Tom, nothing wrong with a bad ABS module if you know how to drive it. When mine went bad, I just unplugged it. Been like that for 6 months.

 

just get him the 3.0 engine. It is much more reliable than the 1.8T and you cant really mod it that much, so he will also save some money. Just make sure to get a quattro

 

Haha, that would almost be mean to get him the 3.0 if it wasn't such a damn nice car. And if he gets the mod bug against all odds, he can sell a kidney to supercharge it

 

Speaking of which, I have for trade: 1 Kidney for a PES S/C for a 2.8. Please email me if interested.

 

Your mechanic is right about one thing, the car needs attention that a busy college student might not be able t0 give.

However, if the car is taken care of it will be reliable and good to you. and yes 50k on a well maintained a4 is LOW miles... hell.. mine has 93K and it feels just the same as when i bought it at 36K miles 2 years ago. I dont wait for things to go bad and im on top of service. if it needs adressing then take care of it.


so to answer your question, yes its okay to get him an a4. treat it well and it will love you back. if you could find a 2001 a4 then go right ahead. there are still some low milage ones to be found.