Watch This Before Buying A Cheap Used Audi e-tron

I’m seeing 2023 q4 etrons for $32k

I'm assuming all of this advice changes now that Audi has recalled all Etrons made before 2022....

I purchased a 2019 Audi Etron Prestige used, how would I know if I have the cold weather package? If so what does that involve? 

Also after charging up to about 195 range, once I engage the heat/radio etc. the range goes down to 145. Is the 145 range instantly updated to stay as my new range? Yet on the dashboard the battery level is at 100%. (Sorry if this sounds like a silly question!)

Under 200 miles of range is a joke. Probably the reason you can find one around $25k

Guys... we know it's German. We know it's expensive. Also, name me a cheap to repair electric vehicle.

I like the out-of-spec guide video reviews and especially the comparison that Alissa and Kyle did of the Q8 vs 2019 etrons; answered most my questions.

That said, I was expecting to learn something in this vid about the actual car in the title. Instead, this was a generic review of what it means to own any lux car that is at or over its warranty period. Would the advice given been different if reviewing a gas-powered 2019 Audi q4, for example? Sure, no discussion of battery range and charging times but almost all-else would be equal.

On that note, I've only recently gotten keen on buying an EV, specifically an etron and so I've been doing a tone of research. The assertion made in this vid that that there is no maintenance worry about blown head gaskets is true, but no one should think about EVs as not needing maintenance nor the occasional expensive repair, even in the motor and drivetrain.

Maintenance includes periodic fluid and filter changes (battery and motor coolant), maybe not as frequent as oil changes but still necessary. Second, there are LOTS of spinning parts in the motor(s) and transmission(s). Yes, for each motor, there is a transmission that converts the high RPM high-torque electric motor power to lower RPM but even higher torque tire power. The transmission(s) also includes a differential joint that allows tires connected to the drivetrain to spin and different rates whilst in turns. Inside the electric motor(s) itself, there are bearings that support the shaft, and these bearings are spinning at 1000s of rpms. Granted, order of magnitude fewer parts than the comparable gas/autotrans car but still....

Interesting convo but I was hoping to learn about the etron, specifically reliability of the motors and transmissions 🤣.

You guys are like a young version of savagegeese.

Important video. Tks

Maybe mention it’s a two year service interval, so get that thing serviced right before buying.
Same goes for software licenses: look for one with either some coverage left, or at least have the dealer chip in a map update.
Tires strongly depend on driving habits: look for three-year old cars with original tires. If they look decent after that time, chances are you had a decent driving pre-owner that did not break the suspension. A good deal checks these boxes and is roughly at 60% of new prize after two years (20k miles).
Don’t buy if you can’t afford a luxury car.

or known by Kyle Conner, the fat one

EV batteries do fail at times and cost of replacement can be as much or more even than the vehicle market value resulting in insurance scrapping your car. Do your homework and find out what will happen if either your future EV is involved in a collision or when it will be 8-10 years old. Car companies are not ready to replace batteries and replacement costs are outrageous. Lease a new one if you can offer it and have the disposable income for it; don't buy a use one unless it is crazy depreciated and you have the financial means to pay as much as the price you bought it for repairs.

Great video! Just picked up a used 2021 for a steal and can’t say enough about the luxury aspect. The info on the maintenance is very useful and I’m lucky to live in an area with a few Audi dealerships and visit different ones if I don’t like a particular location. Truly a pleasure to drive around in. Planning on keeping it for a few years and then upgrading.

Quality, Comfort and refinement - it’s one of the best cars out there. And I too would be concerned about future bills for any repairs just like any other older premium car. Not the battery but the integral AC chargers, mirror cameras have been known to have trouble.
But I disagree about road trips. Sure it cannot do a 250 mile trip without a stop - but nor can I ! It’s that charging curve that makes up for the range. I’ve done over 500miles in a day with just 3 stops and 88 mins plugged in. My longest drive has been 720 miles in a day.

