well i've had my car for about a year and a half now and i paid about 7500 for the car and registration and everything and (knock on wood) i haven't had any problems with it.

from what i see in the maintenance logs, the previous owner did most of the work on it so that might have something to do with it, but aside from some body damage due to my negligence and the damn pieces of **** on the bottom of the doors i haven't had any problems except for my a/c being retarded and sunroof going off track.

it all depends on your income though. i'm in the military so college is just about free for me (once i decide to start taking classes), and aside from phone and cable everything thing else is free for me so i've got plenty of room for saving for maintenance.

 

I'm somewhat in your boat here.. I'm going to college for free (dad is a professor) and I'll be making plenty of money this summer and working during the school year so its not like I'm going to be broke.

 

You will if you buy an Audi and don't work on it yourself

 

I'm going to throw my $.02 in here, because if you do your homework you could find a decent A4 to stay within a $5k budget and still have $2K left to keep it healthy. I got my '98 A4 Avant Quattro 2.8 for $3K on E-Bay, in superb condition (as confirmed by Carfax and my mechanic's very thorough check). Yeah, she has 186K on the clock; but runs like silk and has no significant rattles, squeaks, or other noises.

If you want an Audi, just do your due diligence, understand the potential costs, and go for it. Yeah, a Japanese car might be cheaper; but then you have a Japanese car.

- tcwild