Hey guys. My name is Tony and I am thinking about buying an A4. My dad just bought an A6 2.7T and I fell in love with the car. I was the one who advised him to buy his car. I'm just 19 years old and this will be my first car. I was only thinking about buying one for like 6 grand. Is that doable for a decent car? I know that the car will probably have a good amount of miles. I'll try and get the lowest possible. I only want a manual. are the manuals good? will they hold up nicely? I'm also looking at a Porsche 944. They will be a little less money with probably the same amount of miles but a little sportier. What do you guys think. Any comments are much appreciated. Thanks
Tony

 

Well, as for an Audi, I'd go for the stick too, but that's just my preference. As for what you can get for 6 grand. It depends on which Audi you are looking at and how the previous owner took care of it. The Audi turbo's like the 1.8t do require more preventative maintenance than your average vehicle. If they are not well taken care of through out their lives, you can have problems. But on the other hand, if proper care is taken of these cars through out the life of the car they will last a long, long time. If you are looking at one of the turbo's I would try to find one that you can find a reasonable repair history on. That's a lot more easily said than done. Myself, I would be a bit leary of buying a turbo charged car regardless of make or model, without knowing a whole lot about the previous owner and how they took care of the car. What model/year are you thinking about?

 

Audi's cost money to keep going once they hit 90-100K. You are going to buy right into that category with $6000.

Turbo is old, timing belt needs replacement, most sensors start to fail, hoses start to crack and fray. All this is normal age-maintenance, but its the reason people sell their car when it gets that old. I would not suggest buying an Audi that $6000 will get you - not unless you do all your own work on it, and have money for needed upkeep.

 

Hi Tony,
I just recently acquired my 98' A4 1.8T Quattro and I know what hunting for a nice but low priced car is all about. I spent an entire weekend just looking for a manual transmission car (I won't drive anything else) in the Appleton/Green Bay (WI)area and, go figure, the only one I found was the Audi at the last place we stopped and it just so happened it was the closest place to my home (meant to be?). Anyways, the car was stickered at $12k and some change but thru a little haggling I was able to get it for $8750. The dealer gave me a 6k mile warranty and the car had new brakes and tires. It had roughly 88k on it when I got it. The main reason I was able to get it that cheap was the fact that the dealer had gotten lowballed on it and he just wanted to sell it and try and make SOMETHING on it. He got the car for about $7k on a trade in and put about $800 into it...so he made roughly 1000 dollars on it. I can handle that, the guys gotta live right? Anyways..my point..if you're lookin at an A4 for $6k its gonna have a boat load of miles on it and might have stuff wrong with it right off the bat. If I were you I'd hold off a little, maybe save acouple grand up and then hit the lots again. As for the porsche, does anyone know how much they are to repair? Seems to me a porsche is a step up from an A4 in the expensive category. The Audi can be expensive to maintain if not properly taken care of, but a porsche? Might end up spending twice as much fixing that thing (though I've never had one so I'm just guessing here). Also, you might wanna think about the insurance rates on both the cars. I'm 23 and payin out the *** for insurance on the A4 with a clean record. Check into those premiums for the A4 and the porsche, that might make your decision for you.

Good luck with your hunt! Let us know how it goes!

 

Hey guys, thanks for the comments, I was thinking more along the lines of a 2.8 for that same reason. My two best friends, one has a 951 (944 turbo) and the other has a Grand National. They both have turbos and I know that they can get expensive. Doose and Brrman I agree with you guys, turbo probably isn't the way to go. also the 2.8 has more power doesn't it? To answer your question Transverse, yes Porsches are really expensive also to maintain, like I said earlier my friend has a porsche and that is what got me into them. I think they are fun little cars but definately are a pain. I will be doing all the work on my car and I feel I know my way around a car pretty well. I'm not worried about a car with 100k miles on it. I do agree with you brrman that all those things start wearing down. I'm not really worried about that at all. Transverse, my dad is loaning me the money for the car so I told him I'd stay around 6K for it. I'm looking prolly around a 96 or a 97 with a little over 100k miles. I think 110k miles is the max. is it worth the 6 grand I'll be spending on it plus repairs? or should I go with a nice porsche that would have less miles. Thanks
Tony

 

Ok, I think we might be missing the big picture here. I personally own an A4 so there is no way I could not recommend one to you. But, let's think about this car for a bit. Sounds to me like this is gonna be your everyday get around town car. So, what does your everyday entail? Do you haul a lot of stuff around with you or are you pretty much a backpack/coffee kinda guy. Do you have snowy/icy winters where you are? What exactly is this car gonna be used for? How many seats does the porsche have? Will you be car pooling people? ...taking multiple friends around? Will there be enough room for that? ..just a few questions you might ask yourself(sorry, they are kinda geared against the 944). I haven't seen many porsches around here (WI) in the winter time..mainly because people like to keep them from rusting but also because they are small/light cars which makes them hard to drive in snow and ice. The A4 Quattro has been hailed many times for its ability to handle winter driving (according to brrman the quattro system wasn't built for snow, but it still works damn good on it). Also, many porsches are just 2 seaters. Does the one your looking at have a back seat? If not that will limit the number of occupance.

But, probably the most valuable question you should ask yourself is...which car am I in love with? No, I'm serious! If you don't love the car...why buy it? Too many people out there hate their cars because they take other peoples advice on choosing one! Drive the cars! The one you like the best should be the one you buy. Afterall you said you were gonna do the upkeep on this beast, might as well WANT to make sure the car is happy! That will increase the longevity of the car and you'll have a much better experience overall!

But, Enough of my blabbering...

Let us know how it goes! And good luck with your search!

-Transverse

 

Hey transverse, alright I'll go through all the questions. I have already asked myself these and I think I'm still on the edge. first, this will be my everyday car. I live in Mass and I travel to school in NJ but I will mostly stay in school, soccer limits me from going home that much. I do not pack a lot of things into my car. Yes, we do have snowy winters in both NJ and Mass. I am looking to use this car to take me around my campus and also take me to and from school. around campus I'd travel probably 15 miles a week if that. Like I said earlier I play soccer for my school and that limits me from going a lot of places except from my dorm to the fields. Technically the porsche has 4 seats, but the two back seats are hardly seats at all. I don't drink much at all so I usually end up being the DD if I go out and having a porsche would be nice because then I won't have to waste a lot of money on gas and always have to be the DD. Going to and from school and hauling all of my cr*p I would need two cars regardless, I have a lot of stuff to move. I don't think that would play a big part. I haven't driven the A4 yet, I haven't had time to go check one out but my dad has an A6 and I love it. I think the A4 is a little bit more sportier and has a stick so I think that I'd like it. I have driven many 944s and I love those also. Right now I'm kind of leaning towards the A4 because I can see myself in one better. I think the quattro, or even the front wheel drive will be better in the snow. I also will have luxuries. I also think that once I get more money then I can start thinking about either putting in an S4 engine or just modding the A4. I could also go with what my friend did which was put a 944 turbo in his 944. That was a real pain doing that with him. Just working on Porsches are more pains I think. I will be honest I love the looks of the audi better but since I have never driven an A4 I can't say that I love the A4. I hope that answered all your questions. Thanks for the reply
Tony