You mentioned more than once the deal you got one the Polstar. Compare to the Etron the polestar has not dropped anywhere near as much. I wish it has I would love to get one in the 30s vs $40-50k

We have bought an overpriced 2021 e-tron and it's been 100% no issues.

The interior on your polestar is so cool. Very rare to get hold on in Sweden.

I have a 2016 Audi A6 and was told the same thing that getting it serviced was going to be super expensive.
What I found is that the car is actually fairly easy to service myself. I've changed the injection coils, the spark, brakes, oil and filter.... Generally most of the stuff that I'm doing on my own I'm saving anywhere from 70 to 80%,
Even the tires that most places were quoted me over $1,000 for all four, I was able to get from Walmart on a special order for under $300... INSTALLED.
My favorite line to use was I'm just shopping around because I'm getting ready to sell the car and so I don't want to spend a lot.

Great video. I got a 2019 e-tron Prestige a year ago with 10k miles on it. I previously had a 2020 Tesla Model Y LR, and then a Hyundai Ioniq 5 limited. This is far and away the nicest of those 3, and nicer to drive than a BMW iX M50 that I test drove. It’s so solid, luxurious, comfortable and quiet, that it is seriously a bargain 2nd hand. Range wise, if you use Efficiency mode, you can get significantly more than the advertised range. So far, on 2 road trips, I’ve gotten between 260 and 290 miles, which is better than I got with the 2020 Model Y LR on road trips (in town, the Model Y was way better). Great car. Just get the Prestige or Chronis. The Premium and Premium Plus are missing some very basic features (unless optioned separately), like adaptive cruise control.

Right now the Tesla superchargers for non Tesla are only in a few sites, are they opening them all with magic docks and V4 superchargers?

I bought a 2019 Edition One in April for just under $50k. They’re like $15k less now but oh well. At least I was able to get the older Audi CPO warranty which is 2 years additional or 50k miles, plus two years complementary maintenance. Audi’s new CPO warranty is only 1 year and/or 20k miles. The e-Tron is an amazing vehicle, despite the range. My favorite feature is the night vision…saved me from hitting deer many times already.

I’ve been watching quite a number of these types of reviews on the first generation Audi e-tron. Frankly, the one common refrain has been the downside of the older technology.
Firstly, it is a 2019 model!!! There’s been vast improvements from that time until now. Secondly, PLEASE stop comparing this vehicle to Tesla and Polestar!!!
I strongly believe that anyone that’s interested in an e-tron is likely not looking at a Model 3 or a Model Y or a Polestar 2 or 3!!!
Different cars in different categories completely!!!

For someone driving alone like most drivers this car is just too heavy at near 5800 pounds. 2019 ones are about 50 to 55k in Canada and quite expensive. My oldest Audi which is 13 years old in mint condition weighs 2000 pounds less and is much more powerful.

I suggest you should stop using the term nerd. It is really irritating to intelligent people.

I have a 2019 Audi e-tron Quattro 55 which I have 215 KM on and it performs like new ! Battery degradation is maybe less than 5%. I was going to sell it but decided to keep it as my range with my 19 inch rims and low rolling resistance tires allows for much better range than the epa estimates.

Hello Max. Can you explain the trims? Its a bit confusing. Currently its the base trims and a sportback for each of the three. Q4, Q8 and SQ8. While the used markets display premium, prestige etc. is this a refreshed models issue?

I bought a 2019 e-tron 55 few months ago and bought a third party 3 year warranty for a 1100€ ($1158). I hardly ever drive longer distances so I just charge it at home using home charger (11kW). And when I do drive longer trips we have 150kW chargers pretty much everywhere along where I go.

