I am considering buying a 2001 Audi A6 AWD. I live in an area where it snows a lot, and I travel to the mountains almost every weekend. I think this would be a good car for what I need, but I would like to get the experts opinion. I usually work on my own cars, I would be mostly paying for parts when I do maintenance. Also, I am a graduate student, so I need to watch how much I spend on maintenance and parts.

The car according to the seller:
My car has 145K miles on it. I bought it as a lease return in 2004 at 43K miles and I put about 10K a year on it, primarily on road trips. In 2013 I have replaced the clutch, timing belt, water pump, and fuel pump. I have itemized receipts from all the work ever done on the car. The shocks, struts, tie rods, brakes, and battery are all fairly new also.

I treat it very gently and have kept every maintenance record. It runs perfectly.

AWD
2.7 Turbo
6 Speed Manual Transmission
Alloy Wheels
All the options including heated front and rear seats, automatically dimming rear view mirror, an outrageous BOSE stereo, Xenon headlights and fog lights, headlight washers, memory seats, and Homelink universal transmitter.

The owner is asking for $5400.

What do you guys think?

 

Sound like a good deal. Always nice to find a car with good maintenance records. The recent clutch & TB jobs were big ticket repairs. Eyeball the receipts just to verify claims. Ask if tubos have ever been changed, as they may be the next big $ repair.
Go for it, & join the club!

 

Thanks for the reply. Any idea how much it would cost to replace the turbo, and is it something that can be done in a home garage?

 

Must pull the engine to replace the turbos, so it's certainly one of the more invloved repairs for the home mechanic. BUT, I don't mean to scare you into thinking you need turbos changed immediately. My son's 2000 2.7T A6 has ~ 165K miles on it & original turbos still working ~OK. Very slight bit of oil leaking past them & into airstream. I've hear of others that went out sooner.
I've read that if turbos going bad you can hear them whining, or significant oil leak. Haven't experienced it firsthand to know for sure.

Anyway, like I said, it's good to have a previous owner that took care of the car. We weren't so lucky, so much of the repair & cost was done by us.
If you buy, you should get lots of guidance/advise from this & other Audi forums. Lots of folks willing to offer advise, & usually can find DIY guides for fixing common problems.
Don't procrastinate too long or...

 

I just bought a 2000 Audi A6 2.7T about 3 weeks ago for $2,800. It has 152,000 miles, fully loaded, leather, sunroof. Already has performance chip according to previous owner. Also has aftermarket front and rear bumper covers.

Unfortunately, the previous owner had no maintenance records. I think I did a pretty good job checking the vehicle over as I have bought my fair share of used cars before. The things I ended up needing to do to it so far are replacing the rear 02 sensors, replace brake fluid reservoir, new spark plugs, oil change, replaced rearview mirror.. It had been throwing 4 chk engine codes for the 02 sensors, but those are now gone and was leaking brake fluid due to crack in brake fluid reservoir. I spent no more than $150 for all these parts thanks to ebay and a guy parting out an A6..
So, I only paid $2,800 for this car, which is quite a bit less than $5,400 but there are many factors to weigh. The paint on my car is not in the greatest condition, although I have seen much worse. Also my car is one year older than the one you're considering buying, so $5400 could still be a great deal. It's under Blue Book value anyway..

So did you buy it?

 

I have a question for you about the turbos CRuby..
I am trying to figure out the condition of my turbos as I have no prior knowledge as to when or if they were ever replaced.
They do not seem to leak any oil (at least not to the point where they're dripping)
Acceleration seems to be smooth and strong with a nice whoosh sound in any gear.
However, the acceleration seems to hesitate a bit after a nice strong pull from about 2000-4000rpm, then continues strong-ish from 4500rpm and up.
Because of this behavior, it makes me wonder if the larger turbo is having problems/going out, but I have never driven another one of these before to know how it should feel.

So, what do you think? Does your car hesitate during acceleration at any certain rpm range?

 

I just sold a 2003 A6 2.7t 6spd with a sport package and 188K miles for $6500. Of course all maintenance (Major/Timing Belt/Flywheel Clutch) were performed in house before we sold it. So that seems like a good deal.

Most of the early 2.7t turbos have been replaced under warranty at the dealer. If the 2.7t owner uses FULL Synthetic engine oil every 5k to 7K miles and does not drive the vehicle like an animal, the turbos really never go bad.... Younger/Hard Pedal owner and yeah the turbos will fail....

over 4000 Audi's serviced and repaired @ JAAWs, so I have worked on a few on these 2.7ts