So I'm looking at possibly picking one up. A friend of mine who knows VW and Audi said mileage isn't a big concern, just look for blow-by. Is there an easy way to spot any problems?

The car has 154k on it.

 

check for oil in the intercoolers and on the skid plate under the car. make sure the turbos are in good working order. maintenance is key with these cars. they get very expensive to get back in order. you have to pull the engine to replace the turbos. just remember this is a 13 year old twin turbo car. DEFINITELY not recommended if you cant wrench.

 

I can definitely wrench myself. Thanks for the input. I'm going to assume that since its an S4 it was run hard. I found a newer A6 2.7T with the same mileage. I'll probably go that route.

 

take a look at the Audizine.com classifieds. there are alot of well taken care of audis(s4,a6,allroad,etc.).

the s4 and the a6 suffer from the same problems. the a6 just has more leg room in the rear.