One the Tesla/NACS comments - Tesla is rolling out “MagicDock” on their Superchargers to allow CCS cars to charge on them. Once those are rolled out completely, then that problem is solved.

nice review and advice. In future reviews would be great if you could mention any trends reported on forums or other sources regarding common or known issues or weak points. This goes to your point on the maintenance of a used EV - many of the forums have identified issues with all the models - etrons, mache, konas iPaces, etc... Would be really helpful to bring those up when you can!

I bought a 2019 Audi e-tron 55 this year as a car to use at our holiday home. We do short trips in it including up ski road in the South Island. It handles ski road really well in excellent comfort and is one of the few EVs with a space saver spare.

How these early EV batteries hold up long term is really pure speculation. What we know is that battery R&D is about to step up to warp speed. So anything "old" is going to look archaic a couple of tomorrows from today.

This was content free.

aka etron 55

Looking at the seat belts and the rear windshield, is that a Polestar? How does the launch year Polestar compare with the launch year E-tron?
Edit: Nevermind, you answered that in the last minute. Basically it depends. I've driven the Polestar a few times through a rental and enjoyed it. But I'm almost sure I'm buying a 2019 Etron because I didn't plan on being in the car market rn, but got in an accident and my gas guzzler got totaled. If I have to buy a car it's gonna be electric and not Tesla. I miss my BMW so I think the etron is for me.

Thanks for the video, a couple other things to be aware of. There is no 2020 model year for the regular SUV, they sold it as a 2019 model throughout 2020. And due to the chip shortage many of the later 2019 models did not get a lidar sensor and therefore have no highway lane centering.

I really appreciate this kind of review.

Is there a contest amongst review guys to see how fast you can talk before you become just noise?

It’s a better used deal than that Volvo hands down.

Q8 e-tron at $80k is an awful deal with the fat e-tron at $40k

For many months I have been contemplating this. Thank you for this. Now the used etrons will be bought and I will end up with none! Lol. Buying from an audi dealer can be great esp if they can add warranties. Many are available in non audi dealerships the only con is that additional warranties might not be attainable.

There have been a worrying amount of motor and transmission issues with the Etron which would scare me off from a used one, despite how affordable they are now.

A friendly piece of advice guys: Your audio is so distorted that I couldnt understand what you were saying. I caught most words, but not all. So, only watched the first three minutes. Please use different audio for your next video! I traded in my Model Y on a used 2019 etron 4 months ago, and glad I did.

It’s interesting. I ended up just buying a used 2020 Fastback over a new model Y. Only 15k miles and. I don’t need massive road trip range and just liked it as a car as opposed to a rolling We Work space which is the Y made me feel. Time will tell if I’ll regret my choice. At least it’s one less ICE out there.

If you wait maybe 1 more year, you should be able to get one at or under $25K to get the used EV tax credit

I appreciate you advice. I think it is the first I I heard someone talk about the maintenance and cost of fixing all the nonelectric drive train items. Well done video.

I love my Audi e-tron.  I got a great deal and I made sure that I got the warranty on both the powertrain and the technology.   I followed the formula from CarEdge on how to negotiate and what happens when you go to the finance department. Thanks to you guys at SPC I looked at Audi.  I do a 60 mile trip every day and tow a small box trailer with my tools in.  The 200 mile range is fine and the speed that it charges is great.  I can put 80% back in the battery within 30 minutes on a fast charger.  I was surprised the other day when I was waiting to charge. I needed a particular charging space so I let a guy with a Ford Marquee go in front of me. He'd been sat there charging for a while before I got my spot.  My battery was at 50%, I put another 45% back in and was done. I don't know how much he was charging but I left there before him.   I did think the Audi Dealership who sold me the car could have explained better how to charge it properly.   There are some amazing deals out there because inventory is not moving and you can find an Audi e-tron under $40,000 with less than 30,000 miles on it.

We have a 2021 etron premium plus. It’s been great. We don’t take a lot of road trips but those we have taken have been fine. We are likely to downsize and get something with higher efficiency when our lease ends, but we like it so much, we might keep it.