Used Audi A1 2010-2018 reliability
Category: Small car
The A1 is a stylish small car with a suitably upmarket interior.
What should I look for in a used Audi A1 hatchback?
When viewing a used car, always follow our used car buying checklist.
Check the alloy wheels of your potential purchase. Due to the Audi A1 being designed primarily for urban dwellers, the previous owner may have mounted or brushed up against a kerb or two during their ownership and damaged the surface of the wheels.
Check the spec sheet of your car with an Audi dealership if you need a car with sat-nav. The onboard screen doesn’t come with it as standard, but it can be activated by purchasing an up-to-date SD card – although this is only the case if the car is set up for it. Some owners didn’t specify it and it's not possible to retrofit it. The dealership should be able to tell you if your car has it if you provide them with the chassis and registration number of the car.
What are the most common problems with a used Audi A1 hatchback?
The A1 is offered with a 1.6-litre diesel engine that is fitted with a diesel particulate filter (DPF). As the A1 is primarily designed as a town car, it is unlikely that many owners will have taken their cars on frequent motorway journeys to ensure the DPF can regenerate, as this process is only triggered at high speed. Check how the previous owner has used the car if you are unsure, as a clogged-up DPF can be costly to replace.
DPF issues
Other potential problems with the DPF-equipped cars come if it has been shut off partway through a regeneration. The result is contamination of the oil system with fuel, which leads to the oil level rising gradually over time. This can cause damage to the engine, if it hasn’t already, so it’s worth getting the car checked out.
Bluetooth glitches
Some owner have also reported that the Bluetooth system misbehaves from time to time, which means you are not able to connect your phone to the car. There have been some niggly electrical faults, but nothing truly major.
Click here for more information. Contact your local Audi dealer if you believe your vehicle is involved in a recall.
Is a used Audi A1 hatchback reliable?
The 2010-2018 Audi A1 is generally reliable. It didn't appear in our latest What Car?, but, in previous ones, it tended to place either mid-table or towards the top. It should be similarly reliable to the rival Ford Fiesta and Mini Hatch.
However, this A1's replacement, the 2018-present Audi A1, has had plenty of reliability issues and finished in last place out of 18 cars in the small car class in our 2o23 What Car? Reliability Survey. most recent reliability survey. Its reliability score was a concerning 87.3%.
A quarter of 2018-present A1 owners told us their cars had gone wrong, and the problems weren’t easy or cheap to fix. Although 50% of repairs were carried out for free, 25% of them cost between £201 and £500, and the other 25% exceeded £1500. Three-quarters of the faulty cars could still be driven, and a quarter were back on the road within a day, but the rest were stuck in the garage for more than a week.
As a car brand, Audi ranked 26th out of 32 manufacturers featured in our latest survey – again, poor – with an overall score of 89.1%. This placed it above Alfa Romeo, Jaguar and Vauxhall but below most of its main rivals including BMW, Mercedes and Toyota.
