Had a good sleep and am less frustrated. I really am stumped on this car.

Relatively speaking it's a good price and insurance is cheap. (e.g. I miss my 2002 Mazda Protege 5, but to replace would cost another $4000 over the Audi)
It's got low mileage, full records, and a 3 year Audi warranty (a thorough inspection by an Audi dealership enough?)
I'm not going to drive it hard or put a lot of miles on it.

BUT...

All of these POTENTIAL issues & expenses.
-Timing belt, no biggie... all cars should have it replaced every 100K.
-Suspension parts, if I'm not driving it hard, are they still going to wear out/break as fast?

Blah... guess I'll keep thinking about it...

 

for that price you can get something newer. like a 2000 keep looking. check the classifieds too. people are selling S4's for next to nothing and you can negotiate. plus they are already modded.....

 

ya but this guy is lookin for reliability over power. personally i think this car is perfect for you. gettin it checked out at a dealership/euro shop is a good idea. personally i ave never had any suspension issues with mine. and i live in a city with the worst fukin roads ever.

 

Did some price shopping... all in Canadian dollars.

1998 - 105K kms - $15.5K
1996 - 130K kms - $7.5K
1999 - 72K kms - $18K
2000 - 103K kms - $16.9K
2000 - 104K kms - $15.9K
1999 - 90K kms - $15.9K
2000 - 110K kms - $16.2K
1998 - 94K kms - $13K

 

bro get a 1999-2001 audi if u are lookin for a b5 cuz they have all the revised stuff in those years and u will get most of the goodies like side airbags, ice link, HIDS, newer style tailights and headlights, fog lights and much more and yea they are as relaible as the other audis just get a 2.8 quattro.

anyways if u look around u will find enough 2.8's newer models for around 8-9k just search ebay or autotrader.

anyways if u need some more help finding the car aim me.

 

first post, hope I can be helpful. I bought my 1996 1.8 A4 last november. It had it's original TB (which had to be replaced) and the control arms were gone. Both repairs were pricey but the car has had no new problems throughout the year proving itself quite reliable.

 

hhhmmm about 3 years ago I bought a 96' A6 2.8 for $5000 cash (tax+title), had roughly 100k miles give or take...the car was very reliable, it eventually needed cats (in order to get a sticker in MA)..even with bad cats the car looked very good. As you can tell I enjoy Audi's, hence my S4.

 

Still waking up here... what's TB? How much were the repairs? I want to factor this into the price of the car.

Thanks,

Joe

PS... On AutoTrader, the cheapest price on a 99-01 I'd consider in Canada was $15.5K CDN & in the US was $10K USD = $14K CDN by the time I get it here.

 

TB=timing belt. About $375 in parts if you do it yourself (its a somewhat complicated DIY, but many people have done it)....plan on spending about 700-800 to have done by a mechanic. A 1996 A4 will need a new one at 60K miles, and then another one every 90K miles after that.

Very bad if it breaks.

 

Jeez... I shoulda figured that out. How about control arms... I thought I read about $600 for replacements?