So I found a car. My car. Yep, in the past week and a half I have grown very attached to this car that I was going to buy... It was a gold (beige?) 2001 A4 Quattro, 2.8, automatic, with a beautiful interior... it felt great, and was really zippy in traffic.

Anyways - I was going to buy it tonight. Made all the arrangements for an after work meeting to take care of the paperwork, drove the trade-in to work, etc.

The final detail before talking numbers was the vehicle inspection. I had received a recomendation from my trusty honda mechanic for an Audi mechanic, and I took it in today. The mechanic took it up on the rack, looked at it for a few moments, brought it back down, and the inspection was over.

Among his first words? "If I were buying a car it wouldn't be this one"

Apparantly this car is from the East Coast, and is very rusted underneath. So my wonderful car has been returned to the car salesman, and I am continuing my search for an A4. I had no idea rust could be such an issue (we don't have that problem in Washington).

Stupid stupid rust!

On a positive note - the mechanic didn't charge me for an inspection, and gave me some great information which probably saved me a lot of money in future repairs. So at least I have a mechanic chosen for the car I haven't found yet!

 

Its the salt on the roads in winter that do it.
Alot of people have their underside steam cleaned then undercoated to prevent the rust.
It is necessary in states like vermont etc.
Many cars i saw from the NE states were undercoated.

 

undercoated??? with what?

We recently got my dad's new truch liner sprayed with that rhinolining, that might make a pretty bad *** undercarrage, considering if it dents, it dents with the metal and doesnt pop off.

 

auto stores and body shops sell/install special auto undercoating.
it deadends sound/road noise as well as protecting the underside from rust.