So I have what seems to me an amazing deal from a family friend on his

he wants around 2.5k
midnight blue 2001 a4 (not sure on the trim think its 1.8t)
90k ish miles
has a new timing belt that was replaced about 8k miles ago
two sets of tires one being snow tires

I completely understand that a good owner can keep a car going much longer then a bad owner can, I'm not going to buy the car unless i can see a carfax or atleast some maintenance receipts and stuff. I know once I have whatever car I get I'm going to do anything I can to keep it nice.. something I've learned after watching my dad be cheap with cars.


If his timing belt was about to go when he got it changed could anything else be close to needing a change?

I really need a car I can rely on for at least 3-4 years with like 100 miles a week put on it

 

That's a good price but you will need to fix stuff over the next few years if you get it.

 

They're sweet cars, and can run quite well if you stay on top of them and are prepared to dump a ton of money into it. I do have to say though that you should take a look at how many threads are on the first few pages that say something like "how do I fix ...?" ".... broke, what now?" "how expensive to replace....?" It's a bit of a clue for you to think about.

 

While that does happen to be true for this car (and most German cars, in my experience), the indicator you mentioned is not reliable. People usually don't join a forum just to tell people that they've had no trouble with their car. Most people are joining to discuss problems (or mods).

 

Well I'll say this, I probably won't own an Audi out of warranty after I'm finished with my current 98 A4 2.8 30v.

This is not a car where you can just put in gas and oil and enjoy. I've had many different cars that were trouble free, and the A4 is not one of them. The one I have now is my second A4. Parts wear on these cars much faster than on any other car I've owned. Audi owners call this "maintenance", while outsiders call it unreliability. For me it's become a love/hate relationship. Love it when it works, hate it when I have to fix something.

Many owners don't mind the "maintenance", but for me time has become a luxury as the years go by. I've spent 3 times a much money on maintenance on my daily driver A4 than my fun car RX-7. So you've really got to decide if you've got the money and time for a car like this. It is no Corrolla, that is for sure.

For example I bought my A4 a year after one of my friends bought a 2000 VW Jetta VR6. In that time he had one coil pack fail. That's it. While in 30k miles of ownership, I have replaced:
-Broken inner door handle
-Ignition switch (whenever I pressed the clutch, the starter would go. Yay, get towed home again)
-Stereo Head-unit(oem one started malfunctioning badly, ie random volume changes)
-Clutch/throw-out bearing
-Timing belt, water pump, all tensioners, thermostat
-Coolant Temp Sensor (it is now malfunctioning, so I need to buy another)
-Plugged PCV system (hoses, suction pump, PCV valve)
-Valve cover gaskets because of plugged PCV
-Spark plugs because of leaking valve cover gaskets
-Sunroof switch (random opening/closing, real fun on the highway at -35 c)
-All 4 rotors and brake sets (purely maintenance)
-Cam chain tensioner (The least fun way to part with 700 dollars, just for the part and there's two!)
-Oil cooler (these beauties have oil and coolant run past eachother. When they fail, you get oil in your coolant.)

Things I recently discovered or haven't gotten around to:
-Rear wheel bearings (Just after finishing the timing belt, water pump etc. I get the throbing noise in the rear)
-Sunroof guides (they've been broken since I've owned it, so I can't use the sunroof. Just haven't had the time to take out the head liner and sunroof to do it. Shame the sunroofs on 20 year cars that I used to own still work (Celica, RX-7 coupe).
-Entire control arm setup (There goes another 4-500 bucks. I've got a bit of play in the front end.)
-My oem non-sport shocks are also starting to go. They dampen a differnt rates, giving a hilarious feeling when going over larger bumps on the highway. ie attitude change
-Viscous Clutch Fan ( I just noticed this. Hilarious how the one on my old RX-7 was at 230k when I sold it still working fine.)

My car just hit 100k miles. It was a babied California car I brought up to Canada, records galore. If you want an Audi, you have to pay to play. So you've got to decide how bad you want to drive one. I wanted awd for the brutal winters here. And I thought I was being smart buy getting the "reliable" V6 instead of the 1.8 turbo. It's been good in bad weather, but I've dumped thousands in just parts. I do all my own work, but it sucks my time! Is it worth the 4 rings on the grill? You have to answer that for yourself.

So be warned, lol!!!

 

For that price... I'LL BUY IT if you don't! Audi is no Honda that's for sure, but where are you going to find a 00 Honda that looks better than 90% of the new cars on the market? What honda have u seen with heated seats? It's creature comforts, yeah I've sunk a few grand into my car since I've owned it but a lot has just been me wanting to upgrade. Overall I say they are good cars as long as you can DIY if not you will be raped paying someone to fix your car...

 

Let me sugar coat it for you: You want this car, you'll love it, and you will never have to worry about maintenance. Mileage is somewhere around 87 MPG, and with a chipped 1.8T, you can race and beat Covettes. Girls will throw themselves at you in groves, it's unfortunate you can only fit 4 of them in the car at one time, and they all won't mind sharing. Cops will let you get away with speeding, and running red lights/ stop signs. You will immediately be offered a job paying in the 6 figure range if your potential boss sees you pull up in it for an interview. If you are still in school/ college, you will become the most popular guy there within a week. Ricers will envy you, and people with brand new Hondas will cry at how their new expensive car pales in comparison to your very inexpensive car.

At least, this is pretty much what my recruiter told me about 11 years ago.

Disclaimer: There might be a slight exaggeration on a couple key facts

 

You won't mind throwing money at it for a while to keep it tip-top. B5s are good ****. Two things convinced me to trade mine: 1) It was Tiptronic, and 2) The turbo was going to need replaced. Had it been a manual, I might have reconsidered.

 

I think all the cars I've been looking at probably all have similar problems you guys were mentioning since its all a similar model with different features..
- audi b5
- VW Passat 2000-2005
- Jetta VR6

Regardless of what I end up getting I wanna do a bunch of mods like HIDS, tints, 17" rims, touch screen head unit and then performance upgrades depends on the car. But if maintenance is going to suck me dry i might need better options.

The audi b5 would be the best, I would love something with all wheel drive for the snow here just because it was a huge PITA driving my old bonneville (which never needed any maintenance aside from oil and i had a huge antifreeze leak that I couldn't fix properly).



This is obviously the best deal I've come across though. Went to see the car today and it looked pretty good aside from a small dent on a back seat passenger door, owner said if i wanted it I could have it but he needs almost all of February to find a new luxury SUV.

 

That's pretty damn cheap for a clean B5. I say jump on that ****.