Okay, I owned a 2004 A6 S-Line (should never have gotten rid of it) and now I want another Audi. I am looking at 2 A4s as they getter better fuel economy than the A6 I had. I have two choices right now and wanted input:

2005.5 A4 2.0T Asking $16K with 50K miles. Grey with black leather. Pretty well loaded up (I would say a standard optioned ride).

or

2008 A4 2.0T S-Line Asking $19K with 50K miles. Red with black leather.

Both cars seem to have the same features. What I wonder about is the ride and handling. The $3K difference is pretty big if all I get with the 08 is spoilers and a little S-line written on the steering wheel. I will be honest and I like the look of the 08 better and have kind of been gravitationg that way. But, I also like the grey and could mod it to look like an S-Line if I wanted too.

Thoughts?

08 if it is certified only. Only Buy Certified and warranty goes to 100K. I just had a mojor failure that killed my cams and whole head at 85K. My 2005.5 CPO warranty runs out this month and this happened 2 weeks ago. Lucky me!. Don't risk it.

Also '07 & '08's had some updates done to them. Both received the BWT engine as well as MP3 CD in dash 6, and other small cosmetic tweaks. The 2008's all received the S-Line body kit (not suspension or other goodies) so insure the 2008 is an actual S-Line!
As far as the BWT engine I was told by Audi it had a hardened cam and follower. Whether that is true or not I do not know.

Thanks for the input. Neither car is CPO (I wish as that would make the choice a lot easier). The 08 is an actual S-Line (at least it has the steering wheel with the S-Line logo on it which I think only came with that package).

Still trying to decide if the $3K price difference is worth the 08 over the 05.5!

If I go with the 2005 I am going to demand the cam follwer be replaced. Would imagine they would do it with little argument since the cost is minor.

UPDATE: I was just looking at the 2 cars online when soemthing caught my eye on the 2008 (after looking at thes cars online at least a dozen times). The dealer has the mileage at 52K but, when I saw the picture of the dask I realized the mileage is actually 68K. Mistakes happen when listing cars and I doubt the dealer did it on purpose. Even though the 08 has a few more updates and MP3 capability it is now looking like the 05.5 is the best option for me. An extra $3K and and extra 14K in miles is a lot to me.

The difference may be $3K, but keep in mind one car is 2+ years newer and worth more. We almost bought an identical car to your '08, 3 weeks ago for $18.5k. No warranty and 58k miles. Nice car but it was owned by a smoker. In the end, we found an '08 S line w/ Navi from a dealer. 31k miles, 9 months left on OEM warranty and CPO for another 2 years or up to 100k miles. Paid $23k but it was for our daughter (who's roomie totalled her Accord) who is 500 miles away. The peace of mind the OEM and CPO warranties affords us, the low miles, and all bells and whistles was worth the price difference. Personally, I would buy and '08. They are very plentiful now as the '09's are starting to come off lease. Take your time and buy the one you want.

I considered the age and the S-Line as why it was $3K higher (which makes sense). When I saw the 68K miles that change everything for me. If either car had a CPO I would jump at it. I am on a bit of a self imposed budget and all the current CPO cars in my area are out of my reasonable price range. Well, there is one but it is white and I do not want a white car. I have been looking since late last year and have saw and passed on three other cars already. I haven't seen either of these cars in person yet. I may go this weekend. Who knows what might pop up by then!

You will regret not getting CPO. I can assure you that something will fail and these are very expensive to fix. I would keep searching for a CPO 2008. 2005.5 won't have CPO as the warranty would run out after 6 years or 100k miles. Mine runs out this month.

CPO is like insurance. CPO isn't the solution all the time, but it helps. It probably adds $2-3k in the price as well. If you decide to purchase a higher mile car, make sure to have a good mechanic go over it. It may cost you a few hundred, but if you find major things wrong (or if the car is perfect), it is money well spent. BMW CPO doesn't cover a lot of things. Very disappointing. A lot of times your service writer can get things covered that normally aren't. This was the case with our SL. Our SL was CPO and we bought a 2 year additional MB warranty. If I calculate correctly, we used about 3/4 of what we spent on the warranty. But the peace of mind was worth it. SL's can be extremely expensive to repair. Good Luck.

If it were a choice between those two, personally, I'd go with the '08. The 5.5 was the very first model and they've made significant improvements in small areas around the car. I just never buy a first model year car as a rule.

Maybe you can get an extra few hundred bucks off since the mileage is higher. Although, honestly, I'd probably just keep looking. I found a loaded '06 quattro with everything I wanted and 35k miles on it last spring for what they're asking for that '08.

Also, CPO is like extended warranties in that everyone seems to have an opinion about them. I don't regret buying a non-CPO A4. I'm the same way with extended warranties. I'm not a fan. The companies don't do it to help you, they do it to make money, so more often than not it works out in their favor, not yours. Sure, the guy who had something major fail will keep talking about how great it is, but you never hear from the hundreds that paid $2-3k more for their car and never had anything go wrong.

The reason we got the CPO A4 was it was for my daughter. I figured if it had too many problems, we would sell it and the CPO would be a great enticement to a buyer.