i am contemplating purchasing a 2001 A4 for my 17 year old son. The mileage is about 100-120K... In thoroughly researching A4's it seems that there is a love/hate relationship between car and owners. The cars are wonderful to drive and look at but are very expensive to maintain.. I am making sure to ask sellers to show me maintenance records (I keep every repair order for all the cars I have owned) and hope they are original owner.... Please let me know if there is specific things that I need to look at when test-driving this vehicle. At this point I am skeptical about buying one because I have owned many cars (everything from Toyotas, Hondas, mazdas, Chevys) and have not had continuous problems with any of these makes...

Jim

 

In all honesty it completely comes down to how much you love the car and if you or your son is willing to do the necessary work on it. If you have basic knowledge about cars and are willing to do the work, then repairs and maintenance will usually cost at least half of what you'll pay at the shop.

"Love hate relationship" is probably the best way to describe these cars. I know personally it seems like i can never save up the money to mod the car like i want because of various maintenance things that have to be done (I'm only 17 though so money isn't really an abundance haha) but I absolutely love my car. The b5 a4's just have a timeless body and Ive had people think my car was an 04. Also the interior of these cars and the way they drive, if kept maintained and not beaten on, are veryyyy hard to match for a 10 year old sedan.

As i said before though if you find a nicely kept a4 and are willing to do the work yourself, maintaining them isn't too difficult. You have to remember that they are a decade old now and any car at this age will have maintenance that has to be done, with these forums and the guys on here though you'll be able to do most of the work and troubleshooting yourself.

Overall if you/your son is into cars and are willing to care for the car then go for it, its a blast, i love my a4. But if you dont want to be doing a ton of work on the car and just want something easy and dependable i would stick to a honda or a toyota.

 

If you and your son can do some wrenching, then there is money to be saved by doing a lot of work yourself. If every time the car breaks you have to take it to the dealership, I would say that an older Audi would not be you best choice (unless money is no object).

The 2.8L is known to be a little more reliable, and the 1.8T is funner to drive.

Check the F.A.Q Sticky at the top of the B5 section for more info than you will ever need to help you in your decision, and to what to look for when buying your first one.

 

All good advice.

Here's how I would look at it.
If you are going to pay someone else to fix every little thing that needs fixed, and pay someone to change oil, plugs, etc; an A4 is going to cost more than most to own.

On the other hand, if you are willing to do some work yourself, it can be a very affordable and fun car. Fun almost always cost a little extra compared to basic transportation.

Anything that goes wrong with these cars is well documented in this and other forums. The huge user community is one of this car's strengths. Whatever happens, someone has been there before and has some option to resolve it.

As mentioned before the 2.8 is generally regarded as more reliable. Actually I would say it is more forgiving. It will take a lot of abuse/neglect and keep on serving. The 1.8T is a finely balanced set of engine systems designed to get a lot of power out of a lightweight engine format. It has great power to weight efficiencies, but it demands rigorous attention to its fluid levels and other routine maintenance. We have the A4 1.8T, but have another VW with a VR6 and it is strong and solid with about 150K on it.

The quattros get a little less in gas milage, but it is a signature features in an Audi. I would highly recommend considering a quattro version if you go for an A4.

It is a fun car, which is why my son wanted one, and its a relatively safe car, which is why I let my son get one. He turned out not to be very interested in the mechanics of it, fortunately for him I have come to love working on it. If you are willing to do some work yourself it can actually be fairly inexpensive to maintain and repair.