I'm a new member of the forum and I'm looking for some advice on whether to fix my wife's 2003 TT or sell it.

The car is a 2003 TT 180 HP Tiptronic automatic with 141000 km. A month ago the transmission started downshifting rough. My mechanic checked it out and after 2 weeks gave up and said it needed a rebuilt transmission. Also the ABS and ESP lights are solid yellow now on the display.

I took it back to the dealer and today found that a piece of the clutch fell off during the changing of the transmission fluid. Also, the ABS module needs to be replaced. The dealer estimates the rebuilt transmission will cost $3000 and the cost of replacing the ABS module is another $3000.

The Canadian black book site places the trade-in value as between $5900 and $8000. So basically, do I invest $6000 in a car worth only $8000 or sell it as and cut my losses?

I ask the wisdom of the group for some advice on how to proceed.

 

My 2 cents: If you fix it, will you be done with repairs? Will it then be dependable? For the $6k, can you get a better car than your repaired TT? If so, spend the 6k on another car and sell off a much of the TT in parts as you can...maybe advertise it as a possible "track candidate...the engine and other parts are fine, right? Have you considered pricing a manual transmission swap?

Also, get another estimate on the ABS module replacement (from another dependable audi independent mechanic). $3K seems really high in my mind. Good luck.

 

first thing you should absolutely do if you have any desire to keep the car is get a second opinion from an independent shop. Most likely, if they confirm what the dealership is saying it will still be expensive, just not quite as expensive.

if you can't or won't do the repairs yourself it may be best to cut your losses but I think you can do better on the repair costs than the $6k that the dealer quoted you.

good luck

 

Dump it and run!

 

I had the same decision on my old jeep that was worth about 3500 when it needed major transmission work at 150k. I had already done a bunch of repairs , yet the engine was solid. I decided to do the 3k transmission rebuild since the outside was still good and everything else was fine. I know it inside and out so I decided that route instead of buying a 3-6k question mark vehicle that I didn't know what had been done with it or what it needed. Audi is different though, much more that can go wrong with that than a jeep.