My wife wants to upgrade our beautiful old '90 Nissan Maxima SE 5sp to something newer; she's asking for year 2000 or later. I'm not excited about the Maximas from those years, but the Audi A6 looks interesting, and the AWD would be a nice addition.

I'm looking at the 2000 - 2004 A6, because she wants 2000 or later, and the facelifted 2005 sells for more. I like both the pre-facelift and facelifted looks, and I like paying less.

However, if I understand correctly:
-- Manual transmission was only offered with the 2.7T engine, and
-- The 2.7T engine can be hugely expensive to maintain due to the twin turbos, because replacing them requires removing the engine. I've seen quotes up to $6,000 for the job. And:
-- On the older examples I'd be looking at, and considering that I like to keep my cars for a long time (we've had the Maxima for over 12 years, and I've had my '87 Honda CRX for over 18 years), I'm very likely to be hit with the need for that repair sooner or later.

Am I right so far? If so, here's my question:

I see that the 4.2 non-turbo engine can be had in good condition for around $1,000. Would it make more sense to buy one of those and have it swapped in, rather than replace the twin turbos? Either way, the 2.7T engine has to come out. The only difference, as far as I can tell (correct me if I'm wrong), is what gets put back in.

Is the 4.2 too powerful for the manual transmission? If so, what about the 3.0? It's less powerful than the 2.7T. I don't mind the loss of power; it's still fast enough for us.

Thoughts?