I just bought my 98.5 audi a4 quattro manual 4 months ago with 178k miles on it at the time for $3300. I thought it was a relatively good deal because shortly after I bought it I managed to beat a GLI, hyundai tiburon v6 and a mini cooper s at both drag and road course. It seemed fast for a car with some serious miles on it. Today I was looking through the service records from april of 2007 and I noticed a $3000 repair bill....It HAD A NEW ENGINE PUT IN at 163k miles. Has anyone else had this happen to them? I think the seller should have mentioned something like this...

 

were the drivers asleep? im glad you like your car, but with equal drivers behind the wheel, a stock A4 isnt exactly fast, the mini-s should have been able to stomp you without spilling his tea.

and the engine swap thing should have been mentioned, although its partly your responsibility to ask in the first place. if it only cost $3k then it was a used engine that was put in. do you know how many miles the current engine has on it?

 

Looks good! Is it tinted already?

 

Nice! You may be able to take about 100k off what you thought you had

 

I think it could be good or bad. Some people are in fear of telling the buyer of a "new" engine being put in. It may stoke some fear. They should have been honest with disclosing everything. An engine swap is quite a task. If your 4 months into it and no problems yet you should be ok.
The more I think about this, they really should have told you.

 

a used engine being put in would make me question how stout the tranny is...