Hi everyone.

I am looking at a 99 1.8t A4 Tiptronic with 75k miles on it.
Nice car, silver with grey interior. Sport package, winter package, leatherette.
I have read lots of bad reviews of this vehicle on Edmunds.com and was wondering what peoples impressions of this vehicle are. Would you reccomend the car ? What are some things to look for when checking out the car ? I did notice oil on the rear differential but dealer told me they couldn't find anything wrong. Would you reccomend the Tiptoronic or is the 5 speed a better option ? Anyone have sludge problems with their engine ? What about timing belt failures and ingintion coils ?

Any advise you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Mike

 

Depending on the price, I would recommend the car, I have not had mine long, but it had every service record and the timing belt done. I paid $5400 at the dealer for a 97 1.8TQ 5-Speed Sport with 106K. I got a pretty decent deal especially from an Audi dealer. Make sure the timing is done or do it right away! I bought mine from a dealer and the will never do it again! They are reliable if you keep up with the maintenance. Those bad reviews on Edmunds are from Honda drivers who want a car that they can beat the **** out of, because proper maintenance is non-existent on that platform. And in my opinion, go 5-speed, if there is any question, go 5-speed, most ppl with TIP pretend to like it so they don't have to admit they should have gone Manual. Thats is just my opinion, I haven't been in the Audi scene long (former DSMer) but everyone here is very informative and the more I study, the more I love my car. Join the club.

 

If that car is well taken care of 8-10k would be a decent price. If its a 99.5 (newer interior, 1 piece headlights) its a pretty good find. I just got a 2001.5 A4 1.8 and its a TIP and I don't mind it at all. I was looking for a MT A4/S4 but when I saw this at the dealer I liked it and bought it cash on the spot since I might sell my tip A6 for a MT 2.7 so either way I'm gonna end up with a manual. So the tranny decision is up to you. If you're a hardcore enthusiast get a manual. But if you want good daily drivability a tip will do the trick. Screw Edmunds. Any Audi is great as long as you give it good maintainance. That timing belt is the only thing you need to worry bout for the time-being. Any thing else that might break in an audi will tend to break In any other vehicle (like my stupid alternator).
GL

 

Hi,

Thanks for the responces.
My other car is a BMW 540i 6 speed so I was thinking of getting the tiptronic for my in town driving and for my wife to drive.

How can I tell if the car is a 99.5 ?
The dash has the individual lights instead of the headup display from later models.
Is that a good indicator that it's pre 99.5 ?
The head lights are halogen but appear to be 1 piece.

 

I found the following link

http://ctny.audiworld.com/mark/a4/diff/