Bought a car tonight...

**Tim** · 01-23-2012, 10:49 PM

Since the wife and I both lost our cars in the last 2 months, I went car shopping.

I bought a 2001 Audi A4 1.8T quattro
It is in mint condition, and when I say mint, I mean it doesn't look like anyone has ever sat in the leather seats.

I found the window sticker in the manual and the list price was $30,015 with every option imaginable...

I got it for $4500 including tax, tags and title transfer. Paid cash so no monthly payments for me

The funny thing is, I went to go see it and it was at a friends garage. He is the one that has been doing the maintenance on it since new. Synthetic oil every 5,000 miles religiously. And he just replaced the timing belt, water pump and all the seals over the holiday. It has brand new tires and brakes and a 4 wheel alignment was recently done.

It was a nice find and I was the second person to see it, but the first with cash in hand

a4.jpg

**Codrus** · 01-23-2012, 10:51 PM

Great deal Tim

**Darrell** · 01-23-2012, 10:57 PM

Sick deal, Tim. Congrats!!

**Codrus** · 01-23-2012, 11:00 PM

Get another key before you need it

**Tim** · 01-23-2012, 11:02 PM

Here is a pic of the original window sticker...

405547_2272167102096_1786220594_1500470_245928202_n.jpg

**Dana** · 01-23-2012, 11:03 PM

Nice!

HK · 01-24-2012, 05:04 AM

Wow, nice deal

**teh_fuzz** · 01-24-2012, 06:22 AM

Awesome!

A few yrs back i wanted to gt out of my little hatchback (i spent loads of money on stuff for it) and get into a more grown up car...

I mentioned Staci i wanted something nicer BMW was what I had in mind... but believe it or not houston did not have the bmw i wanted lol so i started thinking of other cars that had sparked my interest in the past.

2002 A2 1.8T - these were expensive as hell when new, but like the 2002 BMW i wanted was a design/model/shape i loved and had dreamed of owning.
took some looking and about a week before Staci found me on online lol and in Jan 2011 I traded in my fixed up SI hatchback for this bad ass little car!

4 door
1.8 Turbo AWD Quattro
Black

i was and still am in love with the car

Good choice, killer price Tim!

FYI keep an eye on maintenance.... these cars require a lot of TLC!
They require syntheic oil - I had my oil changed and i figured the mechanic knew the engine and its requirements... make sure you get it or your seals get fucked! and can be really expensive to fix.

High octane gas - The engine wont die if you put less than 92octane but youll see some performance differences.

Regular maintenance - It is imperative for a long lasting engine.

Some common problems is the electrical wiring from the driver side door can crack and break! while it is a pain in the ass to get it fixed it is fairly easy if you are somewhat car savvy

**Joe the meek** · 01-24-2012, 07:03 AM

Great deal, but the one thing I'm curious about is how many miles were on it?

40k on it and it was a steel. 200k on it and it makes more sense.

**Panacea** · 01-24-2012, 09:20 AM

I would pay someone to help me car shop lol, I'm sticking with my beater until the bitter end but when I go for another I'd like to know how to finagle deals like this.

**pjbleek** · 01-24-2012, 10:11 AM

Originally Posted by teh_fuzz

Awesome!

A few yrs back i wanted to gt out of my little hatchback (i spent loads of money on stuff for it) and get into a more grown up car...

I mentioned Staci i wanted something nicer BMW was what I had in mind... but believe it or not houston did not have the bmw i wanted lol so i started thinking of other cars that had sparked my interest in the past.

2002 A2 1.8T - these were expensive as hell when new, but like the 2002 BMW i wanted was a design/model/shape i loved and had dreamed of owning.
took some looking and about a week before Staci found me on online lol and in Jan 2011 I traded in my fixed up SI hatchback for this bad ass little car!

4 door
1.8 Turbo AWD Quattro
Black

i was and still am in love with the car

Good choice, killer price Tim!

FYI keep an eye on maintenance.... these cars require a lot of TLC!
They require syntheic oil - I had my oil changed and i figured the mechanic knew the engine and its requirements... make sure you get it or your seals get fucked! and can be really expensive to fix.
High octane gas - The engine wont die if you put less than 92octane but youll see some performance differences.

Regular maintenance - It is imperative for a long lasting engine.

Some common problems is the electrical wiring from the driver side door can crack and break! while it is a pain in the ass to get it fixed it is fairly easy if you are somewhat car savvy

this is where I am calling out the auto makers, why do I need to do this? I tried for one year straight putting in the "great stuff" for my Lexus. I didn't notice any real differences in the car at all. I did take it on the highway and trips for hour plus in the car and really noticed nothing different. noting is at all majorly wrong with the car, I just noticed a 2-5% increase in the MPG (the car is much better on the highway than on the city roads, but aren't most cars without the stop and go?)

**hart** · 01-24-2012, 10:16 AM

Good for you Tim!

