There is a lot less to go wrong on a 318 or 325. All European cars require a lot of maintinence. Far more than the average 16 year old will ever be able to afford. Bmw uses timing chains, not belts so you save the 1-1300k on that. They don't tend to go through control arms like I do cheese puffs and they are far less sophisticated. I am talking about early 90's 3 series bmws ONLY. They don't have turbos that can fail, the biggest downfall to them is the interiors were not glued together all that well. I again feel you should be looking at getting a used Mazda 3, Ford Focus, a newer Civic/Corola, Bmw 318ti/318/325i with manual transmission, or an older (95/96) A4.
Yes Jeff is right. I am 16 and i have an A6 but knowing what i was getting into i whored all the money i could get to save to be able to drive an A6 with all the duties they come with
I'm 17 and my first and only car so far was an A6. If you would have to pay for all the maintinence then I dont know if you should do it. I payed for the car myself but there has been some things that needed to be fixed that I didnt pay for. So unless your working all year around or your parents are willing to help you its probably a bad idea.
I purchased my 99 a6 avant when I was 19 and so far it is running pretty well, i do need to do some labor on it but im a DIY guy so i'll save on labor, i just need a manual(if anyone knows where to pick one up for cheap, that'd be much appreciated) i honestly don't think you should invest into an A6 as old as mine or the ones you're looking at because you will never know what will go wrong with it and repair bills will end up being almost as much as the car. I've read carfax on some A6's and they don't even hit 30k before they've been in the shop 4 times. look into the A4, its an entry level, but do you really need rear heated seats? or extra space?
Just to add to the comments about repairs and such...
I am 19 and I bought my A6 about 3 months ago. I knew it had bad tie rod ends, control arm and would need to get the timing belt done when I bought it. It also had fault codes for O2 sensors, a bad EGT sensor and coolant temp sensor. It was a 00 2.7t 6-speed. I paid only 7000 for it. As soon as i got it back i had to fix the front suspension problem. There was also a bad cv boot and joint. the repairs weren't too bad though. When it comes to suspension work, I don't have the experience and tools to do it so I took it to my local indy mech. Bill came to $660 that was for the cv joint and boot, lower control arm, tie rod ends, and 4 wheel alignment. Not bad.
And I did the coolant temp sensor, o2 sensor and Egt sensor myself. Got the coolant sensor for 5 bucks (normally 25), o2 for 80 bucks (normally 100 or so) and the EGT for $115 (usually like 300). I am thrifty when it comes to that kind of stuff.
Just got the timing belt service done by the same mechanic a couple of weeks back, cost me 900 bucks. Very reasonable.
So I got the car for cheap knowing I was going to put money into it and so far have spent around $1800 or so fixing things. But I am financially fine and living at home still LOL
So to go along with what people are saying, an Audi is not a 16 year old car. Unless mommy and daddy are taking care of everything. Btw, have you even considered the insurance for a 16 year old with a twin turbo or V8 engine?? Didn't think so....
I would get an A6 Audi over an E36 BMW anyday! I say this as the former owner of a 97 M3. $1000 for a drive shaft. $600 for the anti-theft device. $500 when another part of the anti-theft system died. Shocks and struts. Shock Mounting brackets and strut hats. Shock housings in the rear where the shock went through the housing! Control arms in the front. Bushings in the rear. Ball joints in the rear. Radiator every two years!!! Plastic headlights every 4 years. Fog lamps twice per year. Tie rod ends. Sway bar end links. Under tray plastic. Pork chops. Hood shocks. O2 sensors, 4 of them, at $150 each! Tires every 20,000 miles (and I considered this good mileage. Some people were getting 5,000 out of a set of rears). Fan blades broke off. Fan clutch. T-stat housing. Belt idlers.
You will be worlds better off with a Honda. You can learn to work on cars (and mod the s**t out of them!) on an older Honda at a lower cost (both if you do it right and if you do it wrong) OR you can find someone else that can do the work for you at a reasonable price.
Printable Version
RE: Should I buy it ?? ( long story ..please read! ) - 
