ouch lol!!

Anyway, the bashing is only by people who are out of warranty, dont take care of their car and send it off to the dealer to get charged at 135$ an hour.

my advice to you is buy an audi with regular and extended warranty and whenever something goes wrong take it to the dealer. onyl thing you pay is a 50$ deductible.

cheers

 

.... and it wasnt a burn against me, I know that.... it was against the guy who couldn't find his battery under his hood, LOL.


But anyways, take our advice and you'll make out alright, strange **** does happen sometimes, but overall these cars are great, for the quality you get, a little extra in maintenance is well worth it to me!

 

Yes, and Yes

Both are extremely reliable vehicles if well taken care of. Consider an A6 if you need the space. Its a bigger heavier car, not as much fun as the a4, but still a nice car.

My personal opinion is that I would not buy one of these from a dealer or auction, unless they could provide an accurate service history. Find a private owner with good records, and still have an inspection done.

Dealer service is very $$$$$. Most of these folks got poor service and paid a lot for it. If you follow the maintenance, I would say the AUDI is extremely reliable. Its not hard to work on, in fact its very well engineered, so if you DIY you will save a fortune, and see they are not bad to work on.

 

the battery thing was someone who PMd me on how to take the battery out and got nasty

 

Any car on the road with a timing belt instead of a chain needs the belt replace by 90,000 miles. Toyota uses gates belts also and as long as you replace it by the time they say you won't have a problem. The motors in Audi's 1.8t are interference motors so if you brake the belt it will bend valves where as on other motors it may or may not. I have had all of my routine maintenance done and have no complaints about my a4. Most cars have issues due to neglect.

 

this does not apply to people under warranty. only to those who are out of warranty or who bought the car used without knowing how it was treated bitch about dealer prices.

 

Poor service often comes for free while car is under warranty. Like constantly dropping the car off to be fixed because they didn't do it right the first time, or the dealer treating you poorly or acting like you don't know anything.

 

tell me a car that doesn't have an interference engine, timing chains have equal problem but cost more to repair having said that it is difficult to maintain this area due to space and the chains are worse

 

thanks everyone... and a double thanks to acetrebo for answering all my questions - great to know there is a supportive community here!

this is what I've summized- get a car where you know the history. Always a good idea but in this case probably more important.

The dealer I talked to said he could get the timing belt/tensioner/water pumped changed for his cost: 700.00 which I would have to pay for as I already got him down 1k on the price.
($7995 for an 99 A4 Quattro Avant 1.8, 74K miles, with cloth interior, clean exterior, good tires).

is the timing belt the main issue or could there be other problems with a car with no known history (of course there could but is the timing belt the main problem to look out for?).

or do I just stay with buying cars from individuals where I know the history???

And I think i'll stick with the A4

cheers
jim

 

the timing belt is the PRIORITY... if that were to go out on you, it'd be a LOT of time and money to replace any damage done...

and $700.00 to do the work sounds pretty damn good, as long as the job is legit...

as far as other issues, i've heard others mention the control arms, fuel pump, and something with the AC but mayb someone can confirm that?