience of every owner of these cars, and timing-chain failures have been a hot topic of discussion on these four-cylinder turbocharged engines.

The V6 turbo-diesel, however, does use a toothed rubber timing belt, and that, along with its tensioners, does need to be changed at regular intervals. The trade reckons that interval should be every 120,000km or every five years, whichever comes first. That’s because rubber deteriorates with time as well as kilometres. The other piece of advice is to change your water pump while you have that part of the engine pulled apart. It’s a lot cheaper to do both jobs in one go than to open the engine a second time to replace the water pump.
 

Both the petrol and diesel versions of Audi’s V6 are high-performance units that will provide all the performance you’ll ever need. But for most people buying an A5, there’s really only one that’s the right engine for them and it has nothing to do with reliability.

The turbo-diesel V6 is only really happy if you’re regularly using it for longer journeys where the engine gets hot enough to regenerate its soot-filter. This isn’t an Audi-specific thing; it applies across the board to all modern, common-rail diesel engines with soot-filters. For most urban-dwelling Australians, the pattern of vehicle usage doesn’t include those critical long journeys at freeway speeds, and driving around the suburbs for 12 months without a regular gallop on the open road will almost guarantee problems with the diesel’s emissions control systems (including the soot-filter).

Which means that for the vast majority of A5 buyers, the petrol V6 is the only way to go. While you will be losing a little fuel economy over the diesel, the petrol V6 is actually a nicer engine to use and live with. It’s faster, smoother and definitely more refined. And you won’t smell like a semi-trailer every time you fill up.