Audi model reference
Audi A4
What our record holds on the A4, sold in the UK since 1994: body styles, fuel types and the road tax a used one pays.
No reliability figure is published for the Audi A4 that this site could cite. What circulates instead is survey data from panels that select themselves, and warranty claim rates published by companies with something to sell.
Any percentage would be our own calculation. Which years count, and whether a facelift and a new generation sharing the A4 name are one model or two, both move the answer, and neither choice is anybody official's.
So the field does not exist. We do not average the other Audi models into a number and put it here, and we do not push a marque figure down onto the A4. What is real and specific is the paperwork for one car.
No fault ordering is published for the A4
A 2016 2.0 TDI ultra at about 99 g/km is band A, £20 for twelve months. The same car registered in 2018 pays the standard £200 instead.
That figure is a worked example for the year and engine named, not a rate for every A4. Read the CO2 figure and the first registration date off the V5C before you budget, because both change the answer.
See every band for this tax yearStanding next to one
Buying a used A4: what the record settles
Our record puts the A4's UK sales period at since 1994. That range is the useful starting point, because everything about the cost of running one turns on where a particular example sits inside it. It came in 2 body styles here, saloon and estate, with 2 fuel types: petrol and diesel.
The A4 was on sale on both sides of the road tax change of 1 April 2017, and that is the single most useful thing to know before you buy one. An example first registered up to 31 March 2017 is taxed on its CO2 figure under the lettered bands, so engine, gearbox and even wheel size can move two cars of the same year into different bands. One registered from 1 April 2017 pays the flat standard rate instead and its CO2 stops mattering. Two otherwise identical cars a year apart can cost noticeably different amounts to keep taxed, and only the V5C tells you which one you are looking at. The earliest ones predate 1 March 2001, and anything registered before that date is taxed on engine size in two bands rather than on CO2 at all. There is also a quirk worth knowing on the oldest examples: a car registered before 23 March 2006 cannot be charged above band K however high its emissions, so a thirsty old one can be cheaper to tax than a newer car a class below it.
For running costs the fuel matters more than the badge. On the diesels the emissions section is where a neglected car loses its certificate: the particulate filter is inspected and the smoke reading is measured against a limit, and a filter that has never had a long run to clear itself will not pass on a good intention.
None of that is a substitute for the record of the actual car. The invoices name what was replaced, when and at what mileage, and the same job appearing twice in three years says more about a A4 than any statistic about the model ever could. A mileage that goes backwards across a paperwork trail is worth walking away from whatever the badge is.
Audi arrived in Britain in the 1970s through Volkswagen's UK importer and grew into one of the three German marques that account for most premium sales here. The A3 and A4 are the backbone of its used presence, with a very large stock of 2.0 TDI cars from the 2010s. Quattro versions carry a real cost premium at service time because there is more driveline to maintain. That is context on the marque rather than on this car, and there is more of it, along with every other model line, on the Audi page.