Audi is a German executive luxury brand focused on making premium cars that excel in areas such as comfort, technology, safety, and desirability. You can choose between a myriad of different models that include sedans, SUVs, estates, hatchbacks, crossovers, sports cars, supercars, and full-size luxury limousines.
Range Rover is a Land Rover sub-brand that focuses on making luxurious SUVs such as the Range Rover Vogue, the Range Rover Sport, and the Range Rover Velar. These three are the only Range Rover models currently available with the range-topping Vogue being the newest and the best one.
With such great luxury comes a few caveats such as increased complexity, lots of innovations, and lots of issues waiting to happen. Between these two brands, Audi is the one that continuously makes more reliable cars, not because Audi is class-leading, but rather because Range Rover is well below average.
Both of these brands are mediocre at best, but it seems like Range Rover products are some of the most unreliable luxury cars on the market. The only way how one can make these last a long time is to always maintain them properly and to always do whatever is necessary to keep them running optimally.
Audi – Mediocre reliability, highly dependent on proper maintenance
There are a few distinct reasons why Audi’s excel in certain departments and why they tend to fail in others. They excel when it comes to technology, market appeal, comfort, luxury, and safety because those are the main selling points Audi focuses on.
This means that the company is willing to spend huge amounts of money on making sure that the demands are met as far as these factors are concerned. This means that Audi has to sacrifice other arguably even more important factors such as value retention, reliability, and simplicity in construction.
The most reliable Audi model is the current-gen A4 because it uses a fairly old platform that has been progressively updated throughout the years. The least reliable Audi models are 10-20-year-old flagship sedans such as the A8, especially if they are equipped with large displacement engines.
World’s leading reliability charts and surveys such as J.D. Power, Consumer Reports, and What Car deem Audi to be mediocre at best, but still better than Range Rover.
Range Rover – Bellow average reliability and also highly dependent on proper maintenance
It is common knowledge these days that Land Rover and Jaguar products are not the most reliable brands on the planet. Although both of these brands are continuously improving, they are still well below the industry standard, especially after a few years of use.
Range Rover products are known to have lots of issues associated with air suspension, all sorts of electronics, leaks, engine problems, bodywork issues, and so on. These can sometimes ruin the entire experience of owning a Range Rover, especially if you buy one from new.
This is because Range Rovers are incredibly complex and they often tend to focus on style rather than substance. Everyone knows that a Range Rover is a status symbol which means that Range Rover is able to sacrifice reliability because they know that Range Rovers will still sell like crazy.
If you are someone who buys a Range Rover from new, you don’t care about what is going to happen with the car when the warranty runs out because you are likely going to sell it before that happens. All in all, while Audi is mediocre, Range Rover is even worse.
Conclusion – Audi is not as unreliable as Range Rover
Even though these two brands target similar markets, Audi is still a larger brand that encompasses a few more affordable car segments such as the hatchback segment or the crossover segment. Many Audi cars share their parts with the likes of VW, Seat, Škoda, Bentley, and Porsche which means that these parts tend to be better than most.
However, as cars are built with a few tens of thousands of parts in mind, there is always something that will eventually go wrong. That’s a reality all car owners need to accept, but the difference here is that luxury brands such as Audi and Range Rover are a lot worse when compared to brands like Toyota, Honda, or Lexus.
Even so, there is still a great deal of separation between Audi and Range Rover when it comes to reliability as Range Rovers are constantly being hailed as some of the most unreliable cars on the planet.
FAQ Section
Is buying an Audi worth it?
It depends on what type of person you are. If you are someone who does not pay a great deal of attention to cars and you don’t do too many miles daily, you are better of with a more affordable and economical car which means that you probably think that buying an Audi is not worth it.
On the other hand, if you appreciate a bit of luxury, a car that is going to entertain you on longer journeys and one that will keep you feeling fresh even after hundreds of miles behind the wheel, and Audi is indeed worth it.
Is buying a Range Rover worth it?
It’s even trickier to answer this question as Range Rovers cost a lot of money, they are offered in SUV form exclusively and they are known to experience issues a lot more frequently. However, they are also extremely desirable, so much so that many people deem a Range Rover to be the best SUV in the world.
However, if you are not after a flashy lifestyle and you want a dependable car with decent levels of comfort and luxury, you should skip buying a Range Rover. On the contrary, if you are willing to sacrifice money, convenience, and subtleness on an SUV that is going to make you feel special, a Range Rover is the one to get.
Are Range Rovers more expensive to maintain than Audi’s?
Yes, they are. Even though Audi’s tend to be relatively expensive to maintain when compared to even some other luxury brands, Range Rovers are in a completely different league. Because they are more prone to issues and because there aren’t too many of them, they cost a lot more to maintain than most Audi’s.
