My current situation:
I want to throw some money into my ride. I want to upgrade my current car (A tired 2.8 5spd) in both the looks and performance department. My choices are:
1) Spend some $$ now and then some later to upgrade what I've got now
2) Wait a year for a lower mileage B5 S4 with lots more potential

Advice?

 

Wait for an S4 if you're looking for horsepower, but it's at the sacrifice of reliability vs. 2.8.

 

Duh! Per cost and potential, the B5 S4 is the platform. Has its minor problems, but its debatable as apposed to the B6 or other similar Audi. I spent a year before deciding on my 6spd 2K S4. Research!

 

Well, that's somewhat debatable. 1.8T can be BT'd and generally costs less to run than the 2.7T. It really depends on your goals.

 

Agreed. A 1.8T is tempting although I'd probably then defect over to the B6 camp (with an Ultra Sport option...sorry, it's just that good). I didn't want to do that for an S4 because even though the V8 sounds sexy I'm sure the fuel consumption and (probably) nightmarish insurance are enough to put me off. Then again, I'm coming from left field on that one.

What kind of reliability issues am I looking at with the biturbo V6 vs. the 1.8T? As compared with my very-tired 2.8 (with only 139k), it can't be that bad