Dear Mr. Wizard....

[Tyson Varosyan]

Tess,

That deal is a steal if the car is in average shape for its miles. As others
stated, the engine should be stated. The 1.8T although a bit more
gas-friendly is overall more problematic - there is just more stuff to go
wrong with a Turbo system.

Timing belt is a good point.

Control arms - on a budget can be ignored - they will lead to faster tire
wear, but until it becomes real bad or unless your friend starts to
autocross, its not that huge of a deal.

One thing to say, I see people scrape money together for cars beyond their
means quite often. An audi is a luxury sports sedan and there are costs at
owning one. Just because you can put a few grand together for a real nice
horse, doesn't mean that you should not think about the upkeep - it is often
higher than purchase price.

That being said, in March of 07 I bought a 98 2.8L A4Q. Since that time I
have put over 40,000 miles on it  and replaced a headlight bulb, oil 4 or 5
times, rotated my tires, went through a $20 can of G00-2000 Power Steering
Fluid and my Air Bag light came on. I chose to ignore the light, my brakes
are due and the tires are going a bit thin... But aside from that everything
has been great! (Ohh and I do race the car once in a while at the track).
You cannot ask for better!

All in all, I would take the cost of yearly repairs - 2 tires, 2 wheels of
brakes (you should do these all together, but every other year, so you count
2), Oil changes, etc - triple it and if that's within the budget, then you
should be OK overall.

Tyson Varosyan
Technical Director, Uptime Technical Solutions LLC.
tyson at up-times.com
www.up-times.com
206-715-TECH (8324)
UpTime/OnTime/AnyTime

-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-bounces at audifans.com] On
Behalf Of Tess McMillan
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2008 8:51 AM
To: quattro at audifans.com
Subject: Dear Mr. Wizard....

Oh great ones:

I've been trying to coax one of my friends out of his '91 OldFolksmobile
for some time now. (What can I say, he's a writer and a musician with
a growing family ....)

Charles has just written me that his sister has grown tired of her A4 and
wants to sell it to him. He asks me if this will be a wise purchase.

What should I tell him?

Here is his query:

"She has a 2000 Audi A4 Quattro. 5-speed manual, 60,000 miles. She'll
give it to us for the trade-in value, probably 6K or 7K.

It's the right type of car in terms of size, but I'm worried it will
cost us much too much as soon as something goes wrong. I've heard
horror stories about $2000 ball joints and stuff.

For some it would be a dream deal, but for us, is it worth
considering? Or will it break our heart?"

Please let me know your opinions!

Thanks,

Tess
in Bellevue, WA USA
'88 80Q wearing a few band-aids
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