Hey guys, just signed up and need some advice about a buy. I know you get these fairly frequently and I apologize, but humor me.

btw, my name is Chris and I have stockophobia (I'm into wheeling and on a few offroad forums), so if/when I finally buy a car, hopefully an audi, it will receive the same excessive treatment as my other rigs.

Anyway, I found a '98 A4 Quattro 1.8L 5-spd manual with 71k on the ticker. Black with grey interior and loaded. The timing belt has been "replaced", has all service records, and checked out clear on Carfax. The guy said there's a small AC circuit leak where you charge the system...Im mechanically competent and work on all my own vehicles but have very limited knowledge when it comes to AC systems, so Im unsure what that means. Other than that, the rest of the car is in great shape and mechanically sound.

He's asking $7500 for it, but leaving the country in a couple weeks for good and needs to unload it. Carmax offered him $6800, so I can probably take it for $7k.

The car is 2hrs from here and my cousin is checking it out for me tommorrow, and if he gives me a thumbs up, then Im going to go check it out with money in hand. Does this sound like a good deal? What should I look for? I did a search and found some common things like control arms, etc...but anything specific to 98 would be great.

I've got 10k in cash to spend, so If I do nab this within the next couple days, then Ill have around $2500 to play with on mods, etc. right away. More direction in that area is appreciated as well. I'm thinking a drop, rims, and a chip.

Sorry for the wordy post, but thanks for any and all help.

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Sounds like a good deal to me, even at $7500. You can pretty much double your HP with $2500. Nothing really specific with a 98 other than it may still have the old timing belt tensioner at 70k miles. It was updated because they have been known to fail and cause your Tbelt to come off which=dead engine. Make sure you get service records and find out if the timing belt has been changed with the updated tensioner. Oil change history is very important with these engines.

 

Sounds like a good deal, fairly low miles and timing belt already done.

get some wheels, coilovers, chip and exhaust. That should get you started and spend all your money and then some.

Welcome to the forum.

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm driving up there tommorrow with cash in hand.

 

Welcome to the forum.

Don't plan on spending all that 2500 on mods. Plan on 1000 dollars in unanticipated problems and repairs. No sense having a fast car that sits in your driveway cause you cant afford to fix it.