Ok, here's the deal:

2000
S4
Red Exterior
Black Interior (standard, not two tone, just plain black)
$13,900
77k miles
Automatic


At a dealer (so will pay taxes and registration after), carfax shows clean, but has had 4 owners.
The dealer where it is at now bought it from a bmw dealer where the car was just before this.

Drove the car, drives great (definitely not as fast as the 6 speeds in my opion by the way).
Car has many 'used car' symptoms as far as appeareance. -Scratched silver plating on the shift plate thing (where you shift, the metal piece that has the gear numbers on it...)). -Seats look worn (not as nice as my -97 A4 even), -Subtle crack in wood paneling on driver side door. -small chips on rear bumper, pretty standard stuff, nothing toooo crazy...
-the computer part in the dash (where it displays all the information, temperature outside, mpg, whatever) is shotty, doesn't show all the information, looks like a broken computer screen does, not just a bulb out, but the information doesnt' all show, i would want to replace...
-everything is functioning, as far as moon roof, power everything, lights, etc.
-enging looked pretty clean, nothing cracked that i could find...

So on to my questions:
1. Does anybody know of a good place to get a pre-inspection done on the car around Norwalk, Los Angeles? Norwalk is 35 min's east of LAX, about 45 min's south east of Santa Monica...
2. there was no records with the car, so i don't konw what kind of service has been done on it. How alarmed and aware do i need to be about that and would a pre-inspection show all that has or is needed to be done on it?
3. With that many miles, what do i need to be aware of going out soon (have heard turbos go out sometime around there?)
4. Is there any way to change the lag in first gear (turbo lag i think...) on this car? If so, what would it entail and how much $$ to get rid of that?
5. The car has had 4 owners on the carfax, does this alarm anyone else but me? (why so many? did someone not like the car etc....)

I mean, the price seems so right, that even if there was some stuff to do on it, it would even out with the low price...

Looking to probably buy the car this coming saturday, so any comments sooner than later are totally appreciated...
Comments? Show some love for a soon to be s4 owner (regardless if this one hits or not )


-Chris Collins

 

I would not be thrilled with the auto, there is another guy askling the same thing here a few posts above that I wrote something down in. Check those out