**Tim** · 01-24-2012, 10:20 AM

Originally Posted by teh_fuzz

Awesome!

A few yrs back i wanted to gt out of my little hatchback (i spent loads of money on stuff for it) and get into a more grown up car...

I mentioned Staci i wanted something nicer BMW was what I had in mind... but believe it or not houston did not have the bmw i wanted lol so i started thinking of other cars that had sparked my interest in the past.

2002 A2 1.8T - these were expensive as hell when new, but like the 2002 BMW i wanted was a design/model/shape i loved and had dreamed of owning.
took some looking and about a week before Staci found me on online lol and in Jan 2011 I traded in my fixed up SI hatchback for this bad ass little car!

4 door
1.8 Turbo AWD Quattro
Black

i was and still am in love with the car

Good choice, killer price Tim!

FYI keep an eye on maintenance.... these cars require a lot of TLC!
They require syntheic oil - I had my oil changed and i figured the mechanic knew the engine and its requirements... make sure you get it or your seals get fucked! and can be really expensive to fix.

High octane gas - The engine wont die if you put less than 92octane but youll see some performance differences.

Regular maintenance - It is imperative for a long lasting engine.

Some common problems is the electrical wiring from the driver side door can crack and break! while it is a pain in the ass to get it fixed it is fairly easy if you are somewhat car savvy

I'm actually friends with the mechanic that has done the maintenance on this car since new. He has put synthetic oil in it every 5,000 miles. He has also replaced the timing belt, water pump and all the seals just 2 months ago. I always make sure to keep the maintenance up to date on my cars. Plus the guys over at the A4 forums are a wealth of information. They are the experts on what needs to be done to it. They live and breath A4's

Originally Posted by Joe the meek

Great deal, but the one thing I'm curious about is how many miles were on it?

40k on it and it was a steel. 200k on it and it makes more sense.

She has 140k miles on it. According to the guys over at the A4 forums it was a great buy at $4000 for the condition it's in. They said they go for about $1500 more on average.
Some of the guys over there have over 300k miles on their 2001 A4 1.8T cars. The number one issue with these engines is the timing belt, they are know to break. But this one was just replaced 2 months ago so I don't have to worry about it.
The other problem is sludge in the oil if they don't use synthetic... it looked clean and I'll probably have Audi flush the system anyway.

You always have to be concerned with a car when it has high miles, but even if the engine were to go tomorrow, it would be worth dropping a new engine in. (yes, I already looked into the price of that as well.)

**Tim** · 01-24-2012, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by pjbleek

this is where I am calling out the auto makers, why do I need to do this? I tried for one year straight putting in the "great stuff" for my Lexus. I didn't notice any real differences in the car at all. I did take it on the highway and trips for hour plus in the car and really noticed nothing different. noting is at all majorly wrong with the car, I just noticed a 2-5% increase in the MPG (the car is much better on the highway than on the city roads, but aren't most cars without the stop and go?)

If you are talking about the high octane gas...

It is absolutely essential to run higher octane fuel in certain cars. This car is a turbo and you can damage the engine or turbo unit if you run low octane fuel in it.

The higher the octane, the slower the fuel burns. With high compression engines, you need a slower burning fuel (high octane) to prevent pre-ignition (The gas ignites before the piston reaches the top of the cylinder) When this happens, you hear a knock or ping in the engine. It's most noticeable under hard acceleration or going up hills. Every time you hear this, you are absolutely killing your engine. The momentum of the engine keeps the piston moving against the explosion of gas that is trying to force your cylinder down on the up stroke.
And when it comes to turbo's. The lower octane fuel doesn't burn complete (wasted gas) and creates excessive heat in the exhaust gasses which will toast your turbo unit.

As far as the synthetic oil. These cars are prone to sludge in the oil do to high temps. The synthetic won't do this.

**pjbleek** · 01-24-2012, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by Tim

If you are talking about the high octane gas...

It is absolutely essential to run higher octane fuel in certain cars. This car is a turbo and you can damage the engine or turbo unit if you run low octane fuel in it.

The higher the octane, the slower the fuel burns. With high compression engines, you need a slower burning fuel (high octane) to prevent pre-ignition (The gas ignites before the piston reaches the top of the cylinder) When this happens, you hear a knock or ping in the engine. It's most noticeable under hard acceleration or going up hills. Every time you hear this, you are absolutely killing your engine. The momentum of the engine keeps the piston moving against the explosion of gas that is trying to force your cylinder down on the up stroke.
And when it comes to turbo's. The lower octane fuel doesn't burn complete (wasted gas) and creates excessive heat in the exhaust gasses which will toast your turbo unit.

As far as the synthetic oil. These cars are prone to sludge in the oil do to high temps. The synthetic won't do this.

from what you have said my car does not seem to be the same type of car, so therefore the fuel I use doesn't hurt it (otherwise I would have known a few years ago, it is after all a five year old car with just over 40k)