I am in the market for a toy vehicle. I had a g37 before and am considering going back to a g sedan (kid now and one on the way). My easy number one choice is a BMW 335 for all the reasons I'm sure you all are aware of, but I am scared to death of long term maintenance, especially the turbos.

Which brings me to the a4. I've never owned an audi and don't know much about them. The a4 2.0t is intriguing due to the turbo and the easy nature of mod dinner it (ecu), similar to the 335.

My question is, should I be just as afraid of this car as I am a 335? I fully plan to have this vehicle for several years, probably getting well over 100k miles. I'm not interested in the 6 cylinder NA. My prerequisites are sedan, manual tranny, and somewhat mod friendly. AWD is a plus but not required. I will be looking at b7 models due to my budget.

Sorry for the rambling

 

toy car? i assume you mean something you can customize and have fun with and still drive daily?
i have a 2008 2.0T that is stock performance wise but i love it. its automatic and quattro and its a lot of fun when i want it to be but still comfy and safe. i bought it as a CPO when it was a year old and had 13k miles and now it has 60k+. the only maintenance issues i had was due to cold weather. last winter some ice formed on the throttle body/plate, had it towed to dealer and they cleaned it out and its been fine since. sometimes when the temp. is super ****** low i have low oil pressure issues but it goes away when the engine warms up. im adding a remote starter in two weeks thou.
as far as performance mods, i cant tell you much personally but i know there is a lot out there. i love my car thou, all the options are great (only wish it had bluetooth music). hope that helps!

 

Thanks for the reply. I guess I was thinking more along the lines of expensive repairs and maintenance past 100k miles like turbo, etc

 

sorry, cant say much since im not there yet
i know there are issues with the cam follower in the fuel pump but audi has recognized this and extended the warranty on that part, no recall thou.

 

this forum has a lot of helpful advice if you stick around. or check out audizine.com
lots of DIY out there

 

Definitely going to be cheaper to maintain the Audi. My boss has a 335 and it's ridiculous every time he needs something simple. They actually recommend changing the spark plugs with every other oil change.

Go with quattro. Even if you don't NEED the AWD, the car just handles better. I drove both before I bought mine and was sold on quattro. In the recent Snowpocalypse we got here in Atlanta, that quattro kept me moving forward on the ice several times where other FWD cars were failing.

 

If I go with an audi it will definitely be Quattro and def be the 4 banger due to the easy 40-50 hp available. I've never owned a turbo car but also a little scared I won't be happy with the grunt of a 4 cyl

 

Going with a manual will help a lot. I'm fine with my auto (because I had no real choice in my situation), but if you go with the manual, it definitely won't feel sluggish at all. They get a lot of power out of that TFSI 4-cyl and adding a chip helps even more. I drove a B8 loaner (basically the same engine) with a manual and that thing moved. It was faster than my 5-speed V6 Mustang that I had to get rid of when I bought the Audi.

 

As for expenses you will have to have the timing belt done somewhere around 85K-105K, can't risk this failing, that's $1000 - $1500... clutch went at 35K and that's a $1600 job.. tires go quick too cause of awd, but still worth the expenses