My son is coming home for Thanksgiving from college in Ohio. We live in Southwest Florida. He currently is driving a 1999 Mazda 626 ES six cylinder, but does not have it at school. We said he could have a car at school starting second semester of his junior year which will start this January. He has his heart set on an A4. Our budget has an upper limit of $15000 including what we get for the Mazda which means we are probably looking at something in the 2001-2002 range with about 50,000 miles on it. My mechanic- who is a fellow Spec Miata racer and who has never let me down- states strongly that this is a bad choice as he feels the car will need constant care, care that would be very costly and that would require time and attention that a college student could not afford to give . It would help me if I could get several objective opinions about this, possibly with some examples.

TIA
DG
Fort Myers, Florida

 

I think a 01 A4 or S4 would fit the bill just fine... your mechanic is just being stupid and doesnt like audi I guess.. they done break down anymore than other cars but you do have to take care of them like oil and service.. if you take care of it, it will take care of you

 

i say go for it. with that kind of money you can get something fairly new with low miles or a B5 S4. a car is only as reliable as the owner. if you keep up on oil changes and fluid flushes. you should be fine. I've had mine for a year and a half and haven't had to take it anywhere to get fixed. just dont let him catch the mod bug.

 

bah modding it will make it even more fun and really your not gunna hurt the reliablilty with any common mods

 

Id say nay, unles he has the time and budget to get it repaired properly. Does he live in a dorm or in a rental property?

If he has a garage and can DIY the maintenance, your OK. Otherwise, the time and expense for him to maintain it may not be favorable for a college student living in a dorm, and thats if there is a reasonable, reliable mechanic near where he is at.

 

you know and I know we all love modding. all i'm saying is if he's on a budget he might end up blowing his grocery money for the month on a chip and a DV. money well spent in my opinion. personally I'd rather starve with a chip under the hood. but this is his dad we're talking too...

 

Every time I read a thread about a parent buying their college son an S4, I die a little inside.

 

You'll be fine with an audi if you just do (or he does) as everyone else says and properly maintain it. Not sticking to Maintenance is related to almost 80% of all major repairs, kind of sad really, but if he changes the oil, flushes the coolant, and transmission per the maintenance manual, he will be fine. If you get one with that low of mileage you wont have to worry about the water pump and timing belt for quite some time, and that can be a hefty bill if you dont DIY, but is a fairly forward process to replace. I wish I had a dad willing to throw down 15 G's on a car for me, he better take care of it.

 

Audi's are less reliable than a Honda, thats pretty much a well known fact. But not much less reliable. They are very safe, quality dependable cars. The only catch with an Audi is when something does go wrong, maintnance costs can be killer, especially at the dealer. If you do the work yourself, you will save a TON and makes owning one even more ejoyable. Ive owned my Audi for over a year now and have only had one semi- major issue which was the MAF sensor... But with a 6 year old car at 80k miles, what do I expect?? With the amount of money you are looking to spend, you can get a low mileage A4 that should be problem free for a long while, other than the routine stuff like brakes and tires and on time oil changes. Should last him through the rest of college with minimal problems, if any, and by the time he graduates, let him worry about any future costs the car may bring him. Most people that say Audi's are unreliable are people that are bitter from paying hundreds of dollars at the dealer for a small problem. Best to either do the work yourself on these cars, know someone that can do the work, or find a good shop that knows how to work on it that isnt the dealer... Or pretty much anyone that charges less than $95/hour in labor. 95% of the parts for the Audi are as cheap as parts for a Honda or any other car, its just the labor that can be stupid.
Also with that kind of money you could get ahold of one with a warranty which makes a man feel fuzzy.

 

The only problems I've encountered with my car have been coolant issues, luckily i bought it certified preowned so i have a warranty to fix it. but my local mechanic had told me the same thing that after a certain mile marker they start going downhill. I am very uptight about my car too, oil changes frequently and always keep an eye out for possible problems. hopefully after i get it back from service all the problems will have been worked out. they are replacing much of the coolant system.