I am looking at buying a 1996 Audi A4 for my Daily Driver. It has 136xxx miles on it. When I go to look at it, is there anything I should look out for...It appears to be in excellent condition but the low price of 4,777 is kinda making me suspicious..

Audi A4

thats what I am looking at....

Let me know Guys thanks!

Also about me since if I get the car I will probably be posting here, I own a 2004 Honda Civic, currently planning a K20a2 turbo swap with RSX tranny swap....so thats why I need a DD haha. Im new to German cars and love any foreign company pretty much lol, lookin forward to learning more about Audi's

 

Look for normal ware and tare there are dozens of these post on this question. I would say get the Audi mod it and keep the Civic for the DD. The German cars are Very tempramential compared to the Jap's. I had an 06 Civic that I traded for Audi and i stand by tempramentail. For the milage and price match its very nice. Clean on the outside and still probley on the inside. Being the 6cyl there are limited cheep options for power but being AWD it will be alot of fun when the weather gets bad. You wont have to worry about hitting anyone just them hitting you but you can avoid that.

1. Do the seats work freely with little noise "Grind"
2. Is the spare tire in the back messed up? If so could be an indication that it hit something hard.
3. Other normal stuff that every car has to worry about.
4. Get a service history milage says timing belt is due again soon.

 

oh ill still be modding the audi

Just the civic cant be my dd because of theft plus im going to gut the interior and making a track car...my true love will always be with honda haha

and yeah I cant wait for the AWD

 

that car has quite a bit of miles on it....However, it does look like it is in great condition for that mileage. Remember, to set money aside for repairs that are going to be necessary. Also, there are really not any good mods to do with the 12v 2.8L. you only have 172hp to start, and the only mod, that will give good power is a s/c that will cost close to 4 or 5 thousand..... prettymuch you are limited to cosmetic mods.
good luck.

 

Do High mileage audi's normally require a lot of maintenence??

 

I would run away very quickly. If you look at the coolant expansion tank, you can see a green color. It looks like someone drained the coolant system and filled it with regular anti-freeze (instead on pink G12 coolant). Regular green anti-freeze is very bad for german cars because it will corrode the engine.

 

If you want to mod it, don't get the 2.8 V6. If you're dead set on the V6 and you still want to mod it, don't get a '96 or a '97, because it's the 12v, and you can't even S/C these; get a '98 or later, which has the 30v and then S/C that (which is still extremely expensive for not a lot of gain). Basically, if you want to mod it, get a 1.8t.

And get a friggin' manual transmission.

And yes, I realize I have a '97 2.8 12v with a list of proposed mods proudly displayed in my sig, but I bought it as a compromise: I wanted an A4, but I didn't want the temptation of engine mods because I also would like to buy a house within the next five years.

 

by modding I mean I will probably throw some rims on it and slam it w/ other minor cosmetic mods...the civic is gonna be my perforamnce car (beleive it or not lol)


and I want auto since it is gonna be a DD, I could really care less about power in this thing, just want it to run good...but now that I hear the engine might be corroded im worried [:@]....maybe i can just have it reflushed and put the G12 or watever it is in

 

Well if the engine's corroded, then the engine is corroded - flushing and refilling with the proper coolant won't fix whatever damage is already done, and it's probably not something you want to bet on. I'd say wait and see if you can find another one you like; any '96 or '97 with mileage like that will be in that price range.

 

Just a few quick tips, this goes at least for european versions, don't know if the US ones differ in any way...

1) Some AWD models have problems with oil leaks from the rear axle.
2) This may be engine specific, but I know some cars with a bit of mileage on them start to "sweat oil" a little more than should be expected.
3) I think in ยด97 or ยด98, Audi offered free replacement of kingpin/suspension (don't know what it's called in english exactly, but it's basically the parts that connect your wheels to your chassis). Make sure your car had them replaced, as this can be pretty expensive to fix.
4) As with any 10+ yr old cars, i'd make sure that all the rubber (doors, windows, sunroof etc) is intact and not leaking. If possible, give it a good wash and check for leaks inside.
5) Get the coolant issue checked out. If the engine ran out of coolant, it would have been seconds from disaster. This is no good thing. See if you can get a guarantee from the seller that he'll refund your investment if your engine throws in the towel in the next 6 months.
6) Ride it first, let a pro look at it, then buy it after if all is well.

Hope you settle for an Audi, they're simply amazing cars. I'd look for one with a manual trans though, they're much more fun to drive.