Hi, I have been looking at A4's as an upgrade from my 1995 Jeep Cherokee Sport for over a while now. I have been doing my research, but I still need convince my parents that this would be a good choice. They think the Jeep is too reliable to sell. It has 103,000 miles and runs strong. This summer will be year twelve, and I am becoming quickly bored of it. They say it is great in snow, well I think an A4 would be too. I will be 18 this summer which means that I have spent two-thirds of my life riding/driving the jeep, and it is time to move on. I am looking for a 2000 or newer A4 for under $15,000 and not very high mileage. Do you think it can be done????
Thanks,
Billy

 

Go with the safety aspects with the parents, the A4 has ABS, EBD, side and side curtain airbags, and excellent crash tests (iihs.org). Last I checked your Jeep wasn't very safe. You will run into higher repair bills with the Audi. A german car out of warranty isn't cheap. Make sure that the timing belt has already been changed on a car you buy (over 80k or so) b/c that is a 1k+ job. If you don't know much about Audi's make sure you get a quattro and not a frontrak (FWD). As for the bad weather and quattro, unbeatable...your jeep will obviously handle the off road stuff better, but for on-road driving the quattro AWD is better than your 4WD.
There is no problem getting the car you are looking for in that price range...
Good Luck..

 

Thanks 8rings, I think that is an excellent way to go. I am happy you pointed out about the awd being safer on road then the 4wd. Sure I can do some serious off-roading but that is only about once per year for under 10 min. There are not many places to go "wheelin" in the burbs of chicago. Plus that would only break the old jeep. I think I can get inbetween 6-7 thousand for it. The main problem is my parents are playing the "drive it until it dies" card on me, as well as the "be happy with what you have" card.
Thanks,
Billy

 

Hey welcome to the forum. Let us know if your parental units go for your idea.

 

We'll after test-driving my mom's future Highlander Hybrid, I took her on on a little adventure to the audi dealer... I introduced her to an '05 A4. She seemed to like it, plus I was feeding her all of the good info, like safty, gas mileage, can get an 01 for around $12-$15k w/ low miles. I think I told her the right stuff. I hate having to play the mind games w/ my parents but this is just one of those cases... Key phrase she said, "It is a really nice car!"

I'm thinking that this is going to be a long and tedious, yet rewarding process.

Thanks for everyone's advice so far, Keep it coming, the more info I have the better.
Billy

 

to tell you the truth, I might be getting an Audi A4 2.8L Quattro as my first car. Only reason why my parents like the idea..
- AWD
- Automatic
- not "turbo"
- Sedan
- insurance wont be as much as an integra most likely
- they could drive it comfortably
- leather interior
- German engineering? lol.

 

Those are some nice reasons. I am not really into the 2.8 because if I would ever want to give it some more go, it would be hard to. the 1.8t also has great gas mileage, which is a bonus for me... My first car is the jeep, but I get to drive my dad's mustang durning the summer months. I just need go fast for winter if u knwo what i mean?

 

Well today when I woke up, my mom told me to go check out the internet news. (we have comcast cable internet, with "the fan", a steaming news clip page.) She told me to look up this audi crash, it turns out a TT got nailed by a semi and a bus into a concrete median wall in new york. The driver was nearly fine, only had glass in his scalp, herniated disc, and a pinched nerve. His car was completely mangled, but he lived which he shouldn't have. This seemed to really boost the "Audis are safe" theory that I am going for!! She seemed excited to show me how safe they were... I hope this theory pays off....
Billy

 

Seems another driver's slight misery just helps you ! hehe ... good luck ! i think your mum kinda buys into it alrite.

 

Yah, I think she might be buying into it... But I am not sure yet. I think I can't hit them with a load of information all at once right now because we already are buying a new highlander for my mom. I hope that the sale of her mini-van inspires the sale of the jeep!

I did the math last night, and based on projected gas prices ($3.50), as well as the amount of miles I drive per week, (around 100, but i figured 150), the audi would save my family $910 per year in gas alone compared to the jeep. I also wrote down a complete comparison of the two vehicles. It ends up the audi is much safer... who would have thought that? Another plus I found was that audis are built of of double-sided galvanized steel!

The 'rents also think I should thin out my thickening bank account before applying to colleges next year. I work six days a week after school, and it is really starting to add up.