Noobie here.

1. Long-time euro-car enthusiast. Porsche owner since '87. Lots of DE's, Time Trials and Club Races under the belt--much tighter now than 10 years ago... I have a 2004 3.0 Cab (FWD, not AWD) in my garage on loan from a dealer while I shake it out and decide on the purchase. There are only 18K on the car, price is right, and it is an amazing drive.

2. I have visited the newbie section--read the Newbie's Guide by Chaos92287; and I have clicked on all of the suggested newbie links. I have also searched using the terms "2004 AND 3.0" and found a total of 2 posts. "2004 AND electronics" yielded zero results, as did "2004 AND electrical". Also, searched "blistering" for the entire forum, and got only 15 hits--none dealing with tires. Hence, my questions to you:

3. Some pointed questions:

a. Are the electronics in the A4 a serious problem? A good friend--an M.E. and fellow racer--swears he will never buy another Audi. He has a TT and has made 9 separate trips to the dealer for electrical bugs--waranty issues, but a hassle nonetheless.
b. On several consumer sites, there are an inordinate amount (IMHO) of tire blistering complaints on the A4. Has that been aired here? Valid? Tire problem on AWD vs. FWD?
c. I have heard that Audi limits a lot of its tools so that independents don't get into the Audi repair biz. Is this valid? I haven't found a good Audi shop onlone for San Antonio yet, and the thought of $90 per hour service rates make a Toyota Solara more appealing for a wife's car, which will be this car's role.
d. Any real achilles heels other than the timing belt on these A4s? That is no biggie--same on all the water-cooled Porsches (way back to 944s.....)

Many thanks.

 

ehh fwd audi, "audi without quattro is like drinking beer without alcohol" famous quote lol. get a vw save money and 3.0 has good torq and power for stock car its fwd though, it would suck to drive that during winter but its ur choice.

 

+1 for quattro, but fwd is not bad in the winter............most cars that "suck" in the winter are rwd cars...................... But i guess having 10k HID's is like having fwd............ no point

 

yea it does actually for 100 bucks having no hids to hids i think thats a good deal. and wtf hids has to do with with fwd, and by the way i love the color of it, we are in america there is plenty of lights on the street on nj if you want to be a smart-ss, makes hids useless in my small city. maybe i should get the 12k so it bugs u more lol

 

OK, well, thanks for the hijack and the thoughts on FWD....although not the issues I asked about, and not much of an issue for San Antonio, TX, especially if it's a "wife to work" car.

Anyhone else have input on the questions that I did ask?