2017 Audi Allroad

[MiniDave]

Yes, we did it again.....

This time we traded in the black 2014 Allroad. According to what I've read and heard these cars (2013 & 2014 B8) are supposedly a grenade with the pin pulled after 80K miles. Ours has been trouble free but had 80,660 miles on it and we didn't know if we were about to have a problem or not. The bride found this one at the local Mercedes dealer - one owner and 25K miles on it. The "B9" generation do not have the same reputation - I checked with everyone I know and they seem to be pretty bulletproof - as much as any German car can be - but our hope is that with the low miles on the car and the few miles we drive per year we'll get a lot of service out of both of these cars.

The 2017 and 2018 we bought are equipped exactly the same with just two small differences - the 2017 has the arches painted in body color (A $1000 option only available on three body colors) and it has "sports" seats, that have a small amount more bolstering and extendable thigh support. Other than that I can't find any difference in them, and they both drive like new cars even tho 6 & 7 years old. The interiors are almost the same, both have grey seats, but the white 2017 has a black headliner.

The bride isn't really a fan of the white car or it's mostly black interior, so she'll take the silver one and I'll drive the white one.

I've driven Audis since the 70's and always had pretty good luck with them and I figure these may be the last cars we buy since we're getting up there in age, and tend to keep our cars a fairly long time (my 2009 MINI Clubby for 15 years, 2004 Audi Allroad for 16 years and so on)

We bought the black one right at the start of the pandemic (July 2020) with 68K on it so we only drove it about 12K in the time we had it, including several trips to North Carolina, Colorado and our yearly drive to Manhattan for Thanksgiving and as I said it's been trouble free - so much so that the dealer already has it for sale on his lot. I'll be curious to see how long it lasts there as they have it priced higher than what we paid for it 4 years ago!

[94touring]

Ok now figure out the hitch and tow lights!

[MiniDave]

Not sure I'm going to put a hitch on the white one, since I already have it on the silver one and I can just use that when I need to tow the green Mini. I do need to sort out the tow lights tho.....

If I decide to do a hitch on the white car, I'll put on a 2" instead of the 1 1/4" that's on the silver car. That one's fine for towing the Mini or even my old trailer,, but if I want to haul a car on a trailer (like Clancy's lightweight one) I'll need a heavier rated one - this 1 1/4 is good for 2000lbs, but the car is rated for 3500lbs. Clancy's trailer is about 800, add a 1500lb car and I'm still good to go.

The only issue is the heavier rated hitches are 3 times the money of the one I put on the silver car, plus I need to do the lights again and that unit was another $200 - so all in about $750. I'm pretty maxed out on spending money for a while.....

[MiniDave]

So it's been decided, she has taken the 2018 silver as her car and I'll take the 2017 white one. She prefers the std seats and the lighter interior and has moved all her crap into it (to me women seem to treat their car like an extra big purse - she carries everything in it!) She also has it set up for the Pups, with sheep skins for them to lay on and harness clips to restrain them in the event of a crash.

So, today I took the white one to get the tires balanced - the only thing I could find that it needed,  and investigated what it would cost to get a second key as they delivered it to me with only one - holy crap! $900 for a key and it only can come from the factory - can't buy an ebay special and have it re-programmed!

To their credit they've contacted the previous owner who says the extra key may be at their other home in California, and they're checking to see if it's there. Sheesh!

I'm going to hold off on buying a hitch at this point till I see if I have to buy an expensive key first.

The dealer also had this emergency kit for the car that I picked up today - no idea what one of these costs. It has jumper cables, a multi tool, gloves, emergency triangles, and even a poncho in case you have to change a tire in the rain!

Edit - found it on Audi's website - $85 from the dealer.

[MiniDave]

I've put about 400 miles on the white Audi the last two days running back and forth to Prather's....so far so good. No issues of any kind, tho I did get a bit of a surprise when a guy braked suddenly in front of me and turned a corner - the car put up a red warning triangle and LOUD alarm right in the middle of the cluster - apparently it's part of the driver safety package. Scared the crap out of me, cause a red warning symbol usually means fatal engine damage or something.

I also got the tires balanced and it's smooth as it can be now.

Got an unhappy phone call from the dealer on Thursday saying that my check had been returned from the bank! I went to them and got a cashier's check to replace the personal one I wrote and Monday me and the bank are going to have a "conversation" about it. It was the right account and there was more than sufficient funds to cover it.

BTW, we've named the two Audis Hans and Frans   

[94touring]

Hans and Franz

[MiniDave]

So the white Allroad has been trouble free so far, the fuel mileage is very good, I'm averaging in the low 30's including town driving so overall I'm pretty happy with it.

Still no joy on the key - the folks who traded it in have a home in Palm Springs - which is where this car lived - and I'm betting the extra key is there, sitting on a desk or something and they just haven't been back out there. I'm not hopeful that they're going to spend any effort finding and returning the key.

However, I'm not ready to spend $900 on one either......I'll just have to make damn sure I don't lose this one or I'm in deep shit!