Car Ownership: What It Is Like Living With A 9 Year Old Continental Sedan

My Audi A4 B8 will turn 9 years old in December this year and the plan is to continue using the car until it turns 10 and it is time to say goodbye. Having owned the car for a couple of years, clocking an average of 32,000 km per year, I would generally classify myself as a satisfied car owner. My car has generally proven to be quite reliable, is very practical for my needs, and instills enough brand satisfaction in me that I do not often suffer a case of car envy. In fact, I like to think that I have the more value for money car, compared to the next Mercedes or BMW, much like how in Germany, the Audi is considered the thinking man’s car. When the sun sets on my very eventful journey with this A4, I will be looking to purchase another continental sedan or SUV, depending on what constitutes a “good buy” in my books at the time. This is despite the rest of the world telling me through no delicate means, to stay away from used continental cars, using terms like “nightmare”, and “money-sucking” to categorically describe used continental cars. To illustrate my thoughts on car ownership, I thought I’d share with you what it is like to live with a 9 year old continental sedan.

On a good and regular day, a continental sedan like the A4 is a wonderful daily driver, and is everything you would want from a car in Singapore. The car is luxuriously appointed, presents very good build quality, and is a terrific cruiser on the highway. Apart from these key attributes, my A4 also makes me happy on so many different levels. The resounding thud when I close the door, and the weight of the panel as I pull the doors open brings me joy. The weight of the car and the stiffness of the chassis as I dominate our urban roads makes me happy. The quality of the sound system belting out “Faithfully” by Journey while I am inching towards home in peak hour traffic soothes my soul. The sound of my baby girl purring softly as she sleeps soundly in her child seat, firmly anchored into the ISOFIX points as part of a 5 Star Euro NCAP Safety Rating - this brings me peace. The car doesn’t feature any of the modern active safety systems found in cars today, but even then, it is easy to feel a sense of calm and safety when you are cruising along in a well designed and well built machine. When maintained actively and diligently, the car also drives like a dream, and is as smooth and as refined as any new Japanese / Korean car you can purchase today (maybe even better - because of the slightly larger engine setup and more traditional transmission ratios)

I haven’t had too many issues on the car that were not wear and tear related, and that to me, represents good reliability on most fronts. I did have an oil leak issue when the car was about 7.5 years old, but that was easily fixed with a replacement of all the affected oil seals and gaskets. It did cost quite a bit to fix, though this can theoretically be classified as a wear and tear issue as well. The issue has also not recurred since. Over the last 2 years, these are the other things that I have had to change on the car:

Brake Rotors (wear and tear)

Engine Mountings (wear and tear)

Leaking Coolant Hose

Cracked Drive Shaft Cover

Malfunctioning Front Passenger Door Lock

This list does not include regular car servicing sessions every 10,000km, and day to day items such as air filters, windshield wipers, engine oil, and transmission oil. So all in all, not too many bad days. In total, I have spent approximately $8,000 - $9,500 on all manner of maintenance on the car, and have probably spent about a combined total of approximately 24 hours (1 day) in the workshop (never overnight) over the past 2.5 years, while enjoying close to 920 good and sometimes excellent days. If you ask me, it really puts things into perspective. Sometimes, when we are faced with a maintenance issue, it can prove to be frustrating in that moment, and cause us to vow to buy a Lexus (which we don’t really mean), and often, it is an over-reaction to the situation. In the grand scheme of things, when compared to the wonderful days of driving around in a well built continental machine, these bad days are well worth the trouble - much like in a good and healthy relationship.

When somebody finds out that I drive an old Audi A4, the usual reaction is one of immediate concern. “Your car…..everything okay?” Is a pretty common question that comes up, along with “Wah got oil leak issue not?” Or “Wah my friend’s car ah… jialat”. In the beginning I found this a little bit annoying, but I later realised these expressions were not malicious, but rather, more along the lines of ignorant. It does not help that online forums perpetuate these sentiments among the common folk, and without anyone credible to speak to about such issues, the forums seem like the most “democratic” consensus about whether or not a car, or a genre of cars are reliable. This was even worse when I was driving a Volkswagen Golf MK6. The unnecessary outpouring of sympathy for my car ownership situation was really uncalled for. In fact, I found this to be borderline ridiculous as well, because there was a lot of here-say going on. Think about it - Have you ever met a continental car owner, who gave a first hand account of how the car was terrible, and that he / she would never buy a continental car again, and actually doing as they have said? Or has it usually been a case of “I know a friend, who knows a friend, whose sister’s father’s car was terrible”? For me, the answer is clear. Most continental car owners, despite their gripes about occasional issues and cost of maintenance, still recognise that they have more good days than bad, and would gladly buy another continental car.

The truth is, being a car writer doesn’t make me a car maintenance savant. I don’t know when my cars are going to break down, and I have a little less chance than the next guy to accidentally pick up a lemon on my next purchase. What I do perhaps have, is a little more insight into the causes of some maintenance issues, and the ability to see car ownership in a different light. Life with the Audi hasn’t been perfect by any means, but yet I’d do it all over again. That’s likely because I do not see car ownership as a game of numbers and figures. If I did, I’d drive an entry level Japanese car for its A to B functionality. Instead, I see car ownership like a relationship with a person. Like any relationship, it has its own set of ups and down, good days and bad days, victories and meltdowns. This is especially pertinent if you are thinking about stepping up to continental car ownership, as the servicing schedule and maintenance involved in keeping the car running perfectly will require some active care. At the end of the day, you view the entire experience in totality, and ask yourself, “Are you happy?”. If you are, then you would stay on in the relationship. If you are not, then you’d cut your losses and run.

Viewing car ownership this way can present its own set of issues - it is after all the more complicated way to look at things. It also features intangible aspects of car ownership, and no matter how compelling, ignoring the tangible aspects of car ownership can be difficult. In a country where a car is a severely depreciating asset, the financial pressures of car ownership tend to make us more calculative than we should be. Each maintenance issue is a strike on the car’s record, and a grudge we hold very close to our hearts. Once again, being a car writer does not make me an expert at car maintenance, but it does make me a car romantic - And I appeal to the romantic and passionate side of all driver’s out there. If you can find a make or model of car that excites you in intangible ways, makes you smile in no uncertain terms, and makes you feel proud as a car owner, then work with it, through the good days and the bad. I proposition you - Buy the exciting car, and bask in its glory for all its good days. Take care of it, and deal with the bad days. That way, you’ll always have the good times to look forward to. If you buy the functional car, that is all it will ever be, and when the bad days come around, there won't be too much love left to give after. Think about this. You would marry a girl for her beauty, candour, wit, and charm - not for her child bearing abilities, right? So why would you buy a car based on its A to B functionality?

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