Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Audi A4

What it says about you

Opinion

Everything inside is very slightly nicer than it needed to be, which is the entire point and you will not apologise for it. You have opinions about interior materials that you did not have five years ago.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

21 model years on record, 2,295 complaints filed.

The years to look at closely: 2020 (mmi), 2009 (oil), 2008 (takata recall), 2006 (headlight), 2005 (headlight). Everything else drew a normal number of complaints for this model.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • oil 2010, 2011, 2012 peak 43.8% of that year's complaints
  • takata 2008, 2009 peak 54.4% of that year's complaints
  • steering 2013, 2014 peak 51.8% of that year's complaints
  • headlight 2005, 2006 peak 39.9% of that year's complaints
  • dipped 2005, 2006 peak 33.9% of that year's complaints
  • difficult 2013, 2014 peak 25.5% of that year's complaints
  • class 2010, 2012 peak 19.7% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2025 nothing on record 0 complaints
  2. 2024 0 recalls 6 complaints
  3. 2023 nothing on record 11 complaints
  4. 2022 3 recalls 6 complaints
  5. 2021 4 recalls 12 complaints
  6. 2020 mmi 284 complaints
  7. 2019 1 recall 8 complaints
  8. 2018 1 recall 51 complaints
  9. 2017 1 recall 81 complaints
  10. 2016 0 recalls 25 complaints
  11. 2015 0 recalls 44 complaints
  12. 2014 0 recalls 75 complaints
  13. 2013 0 recalls 110 complaints
  14. 2012 0 recalls 71 complaints
  15. 2011 0 recalls 74 complaints
  16. 2010 0 recalls 128 complaints
  17. 2009 oil 406 complaints
  18. 2008 takata recall 386 complaints
  19. 2007 3 recalls 0 complaints
  20. 2006 headlight 298 complaints
  21. 2005 headlight 219 complaints

What does a Audi A4 say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.