Excellent! Thank you all for your insight.

I'm certainly not planning on chipping either car; the only thing that I might, maybe to is rims at some point in the far future. She's not the performance junkie that I am. I was leaning toward the 2.8 for the reliability reason, but they are harder to come by in good shape in our price range. The 1.8 is far, far easier to find, but I wasn't sure if by going with a 1.8 I'd be shooting myself in the foot in the years to come. So far it looks like the general opinion is the 2.8 might have a hair less maintenance, but it's a crap shoot, largely dependant on the individual car (and driver, of course).

 

no WRONG, the 2.8 will last longer without all the little problems the 1.8T has, once the boost starts leaking, your turbo like I said just makes your car unreliable. and if your not going to mod your car, and only put rims then definetly go with the V6, its classier than the 1.8 with real leather aswell.

 

 

I'm pretty sure both have real leather.....

 

The 2.8 is a good motor, I've got 107K on mine at the moment. I would stay away from the tiptronic though, it doesn't handle mistakes too well. After one accidental power drop (I was tired after work thinking I was in "manual" mode and I wasn't, "shifted" into neutral, and put it back into drive real quick, 3K rpmwhen I went back into'D'and pop, fresh rebuilt tranny I would still go with the 1.8t just for the aftermarket support, and I'm not sure if there is a write-up for the timing belt change for the 2.8, so I get to shell out the big bucks

 

Not necessarily

WRONG... Thats probably the most ignorant thing Ive ever heard actually... Educate yourself on forced induction engines and how the operate before saying such off the wall ****.

Agree

Real leather hardens and starts to crack over timeno matter how much effort you put into taking care of it. Leatherette is amazing because it looks and feels like REAL LEATHER, and shows virtually no signs of wear even after 100k+ miles/7+years. It can tear more easily though, so dont sit in your car with a phillips head in your back pocket. Real leather is nice and plushy, but after owning several cars with real leather, and now the audi without, Im all for the man made stuff.

Why is it that all, well, some ofthe 2.8ers think they can turn theirpersonal oppinions into factual data????

The 1.8t is a rock solid engine, sure there will be more vac lines to spring a leak after a long time ($15 fix) and various other parts the 2.8 doesnt have to break, but they are usually simple things to diagnose and cheap to fix as long as you dont go to the dealer and get your diagnosing help from here. The notorious sludge problems have been resolved in most cases, and I have yet to hear of a 1.8t with a blown head gasket which should be the worry of all worries. The 2.8 is a great reliable engine/car too, but dont be passive about the 1.8t just because you eitherregret not getting one and/or dont have sufficient knowledge about it

 

It's also easier to work in the engine compartment of the 1.8T rather than the 2.8 because the engine is smaller. For example, a coolant temp sensor takes like 5 seconds to change on the 1.8T, but is a major PITA on the 2.8 due to the tight space.

 

Haha... Funny you bring that up... Ihonestly timed myself when I replaced my ECTS last summer and it took me 1 minute flat if I remembercorrectly.. I have a thread about it somewhere.

 

2.8 is a rock compared to the 1.8. I had the same question when I bought mine. The 2.8 was 2 grand more expensive than the 1.8 when I bought mine used. I would go with the 2.8. I started with 55k and now have 134k and besides doing the timing/waterpump and regular maitenance I have only replaced the alternator and the temp sensor. It is also easier to drive with all the low speed torgue.

 

I never use this term, but..... LOL!