I'm looking to buy a 2001 A4 1.8t quatro. I am unsure because I have heard that if something goes wrong with the car it is very expensive to fix. Is this true? Can you provide any personal experiences?

Thanks

 

its a $30k car - it uses $30k parts - just because its a few years old doesn't mean the parts have droped in price. if you want a cheap fix buy a cheap car.

All in all my a4 has cost me more than I would like in repair cost - but its also cost me less than a new car payment.

 

01's have the updated timing belt tensioner so youre fine there.. Make sure you run only full synthetic oil and youll avoid any costly sludge issues... Other than that, if you do repairs yourself its very affordable. The 1.8t is a solid motor and is reliable. There are just more parts with a forced induction engine that can break and need maintained. If you are the type that only takes your car to the dealer for service, and are on a budget, forget it. My 1.8t has very reliable considering the age/mileage it has compared to most other engines/cars. I say go for it if you can do some DIY stuff to save some $$ if something does ever go wrong. If you heavily modify it, of course your relyability may suffer. There are tons of DIY articles available here and on the net to help make repairs not as difficult as they may sound or seem.

 

If you're going to work on the car yourself, get a repair manual and a code reader
or Vag-Com.
If not find an independent mechanic that works on Audis.

 

Yeah - you can go out buy a cheap Laptop - cheap Ebay ODB cable, get free software from ross-tech and order Bentely manual and your golden. and all of that will pay for it self after a couple of times.

We're always here to help with any questions - Just give us plenty of info

 

i have a 2001 and i have only had a few minor problems in the 2 yrs i have owned it. I love the car!

coil packs will be an issue make sure you get the updated ones. and the rest of my repairs were just things that happen because of age. 2001 is now 6 yrs old. As it has been pointed out the 1.8t engine is very strong and i would reccommend it to anyone that doesn't mind either paying a little more for repairs or learning how to do it yourself.

 

very good engine if treated right ( good oil not cheap stuff ) and every 5 to 6k changes with the oil filter adds long life to the engine, timing belts and tensioners were dealt with in 1998 by Gates who make them so are now better quality