I'm looking for a used Audi in the 10-15K price range. Primarily A4's. Within my preferred price range of around 10k, are mostly 2002-2004 and some 2006 models. So far, all have had 60-100K miles.

I would like to get the most powerful engine I can get (I'm 24 yrs old) but I'm practical. I don't want to end up with a nice looking car with a monetary black hole in front of the firewall. I'm primarily seeking opinions, advice, and/or testimonials on the different engines the A4 came with during these years. I would like to learn about their performance and reliability from actual owners and knowledgeable enthusiasts.

I would love to read any additional off topic advice you guys (and gals?) have about buying and owning a used Audi. Doesn't need to be specific to just A4's either.

 

My '02 A4 1.8T has been ok but not amazing, reliability-wise. I've owned it from 62K miles, and it just recently went past 95K. In that span, I had to do the timing belt (expensive, but not unexpected, as it's a maintenance wear item), and I've also had a few minor issues in the engine bay that were of the unscheduled variety. The car came to me with a vac leak - at least that was inexpensive to fix. I also had a coolant leak about a year into my ownership, and most recently, while replacing my windshield washer fluid pump (cracked, apparently a common failure), my mechanic noticed a valve cover gasket leak.

In total, excluding the T-belt ($1K on its own), these things have cost about $1K over 2 years. That excludes other work I've had to have done - in the time I've owned the car, it has needed new front and rear brakes and a new set of tires.

A lot of that money could have been saved if I had the tools and space to work on it myself; in almost all cases, parts have been less than half of the price paid.