First off, sorry for the long post with probably too many noob questions.

This is my first post here, beenposting on the nissan forums fora while, but wanted to get some opinions from the other side of the world. I drive an '05 Altima SE-R, and I'm considering trading her in. Don't get me wrong, i love the Altima, but I've been wondering for a while if it was really worth the ridiculous monthly payment. I think I owe about 20k on the car right now, and have 28k miles, so I figure I could probably sell it at this point and not be underwater

So I've been looking into used Audi's... I'm an avid skiier so the 4WD appeals to me, and an Audi is going to turn way more heads than a subaru, IMO.

I had originally been looking at something along the lines of a 2001 S4, somewhere in the neighborhood of 17k, then yesterday I saw a beautiful 2001 allroad on the street for $17,850. The guy happened to be right there, so he let me take it for a test drive on the spot. Seems like a lot of fun, thing looks like it's been babied... no wear on the seats or anything. It doesn't seem quite as peppy as the altima, but from what I've read it has a lot more potential for mods? I guess I should mention that within about 6 months I'll be getting a company car. (1998 mustang) The company car is a POS, at least I think so, and would definitely want something of my own for skiing and whatnot, but the fact that I would have something to fall back on is one reason I'm considering an Audi rather than something more known for reliability.

So my two main questions are, what else should I be looking at?
(I know, subaru, there's just too many of them around here for me... maybe BMW? not sure if I can find a 4WD bimmer in my price range that doesn't have a million miles)

Am I asking for trouble buying a used Audi? I know they're not exactly famous for reliability... but they sure are purrrrty.

 

Mmmm... Allroad... 2.7l biturbo...

It has the same motor as the early S4's and A6's. It comes with 250hp from the factory. A chip adds a nice 50 hp. The 2.7l responds very well to mods, but it can be very expensive to fix when something in the motor goes bad.Two turbos can be very expensive if the car wasn'tmaintained well. The Allroad is basically a lifted A6, which has a few other engine choices. The 2.8 or 3.0 v6 (depending on the year) and the 4.2l v8. Mods for those motors is basically non existant at the moment.

You may aslo want to consider a B6 (02-05)A4 with the 1.8t. You can get a lot of power out of the motor,the insurance is cheaper, plenty of mods, and the joy of awd. On the 02+ models you can get a chip programmed for larger injectors which throws the torque through the roof. When you get tired of that or want to gain evenmore power, you can upgrade the turbo.Your walletis the limit.

As far as the reliability, as with most cars it depends on how well you maintain it. There are people hitting 200k on late 90's A4's with very few problems. On the other hand there are people that don't use the recommended oil orcoolant and end up with the car in a mechanics shop more often than their driveway. With Audis you have to proactive with the cars maintenance rather than reactive.

 

Nice! thanks so much for all the info, that's really helpful. The B6 A4 is not something I'd considered... very interesting option. I'm kinda thinking I like the allroad though, a little extra clearance would be nice on occasion... I'll post pics up if i end up going through with this... thanks agaiin!