Thanks for the response to my earlier post. I just came back from the test drive and wanted to update on that.

It was a metallic blue Audi ('99, 2.8 quattro fully loaded, gray leather, sunroof) with 63K miles on it. It turned out be a 1 owner car and was being sold by a mechanic/dealer. He seemed pretty credible and nice, above all he only deals with german cars. My point is that he was not a shady dealer at all.

Now about the car...it was in a mint condition. It had great acceleration and handled amazingly on sharp turns. Brakes were solid, overall it felt like a sleek and yet sturdy car. I realled loved the way it rode on the freeway, although I forgot to check the cruise control since I was totally awed by it's handling. I checked under the hood, e'thing looked absolutely clean, all the controls worked inside the car, the indicators & headlights were fucntional. The only thing which I did not check up on were the wipers.

I really really like the car and feel like picking up today as I know the car won't last very long.

Lastly, the price. The guy really looked honest and industrious and did not for one moment look like he was pulling a fast one. And like I mentioned before, the car has a clean history and I checked for any odd spots on the car and they were none. He asked for $13300 out the door . The private party value is around the same amount on KBB and it does no include taxes and registration...so essentially, it's 1K below KBB. Now, add that to the fact that it has been detailed and completelt tuned up by this guy. And also he gave me the assurance and if something goes wrong (say some major failure- check engine light comes on or something similar) he would take care of it for free.


What do you guys think?? Would you buy the car? Thanks so much for the response. Your inputs would be certainly important for me to make the decision and I need to make it by this evening. Thanks!!

 

I would wait a day or two its a holiday weekend not many people are going to be out buying a car. Test drive it again and see if you can locate another one to test drive to compare the two. Good Luck

 

this sounds like a good idea...just to make sure and stuff. unless you have driven another 2.8 quattro before. then it all up to you

 

I just bought a 99' 1.8T Q 5spd w/ 26,500 miles for $11,500. It was also loaded with only one owner and a perfect carfax. The 2.8 is a more expensive car though. I believe they listed for about $5,000 more when they were new. I would make sure I got it in writing that he would take care of maintenance on the car because he can say all he wants but if it's not on paper he's responsible for nothing. Good luck!

 

through my experience with buying cars it is a bad idea to jump at the first car you testdrive (Wether this be the case in this situation or not). look around a bit and make the guy think that youre not that interested in the car then you may have a better chance at getting it for a lower price.

 

Ya I definatly agree with this. I am also looking for a 2.8 A4 and thought the one I recently test drove was really nice. But I needed a lot of work in other areas, so I'm trying to find other ones I could compare it to for around the same price range to see if I'll notice a difference between them.