Alright so I am looking to get a nice Audi for college but don't want to have to break the bank on repairs. I know that Audi turbo chargers usually die around 70,000 -80,000 miles. The cars in my price range around that mileage or up. I also know water pumps die around 100,000 as well.

Being a college student I need money for school. Most of you will say why get an Audi for college. Your right its not necessary but they are such sweet cars.

I guess my question is which engine is more reliable around the 70,000-100,000 miles mark. Thanks for the help.

-Lenny

 

my car, which is a 3.0 ultrasport, is still around 50,000 miles and i haven't had any major issues yet. make sure you check the condition of the timing belt on the cars you're looking at. they usually start going around 70,000-80,000, from what i hear.

unrelated to reliability, though, i gotta say i LOVE my 3.0. when i went to the dealer, they had a black 1.8t ultrasport and a black 3.0 ultrasport. cosmetically, they were both the same, but i drove the 3.0 and you definitely feel the difference. you've got a much wider power band on the 3.0. that's just my opinion, though.

i realize that the 1.8t guys are going to murder me, but i say 3.0 for the win, my friend. good luck.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I guess my main concern with the 1.8t is that if the turbo goes then thats ~$2000 to replace which for a college student is quite a bit. I know its a foreign car so every repair will have a nice bill that comes with it. The 3.0 having one less problem possible then the 1.8t wants me to lean toward the 3.0, and that problem being of course the turbo.

I drove a B5 A4 1.8t 5spd last week and that was a blast. Super quick acceleration love the quattro feel.

Are there a lot of noticeable differences between the 1.8t and the 3.0 as far as acceleration, gas consumption and top end?

 

Thats not actaully right about the turbos. There are many people with over 110xxx miles being chipped for the last 50-60k and have no problems with the turbo.
A lot depends on a previous owner... If all the maintance stuff was done on time, every oil change and etc than it should be a reliable car.

 

If I were to test drive a 1.8t, is there any ways to tell if the car and turbo itself are in good working condition? It's seems that in my price range there's quite a few more b6 1.8ts then 3.0s.

If there is an easy way to tell if the turbos good then I may consider the 1.8t quite a bit more.

Also I won't be buying until June at the earliest, but if buying from a dealer what are good questions to ask about the car. I come from a family that has always had GM Cars other then a Dodge before I was born and a Ford truck when I was young. I have no experience around foreign cars so I don't really know what to look for other then cosmetics.

Thanks guys!

 

Don't get caught in the concept of "high cost" repairs. If you have any mechainical ability at all, they are easy to work on and the parts can be sourced quite cheap, actually. It's when you do anything through a dealer that you'll pay an arm and a leg.
I wanted a 3.0 when I first bought my car, but I left the dealer with a 1.8t. I've never looked back.
If you never plan to make the car faster and just want a good reliable car, go 3.0.
If you want the ability to make a fast car, go 1.8t. There are just so many more options to get good power out of the 1.8t than the 3.slow.

 

My summer job is working on boats and I do work on boat engines from time to time. I believe I could do fixes to the car. My friends dad was a mechanic at one time in his life so I believe he would help me. From what Im hearing the 1.8t isn't as bad as I've been told it would be. Perhaps I didn't do full research and just let what I heard from others affect me.


I'm thinking my price range is $10,000-$13,000 which the price will probably be closer to the latter of those prices. In this price range what should I be looking for as in mileage.

 

The 1.8t is a fairly easy car to work on (cramped, but not hard). When I bought my car it was 5 years old and had 36k miles on and it cost me 14k, so the price depends a lot on if there has been anything done to the car, what year, and if the owner knows anything about the car. Just make sure you test drive it and have it inspected my a GOOD mechanic because there can be tons of things wrong with the car that you can't see or feel on a test drive.

 

Just outta curiosity, the parts on these cars that could go bad at this mileage, what is the normal price of the parts?

Water pump, timing belt, turbo? Any other parts you guys know of?

 

You can find a very nice timeing belt kit on blauparts.com for like $300 bucks. ko3 turbos can be bought used around $150-250. You can find plenty of help with installation of these parts on this and other forums.

If you do go 1.8t, then I would save ~$500 to get it chipped - check out the newbie guide for advice on chips.

Definitely take your time and be patient. Happy hunting!