I have been looking around everywhere at A4s and am wondering what do you think is the max number of miles the car should have? I don't want to buy a car just to turn around and have to put a bunch of money into the repairs.

 

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Not helpful.

Does anyone have a serious answer? Just looking for opinions from people who own this car. Thanks.

 

Well, as with about any car, there is no number of miles that the correct price won't work for.

For me, I drive 50,000 miles a year in mine and I typically buy them with about 100,000 on them and plan to hold them for 300,000.

I do a lot of my own maintanence, so items like a timing belt don't cost me $1500.

What are you planning to do with it, what are your needs? I'm guessing the humor post was based on the fact that you need to help us help you a little - give us more to go on. For one person 50,000 miles may be time to sell it. For another, they may keep it for 400,000 or until the doors fall off.

 

I just bought a 2007 in November with 59k miles on it. I thought that was pretty reasonable. Carfax was very helpful, as well as edmunds.com.

In a "regular" commuting/driving environment, a person can put anywhere between 10k and 15k per year on there car. If you use that as a baseline, you should be ok. Obviously, the lower the miles, the better off you will be.

You want to try to get the most history about the car as you can get your hands on. For me, I had the dealership that sold me the car retreive the 55k servicing records so I would know it had been done. This was because that service was not done at an Audi service, and the car was sold to me by an Acura dealership.

Buying a used car at a dealership is a tough one. While generally they will try to compete with internet prices, they will try to bone you on the trade in value of your existing car. I ended up paying a little over 13k for my Audi, and my trade was a 2000 Toyota Tundra with 169k miles on it. I'm pretty happy.....

 

+1 to this and then some.

Good price for a vehicle relates simply to mileage, maintenance history and condition, while good value for an individual considers budget, maintenance costs going forward, expected usage and historical repair record for the make/model/year.

We can tell you if a vehicle is a good price but without more information about your personal situation we can't really give you any good feedback.

The A4 is a great car, solid motors that allow for some pretty extreme mods if you are in to that and a great support community like this that will help with just about anything. That being said you could have an engine sludge up in 40k miles and you could have an absolutely pristine condition one roll by you on the highway with 400k miles on it and not know the difference. It all comes down to budget and maintenance.

Give us a little more info to go on and we'd be happy to give you more information to make an educated decision.

 

I usually say no question is a dumb question but this one is borderline there, I think his answer was right on par with your question, not trying to be an *** but there is no 'max' miles, heck if that car was in one piece and it was $3000, it would be worth that just for parts even if you rolled the odo....

 

Actually, there are no dumb questions. If you read my question, you see that my concern is having to put a ton of money into repairs on a car with high miles. I am asking here because this is the audi a4 section in an audi forum. I assumed people here would have a lot of experience with audis and be able to shed some light on the number of miles I can get away with on a used car without immediately having to repair things. Perhaps I should have asked the question in a way that you would understand before calling it borderline dumb.

 

It will be my everyday get around car and I don't drive every day. To give you an idea of how little I drive, I have a 2002 Honda Civic, purchased in "04 with 351 miles at the time, and it now has a little over 36K miles on it. So I am just looking for a nice looking car, a bit of an upgrade from my 2 door Civic, one that is reliable and a decent price without a ton of miles. I have no idea when all the big maintenance tickets kick in for Audis so I thought someone could give me an idea about mileage on a used audi. Everyone knows Hondas and Toyotas can go for 200,000 miles. I don't know that about audis.

 

With PROPER maintanence, you can get these cars to 300,000 without any question in my mind.

I think what you are looking for is a list of maintanence items to expect in an A4. Here are some thoughts, and I am sure I'll forget some things that otherw will chime in with:

1. You need to do the timing belt every 75,000 miles. If you do it yourself and do it properly, it will cost you about $400 in parts and about $150 in special tools that can be reused each additional time. If you pay someone to do it, it can be anywhere between $900-2000. This price includes replacing the timing belt, serpentine belt, all tensioners and rollers that are typically related to TB failure, waterpump, thermostat, camshaft seals, cam adjuster seals, crankshaft seals and valve cover seals. If you buy a car with more than 60,000 miles you NEED PROOF that this was done and when if they say it was done, or you need to figure in the cost of getting it done right away yourself. If the timing belt gets old and breaks - you engine in all likelyhood will be no good. This is not an Audi issue - it's an interferance engine issue and it's similar on Hondas and many other vehicles.

2. Oil changes with the best possible fully synthetic oil you can find. I personally use Amsoil or M1 and go about 10,000 miles between changes and I have 180,000 on my 2004 A6. Many people will feel that this is too long for a turbo charged engine. In your case I would change very 5,000 miles or 1 year. I go 10,000 miles in about 2 months. You won't do that all year. So, plan on $60/year for this.

3. Transmission oil - The dealer says this is a sealed transmission and the oil isn't supposed to be changed. This is bogus. I change my tranmission fluid every 50,000 miles. I use Amsoil here too, but most people on here will probably recommend the Audi OEM fluid or Esso. Change with filter will be about $120 in fluid/parts and maybe an hour or two of labor at a mechanic.

4. There are some typical points of failure for these cars, every car has its own list, but here is a quick rundown on this car. Outter CV joints go bad on these cars. These can cost anywhere between $60-300/side depending on how you remedy the situation. The coolant temperature sensors go bad on these cars and cause many weird problems. This part costs about $20. Coil packs go bad also. Each coil pack will be between $20-40 and their is 1 per cylinder. You just replace 1 at a time as they go. Good to have 1-2 extra on hand or in your trunk. Rear wheel bearings go in the A4, I believe these are about $100 each, and then a couple hours labor to put them in.


There's probably some more little stuff for #4 that others will add in. The timing belt and transmission oil changes, IMO, are the biggest items. If you buy a car with more than 60,000 miles on it, they need PROOF of when it was done, and you need to know that it will need to be done another 60-75K after when they did it. If no proof, you need to do it when you buy the car. I would do the same with the transmission fluid.

If you are looking at a car with 100,000 on it, for instance, I wouldn't hesitate to buy it if it appears to have been well maintained. I bought mine with 90,000 and I don't know that it really had all that much maint. when I bought it even.

When you buy it, get a code scanner and scan for codes...this can be telling. Get proof of timing belt and transmission fluid changes. Plan out your maintanence and you should easily hit 200,000 and probably 300,000.