Print

[killerbootsman]

So I'm looking to upgrade my current 1985 Volvo 740, with something a little more, erotic. I've been checking out some 1996-1999 Audi A4's on ebay, autotrader, classifieds, etc.. And looks like I can get one for about $5000. I'm 17, don't have any credit, and my parents don't want to cosign, so if I were to get one, I would pay for this pooch in cash.

Does anyone have any opinions, good or bad, on them? Any known issues, preference on 1.8 turbo or 2.8 v6, etc..

thanks!

[killerbootsman]

Well, with being a college student pretty soon, I'm not going to have 2k a year to throw around just to keep my car operational. I think in all likelyhood, I'm just going to keep my volvo 740. It's got 1/4 of a million miles on it, but I've never had to do any maintence besides oil changes and tuneups for the 2 years I've had. She's a great little car, but she's not a looker. I would consider keeping her, and getting an Audi A4, that way I would have some form of transportation if my Audi was shot, but I don't think I could afford insurance on both of them.

That's another question I have, how much are you paying for insurance on it? I would probably only have liabilty on mine, since comprehensive+collision for a 17 year old with 1 speeding ticket on file would end up costing me $500 a month.

[Chancer]

QUOTE

These things are expensive to maintain, everything has to be ordered from Germany and requires a special Volkswagen Auto Group tool to do anything, so only specialists and dealers can service them (and they need to be serviced alot).

Not sure how it works for parts over in the US but I do all my own servicing, repairs. Never had to use a dealer or a special dealer only tool for anything. The cars are well built but easy to work on. I get my parts from German & Swedish.
The cars don't need servicing any more than any other vehicle I have owned and are in fact more reliable. oh it has 131K mile on as well and runs as good as a new vehicle. Burns no oil or anything. Don't understand the 100k comment as it is well know these engines can easily do 250k with no major problem
The Astra estates I run for my business are far more of a cost to me in servicing than the Audi.
Buy one you won't regret it.

[jesterrace777]

Honestly I would stick with your Volvo.  At 17 years of age with limited finances and looking to go off to school in the next year.  Believe me when I say that it's not worth sacrificing functionality for looks when you are strapped for cash.  As has been pointed out above, Maintenance can be horrendous on the Audi vehicles.  @chancer it's a whole different ball game for European made cars here in the states.  Parts are VERY expensive.

[twistedsymphony]

My brother owned an A4 for a number of years and I would pretty much echo what zer0321 said about it.

lots of maintenance, expensive parts and custom tools.

The two things that stick out in my mind as going most frequently is the wheel bearings and the catalytic converter I can name 4 people I know personally who had A4s in the late 90s-early 00s who had to replace both of those things before 100K miles.

Working on the car was a lot more difficult than other cars I had worked on as well... though typical for most European cars I've worked on. no offense to European automarks but I've found that they're generally not designed with ease of maintenance in mind. For comparison a job that would take .5-1 hour on a Japanese car would usually take 2-3 hours on a European car. This is based entirely on my own experience as I ended up doing most of the wrenching on my brother's A4  

He eventually sold it because he couldn't keep up with the maintenance costs but he still swears by Audi to this day, no for reliability but for a solid and classy ride. If he had the means I'm sure he would probably own another one... FWIW he drives a Subaru Forrester these days.

After having owned cars from each of the 3 major auto making continents and wrenching on cars from nearly every major automaker I'll probably never own anything but Japanese cars from here on out   but I'd buy European if I came into money and didn't feel like working on them myself. But even then I'd probably buy a BMW or Lotus.

[Infamous Ob]

Know what, I 've been looking at a few of these on Criagslist lately. I seen a few for around $3-5K. I might either get one of these or a Golf GTI, or maybe a Honda. I'll have to see though, Im at WSU, Im 19, and I'll be 20 April 30th. This wayne State shit aint cheap. lol (books, etc.) But I might still get a Audi, I'll just have to save for a lil while.