Audi A4 review - Reliability and safety

​Safety is obviously high on the agenda for the A4. It gets impressive brakes, which offer superior pedal feel and increased stopping power than before. This is combined with pre-sense city braking that can automatically brake the car to lessen the force of a collision at under 53mph and even stop the car at less than 25mph.

The A4 also gets adaptive cruise control, which is able to control the throttle, brakes and steering at crawling speeds or keep itself within its lane at higher speeds. 

All of these safety advances helped the A4 to earn a five-star Euro NCAP crash test rating in 2015, a score which also applied to the mechanically identical Audi A5 Sportback, as well as the A4 Avant. 

The A4 didn’t appear in the 2023 Driver Power customer satisfaction survey, but the closely-related A5 finished in 71st place on our list of the best cars to own. Audi found itself in a very disappointing 30th out of 32 brands in the best manufacturer rankings, though, lagging behind all of its key rivals including BMW and Mercedes.

Warranty

As standard, every A4 comes with a three-year 60,000-mile warranty. However, owners also have the option to increase that if they desire. At extra cost, buyers can opt for a four-year warranty that extends up to 75,000 miles, while a five-year/90,000-mile warranty is also available.

Servicing 

The cost of a service on the A4 can vary depending on how many miles you cover and which servicing regime you've gone for. As standard it works out at 10,000 miles or every 12 months. But if you do more motorway miles than average, putting the engine under lighter loads, then you can go for a variable service interval, which means you could drive your A4 for two years before needing to visit a dealer. As with the extended warranties, Audi offers fixed-price service plans that you can bundle in with your monthly finance payments.