As stated, there's no magic mileage number where you should stop thinking about buying a car. It all depends on how much work you're willing to do, or how much money you're willing to shell out.

For example, kraut, devil, and a couple other guys up there have a garage and plenty of know-how to do their own work, both performance mods and maintenance. So for them, a high mileage car is fine because if the piston rings start to go they can just rebuild the motor. On the other hand, I don't have a place to do that kind of work or enough knowledge of the 1.8 (yet ) to be able to do that, so i held out for a one owner with 75k miles. I can drive a few hours north or northwest and have a nice garage so if i plan ahead I can take care of stuff like timing belt, control arms, etc, which i plan on doing this spring

Your third option is to just pay out a f*ck load of money for someone else to do all the work for you, in which case you should think about just buying something newer in the first place.

 

bought mine with 185,000 miles at 191,500 now runs and sounds new. 30v v6

 

As long as you can do all the maintenance yourself, DO IT! Its totally affordable to own one as long as you never take it to the shop or even worse the stealership. The will charge for labor, yuck, but since you DIY you only pay next to nothing for parts from eBay, junkyards, part outs, and more. I reccomend 1-800-VWPARTS, they are pretty good.

I have a 211,000 mile A4 with the 12v V6 and its absolutely reliable. Anything you need to replace or repair will cost $20 to $300 instead of $500-2000 at a shop if you DIY.

 

i just got my audi, and so far i love it! havn't drove it yet but i pretended! LOL im actually doing head gaskets right now on my 96 2.8. and yea its not so much a pain, actually it is, but its more time consuming and you need patience! other than that... i would get it. just before you buy it, take it with your dad and drive it to his shop or w/e and get a cylinder leak down test done. that should clear up any (if any) issues with your motor..

good luck with the buy!

ps. my car hasnt left my house, told my lady an... since ive had request's for rides and a even a lil more from my lady! its them 4 rings baby!

 

My 1.8t has 179k on it, Im running the GT28RS turbo on it, the PO was a Audi certified tech, so the car runs like its brand new. All depends on who owned the car before hand, if it was some young punk kid who you can tell beat on the car, I would turn and run.

 

@catmandu Thats basically exactly what I'm looking for/will probably find.

@cac4 i like your starsky approach to the avant haha.


And as for a garage, my dad has a shop about ten minutes away that I do all my work at. (Though I'll have to hear his "SHOULDA BOUGHT A FORD!!" comments haha. He gives all my friends the same line when they work on their cars there too.)

 

I'm slightly biased, however

 

So hold on, what's the difference between facelift and pre-facelift models? Is it just a difference in the 2.8 motor and some smaller changes? Facelift or not shouldn't be a deal breaker, right?

 

someone will obviously give you a better answer, however for my 2 cents, ive noticed finding parts tends to be easier for the facelift models, though sometimes slightly more expensive. and usually a better selection(buying new of coarse) especially for aftermarket.

there are a few interior, exterior and motor(speaking in terms of the 1.8) changes.

in my opinion, not a deal breaker, either way. i think most everyone will agree with that.

 

Pretty much everything on preface cars can be converted to facelift cars.